A Wizard's Game
by Grademaster
Summary: Strange things are commonplace in Remnant. From the shattered moon to the mysterious monsters of Grimm questions are similarly common. Answers are so hard to come by as well and never without a price. Of course some things have no answer. Why or how anyone could be reincarnated and gifted with, of all things, the powers of the gamer is just another strange question.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Okay so… I've got mixed feelings about this story. On one hand I do like how I did a lot of things. The system works pretty well and is consistent through the story. My OC seems like a real person and not some overpowered paper thin character. He's not an emo and he's not a goody-two-shoes either. He feels to me like possible one of the best characters I've ever written. I also like how I've written a few other characters in the RWBY-verse, showing sides of them I don't feel are properly realized. And what I've done with the lore? God I like what I've done with that so much but you won't see it until later.**

 **But therin lies the problem. See, I realized today, the day I've posted this, that I have a hoarding problem. Not for things but for chapters. I've always had commitment issues. School especially I've had trouble buckling down and getting on things when stuff gets tough. So with stories there was an obvious solution. Make a crap-ton of chapters so if I procrastinate I have chapters squirrelled away. BUT THAT'S BAD!**

 **With the chapters stored I can't adapt to new ideas. I can't just go 'Hm, that's a good idea. I can use this comment'. I already wrote everything so any advice I get that I want to use is null and void. And it's totally on me.**

 **I realized this when I re-read one of my favorite stories. Yet another dance at death's borders by roguehunter11. It's an incredible piece of work that I myself love. It's also a gamer fic and it's the best I've ever seen system-wise. Rogue has the bad habit of terrible update schedules in exchange for quality content.**

 **I looked at his story and I had maybe twenty new ideas for how to do things but I can't. Want to know why? Because I already wrote everything. It's locked down. No modifications allowed.**

 **This is why I'm publishing this. I'm standing at a crossroads here. One is I scrap the bad stuff and really put laser focus on making a great story and actually be able to use comments. The other is I continue with this even though I feel that I can do better. I've come this far (at chapter 30 at the moment) so why not keep on keeping on?**

 **I can't decide these things. So I want your opinion. Is this alright? I know the grammar is shoddy here and there so be quiet on that but is it okay as is? Do I rewrite it? I'm leaving it up to you all. I want to know.**

 **With that said I'm uploading all thirty chapters. Over 100k words there of decent content. I just want to know… So leave a comment, even just twenty words, letting me know your feelings on this.**

 **Edit: As of now the story has dropped. For more information you can see the last chapter, an ending note, though there are a few vague spoilers.**

[|||| = **NEW GAME** = ||||]

[|||| = **LEVEL 1** = ||||]

I'm pretty sure I died in a car accident and I'm pretty sure it was my fault. I was walking back from a haircut during summer break of my junior year of highschool when I took a shortcut through an alley. I was letting my mind wander, thinking of what a pancake is defined as considering there are so many variants of pancakes in the world. Would flatbread be a very crappy pancake, for example, when I felt a pain in my back and I fell to the brick alley road. I felt my head grow smaller but before I knew it everything went dark. I didn't have earbuds on or was looking at my phone. I was just lost in thought on a route I'd walked a hundred times before when I died.

And that leads me to this moment. I was laying in the arms of some blurry giant people as I cried instinctively. Mentally, though, everything was just stopped. All the little neurons that would normally fire just stopped what they were doing and looked on in confusion. The giant people spoke something but it was spoken in goobly garb. That is to say it was spoken in nonsense.

It took a minute for my brain to start up again. Okay. Giant people. So they're big or I'm little… This can't be what I think it is. Is it? Maybe, just maybe I was reborn in a place with potential. Somewhere I can make a difference. Then again this is assuming I'm in a new world rather than earth. If it's back to earth I'll be so disappointed with reincarnation.

Wait a second. _'Stats'_

 **STATS**

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **Level – 1**

 **HP – 2.2/2.2 (+.55/min)**

 **MP - 1000/1000 (+50/min)**

 **AP – [LOCKED]**

 **STR - 1 + (+0%)(10%)= .1**

 **VIT - 2 + (+10%)(10%)= .22**

 **DEX - 1 + (+25%)(10%)= .125**

 **INT - 25 = 25**

 **WIS - 39 = 39**

 **LUK - 15 = 15**

 **POINTS - 0**

 **LIEN – 0**

 ***Ding!* For discovering the gamer ability based on a theory as well as said theory proving correct you gain 1 WIS and 1 LUK**

Of course it's a trope. Not that I mind since I quite like having a leg up on the competition but I'm still a complete cliche. On that matter I'm also rather certain I'm in shock… So, what's with the bonuses? Um… _'Skills'_?

 **SKILLS**

 **-AURA-**

 **-PHYSICAL-**

 **-COMBAT-**

 **-MAGIC-**

 **-SPELLS-**

 **-MISC-**

 **Gamer's body (Max Lv.) - HP system is introduced. Fatigue is still a factor yet food and water are inconsequential.**

No gamer's mind? Well… Alright then. It could be worse. Far, far worse. But that still leaves the bonuses. Let's try… _'Bonuses'_... No? _'Buffs'_ so not that either. There's definately something going on with my stats so… _'Perks'_

 **PERKS:**

 **Faunus (Jaguar) - You're a jaguar faunus. You get night vision, enhanced dexterity (15%), slightly enhanced vitality (10%), enhanced senses and, due to your subspecies, you learn sneak based skills 100% faster. May cause discrimination among humans.**

 **Baby - stage 2- You're newly born. Diminishes effects of physical stats by 90% applied after all other effects of traits. Advances into the next stage (reducing effect by 10% every time) every year of after year one. Fully physically capable at 11 years of age.**

So I'm a faunus, huh? Well alright then. I- WAIT I'M IN RWBY?! Oh hell yes! I was wondering about the aura section of the stats. I was pretty sure but aura could refer to a lot of things. Faunus and aura together seal the deal. Who or whatever brought me here, be it a god, chance, or whatever thank you.

RWBY is one of my favorite show of all time if not THE favorite show of mine. Some people dislike it but damn if the environment of RWBY wasn't richer than a goldmine. The world of RWBY felt alive to me back on earth. It was only a minor obsession of mine. I deny all accusations of being a fanboy.

At any rate I need to work out this faunus problem. White fang? They're bad guys. Well at least they probably are. If I'm early to canon (or worse… Canon's already gone by without me) then the white fang are still peaceful. When Sienna Khan comes in it get ugly. Or was it when Ghira Belladonna was in power? Ugh. So many tiny details. Wait! _'Notepad'_... Nope. Nothing. Anyways, how will I deal with racism? With small scale violence. Enough to be respected but too little to inspire fear. That means incapacitation or disablement of any racists that happen to cross my path. Beyond the racism being a faunus is a pretty sweet deal. I wonder if I have a tail or fluffy ears? I'd personally prefer ears but a tail would look better on me. I suppose I'll find out later when I can see anything. Please tiny infant body. Develop quickly.

"Blahnahnahdahabada" Says the doctor. I can't understand him because of my undeveloped ears. Wait, were they talking this whole time?

Oh wait I should be feeling panic about now. The shock is wearin - OH DEAR LORD I DIED WHAT THE -

[|||| == ||||]

 _Timeskip - 1 year 6 months old_

I took my first toddling steps around my 18th month in Remnant despite the 90% debuff. I don't know if I was supposed to do that. My parents, whose names are Kamina and Hans, seemed pretty surprised but after a month they seemed to have gone back to normal. They still kept a close eye on me, though. I've refrained from speaking so far. Kids don't speak until they're about two years old and while I could clearly hear at about one year old I kept from doing so. I spent most of my time trying to do something and gaining points for it too.

My physical stats were around eight on each but only applied as . Well, that's what I think. I had only gained two points in wisdom and three in intelligence. Wisdom because of my self restraint in throwing needless temper tantrums. It was really hard sometimes. My Intellect grew because I was trying hard to keep from forgetting any of my education from earth. I reviewed in my head each day. I think I kept most of the important stuff. Even mathematics, which i really dislike, were saved to the best of my abilities.

My growth was slow. Agonizingly so. I had no new knowledge to know or choices to make. I also had to refrain from exhausting my body too hard. I didn't want to harm my developing body since I don't know if the gamer's body skill applies to healing overnight. I don't particularly care to see if a permanent disfigurement or permanent injury is healable. Not to mention my lack of ability to heal anything. I was often dead tired, though.

I finally got to see myself in a mirror after breaking out of the crib and walking around for practice. I had thick black hair that was pitch black. Pale skin as well. My eyes were a dark yellow with slits. My jaguar ears were black as well. You couldn't see them well because of my hair. I was pretty lanky and thin as well. It wasn't the malnutrition from mom forgetting to feed me since I didn't need food or water. It was a natural thinness. Wow I was a delicate little pretty boy. No wonder I have my DEX increasing faster than everything else. I doubt I'll ever look muscular by any stretch of the word.

Now as to my parents Kamina and Hans… They were not good parents. Things like being fed and clothed were done but not always done well. My clothes would become too small quickly and would be too small for some time before I'd get new ones. I didn't have many toys at all. Sometimes I wouldn't get a response from crying out. It was unpleasant to say the least. I tried my best to keep my temper but when you're in diapers and breastfeeding it's hard to stay dignified.

We live in a small apartment in Vacuo. It's three rooms. A living room/kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. My parents and I slept in the bedroom. Dad pays for it with a job at the pumps - water pumps that is - and mom did odd jobs and took care of me and the house.

I never met any other kids growing up since I mostly stayed indoors, which is definitely a bad parenting move yet again, but that was fine. I had and still have bigger things to worry about. See, I thought it over and I decided being a huntsman is my job choice. I have power. To not use it would practically be a crime. So I was busy developing skills.

To be specific, I was developing essential skills. **Dash (Lv. 7)** , **sneak (Lv. 23)** **meditate (Lv. 24)** , **controlled breathing (Lv. 72),** **observe (Lv. 28)** , **temperature resistance (Lv. 24)** ,and **pain resistance (Lv. 6)** being those skills. I'd leveled them up as far as I could until the experience stagnates. I'd learned **Dash** , **meditate** , and **controlled breathing** through experimenting with what I can do with my body. The other two came from exposure to the cold in the early days when I couldn't tuck myself in during cold nights and I didn't have enough blankets.

Meditate passed time, calmed my emotions, and regenerated mana at increasing rates with the levels. I was especially fond of the passing time part. Controlled breathing helped me regenerate stamina quickly and lose less oxygen when exerting myself. Dash was a sort of dodge skill.

Skills were surprisingly hard to learn for the most part. They barely matter at first but with time and practice they become invaluable. I'm hoping that they level up faster with combat experience.

I tried to develop combat skills like punch but I think you need to be in combat to develop combat skills. Magic, though, was something I haven't dared to try. The same goes towards aura. Unlocking your aura at my age? On your own? Ludicrous! And magic is a completely foreign concept. It's best to not mess with it until I'm somewhat durable in case I make some mistakes. Now, though, I had some HP to use. One hundred forty three to be exact. I'd gotten to thirteen vitality in total during my cautious workouts. I think if I overload my body on mana I'll survive now. Just a guess on my part, though. I'm willing to try, though. Also, mom and dad are out now.

I began with meditation. I felt that tingling in my mind that occured when I hit level twenty. It's a feeling I know is there but it's subtle. You don't really notice it at first. I pushed on that feeling hard but the tingling ran away. I stopped looking so hard for it and it came back. This time I slowly looked towards the power. It went away the closer to it I got. I turned away once more. Third time's the charm. I looked slowly at the power. It inched away but I stopped looking towards it and it moved back to the back of my mind. I repeated the process of moving towards it and waiting plenty more times. It was irritating but only took some patience. Then I touched the mana… or is it aura? I don't actually know.

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Mana control**

" _ **It's like a core in you… that you can feel. Isn't it incredible to be able to just feel that?"**_

 **-Apprentice sorceress Falla Jarvy**

It was mana! So now I can use spells… but where's my aura? Ugh. I'll find it eventually. Right now, though… Let's run my mana through my muscles. Slowly and carefully… Aaaand nothing happens. Infusing my muscles with mana? OW! Okay! That's a no then! Looking down on my arm I see it burned with a bluish tint on the burn. I'll have to hide that.

Next attempt at making spells… Um, actually I was going to try some mental spells but that now seems like a bad idea looking at my burned arm. So… Mana arrow! I compress the mana into a bolt looking shape more akin to a small javelin than an arrow. Eh, good enough. Style is overrated.

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Mana arrows**

" _ **A good arrow barrage is like raining death from the sky."**_

 **-Officer of the 31st archery division of Vale**

Now for spin… Um… spin, mana!...

That worked? Well okay then. Next is bullets and spinning bullets. Just like in the manga… and the multitude of fanfictions. Easy. Just compress the mana.

 ***Ding!* *Ding!***

Wow that was so easy. It's a shame I'm probably going to forget about these once I get some elemental spells up and running. Mana feels kind of like flowing water. It's fine just doing whatever you push it to do. If you push it in a direction it goes in that direction no questions asked. It just doesn't seem to like being compressed all that much though. Perhaps I can use that in the future to make explosive bullets. Hm.

The biggest downside there is that there might be a cap to how much mana I could have. If mana doesn't like being compressed then how does all my mana like being in my tiny body? I've already thought of a few solutions to that though.

Next up is mana pulse. See, I have a lot of time to think and I wondered if a pulse of mana could be used like a sonar. Let's try! Just push it out like a ring…

*whoosh!* the mana pulse pulses out of me and I see some of the furniture shake a little bit. It looked like a scene from the exorcist. The problem is that I didn't feel the mana come back. That should've been obvious, shouldn't it have? Perhaps a mist that I can sense things in. Hm. Judging from what I've seen so far mana is easy to manipulate externally and difficult if not harmful to manipulate internally.

 ***Ding!* Intelligence increased by one**

Yes, yes. Shut up. Now, mana is good for external use and aura is good for internal use. However, Lie Ren uses aura expelled from his palms to attack a few times so aura can probably be used to attack if you have the training for it. It's likely also used for augmenting weapons. Crescent rose likely wouldn't function otherwise as would most mecha shift weapons as far as I know.

Now… for more spells. More specifically, sustainable buffs. The grind makes me drool at the possibilities. Perhaps I can make weapons with mana? I'll be looking into this whenever I can.

[|||| == ||||]

 _Timeskip - 2 years and 11 months old_

"Mama?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"Why don't we live somewhere nicer than this?" Mom looked at me sadly.

"Vacuo is not a kind place sweetie. This is all we can afford."

This had been going on for several months now. The conditions around the house were getting poorer and poorer. My family was having trouble with the local gangs. My father was strong. Strong enough to make an effort to recruit him from his job at the water pumps. My mother was unemployed so she mostly took care of me and did small jobs. It wasn't enough to live decently, unfortunately.

My parents were still bad parents. Mom would forget about me sometimes when she went to a friend's house or went on errands. Dad was around less in comparison to the early days. Most of his time was spent working or keeping the local gangs off of him and his friends and family.

Since my family lived in Vacuan slums we were, of course, poor. Really poor. The electricity would shut off some nights even if we paid our bills and the water was drawn from overtaxed wells and pumps. The people were all involved in the underworld in one way or another here. I'd seen plenty of orphans living on the streets. Perhaps that's why I was never given an opportunity to make friends.

I read in secret too. I got my hands on any books I could find. I had learned a few skills from this. **Cooking** , **swordsmanship** , and **sewing**. I had very sparse reading material, unfortunately. Any free time was spent further training my body and magic. I'm proud to say that my wisdom rose three more points too. It's at 45 now. Intelligence rose six points to 34.

I'm least happy with my mana skills. I could make a sustainable shield which I kept on several times over called **mage armor** **(Lv. 38)**. Other than that I could make solid objects from mana with a skill called **physical** **mana projection (Lv. 14)**. I tried to make a toy of some sort to suck on (my gums hurt! What was I supposed to do?! Ask my parents?) it took all my skills in mana bullets and arrows and fused them all into one skill. Making solid constructs of mana became its own skill, in other words. I far prefer it to the clutter of arrows and bullets taking my entire skills page. It was more versatile too. It just took a rather extreme amount of time to level up. It was worth it though.

I still hadn't made any progress towards my aura unlocking. I'm hedging my bets on feeling my aura at level 50 of meditation and I was at level 45 in **meditation** now. But that can all take a backseat to what's happening now. You see, on this particular day in Vacuo the gang was at my family's front door aiming to make an "example" of my father. To show what happens when you refuse the local gang.

"Open up! We know you're in there!" A rough voice called. He pounded at the door as he yelled.

"Kamina!" Dad hissed "Take Abyss and hide."

Mom's eyes widened. "What?! You know they'll kill you! Why would you stay and fight?! Why can't I stay with you to help?!" I chose to stay silent through this. It wasn't my decision to keep dad or mom from fighting.

"I'm the one they want. They don't even know you're here. Hide. Someone needs to take care of Abyss." Mom's eyes softened at this. She looked at me with a torn expression. I might as well try to help a little bit now. I silently slid my hand away from hers and walked to the sink. I opened the cupboard under it and slid inside.

"I can hide here." I said simply. I closed the door and moved myself to look through the cracks in the cupboard.

Mom looked conflicted again but she seemed to think it over before walking to the counter and drawing a knife. She walked to the door and laid flat against the wall beside it. Dad looked at her wit an unplaceable expression before walking to the door.

As he opened the door he looked grimly at the gangsters. One human with a holstered pistol and a faunus with a shotgun. "This is your last chance." said the human seriously. "You've disrespected the tvettos long enough. We offer you a place in our family and you spit on it. That Bleu tolerated your response for so long is a miracle in and of itself. Your answer?"

Dad looked grim. He stared for a moment before sighing seemingly in defeat. "Come inside." Dad walked back towards the couch of our little apartment. The human walked inside calmly. The faunus followed hesitantly.

Mom yelled as she sliced her knife towards the faunus' throat. He whirled around but got his throat sliced. Before he died his shotgun went off into my mother's knee in an explosion of red. The human drew his pistol and calmly shot my father in the chest several times. He turned around to my mother and looked sadly at his dead faunus friend. Then he put a bullet towards my mother's skull while she sobbed in pain.

Dad's breathing was ragged. I think one of the pellets his his heart. I felt anger at the gang members. They killed my mother and father… I used my sneak skill to crawl out of the cupboard silently and I readied a small storm of mana bullets. I shot them at the human, who was just looking towards me. His widened as he was peppered with red.

 **You have killed a level 19 human! 2480 xp rewarded. You leveled up 5x. 25 points awarded.**

I looked apathetically towards the gang member. _'He got what he dished out.'_ I thought callously. I might feel bad later but this man just took two parents and orphaned a child. Perhaps he deserved to die. I looked towards my father. He had fallen to the ground and passed out from blood loss. I stood there for a moment before I smothered my emotions and got to work. It wasn't hard. I think I might be in shock again. It seems to be a common theme in my life. Well I'll deal with that later. I'm a two year old orphan in one of the most dangerous and lawless cities in remnant in one of the most dangerous and lawless places in said city. Exponential danger… Living here is almost impossible for me. All I have is my magic, which isn't very strong.

I need… strength. So I'll try something I've avoided doing for a long time. I held out my hand and brought mana to it. I condensed said mana, sticking it together into a web of sorts. I'm pretty sure that's how Jee-Han did it. Maybe? Hell, I'm just winging it and hoping for the best. Then I said the words and released the net. "ID create."

A tiny whooshing sound went out and… nothing happened. I sighed sadly. I was hoping to just will it into existence but it seems that I need a skillbook. Unfortunately I have no idea where I can get such a thing. Probably from a grimm. Or… from my first kill?

I walked towards the gang member I had killed and frisked him. Wallet, keys, a spare magazine, and a notebook with a list of things to do. Only the wallet had anything of interest for me. I decided to keep the money. I might need it. Actually, I'll definitely need it. A tattoo was on his arm that said Wild Desert gang on it. I'll remember that.

While I was at it I took the lien and ammo from around the house and the other gangsters. I threw it all in a sack under the sink that was small enough for me to carry. I wasn't going to stick around long enough to meet more gangsters. They were, however, really squishy targets for mana bullets. I'd be mostly lying to myself if I said I wasn't hunting them for revenge. They deserved it, of course, but throwing myself into danger to kill criminals was just a terrible idea altogether. I can't do anything to them right now.

That does leave what I need to do to survive. As far as I can think of right now I have three. Leave Vacuo and hunt grimm to get stronger. Not a smart move. The grimm next to beacon in the show were far stronger than anything I could imagine facing myself right now. If I were to face a lone beowolf it would be viable. I could spend my points but that would be essentially crippling myself for the future. There's so much I can get through training that it would be a crime to spend my points until I'm at about fifty points in a stat. I've been working on my intelligence and wisdom for a while but I have a suspicion that they would go faster if I could do more than sit and think of philosophy and my former knowledge.

The other option is to join the local gangs. I was two years old, though. Also, I'm in outer Vacuo. There's three districts of Vacue. Inner, mid, and outer Vacuo. Inner Vacuo was developed, safe, and had only the expected number of gangs. Mid Vacuo was more like the super poor parts of a city. People were poor. However, they did have laws and the like. Outer Vacuo? It was where they threw criminals if they couldn't jail them. It was where the poorest of the poor stayed. I'm practically a Schnee in outer Vacuo just because I have a house. It's like a lawless wasteland.

Joining up would be just a bad idea if I could even do it in the first place. Even if I could rise to the top eventually I can't say that I wouldn't be killed in my sleep or anything. It's far more risky than I'd like.

Finally was the option I would place as my second favorite. Sneaking into mid or inner Vacuo and getting into an orphanage. I would be safe and would be able to join shade's preliminary hunter academy or, if I was lucky, jump ship into a different city and join up at a different school. Like signal. If my rule of tropes continues then I'll be in the same year as Yang Xiao Long or Ruby Rose. I don't really care whether I meet them or not though. I'm living my life for me. Not remnant or some misplaced idea of an adventure with a manipulative wizard.

Well… I might join with Salem if I'm approached and I'm in the right position. As an underling I wouldn't even consider working for her. As an irreplaceable underling I would think of it. As an equal… what an interesting idea…

It isn't that I want to kill all of humanity but I wouldn't consider the grimm a bad thing. They scratch at humanities doors, sure, but a smaller population means less conflict between humans and a sort of unifying effect from a common enemy. Grimm aren't good but they have their benefits. Ones that remnant needs. If the grimm were gone what would the hunters do? They kill. It's their job. If there's no grimm to kill then what about humans?

Well, joining Salem's posse isn't something I need to think about. It would be better to just not be noticed by her in all honesty. Just live my life. In that regard, though, there's a decision I have to make. What do I want to do with my life? Last time I died and accomplished nothing. Being the owner of a local convenience store isn't exactly a job that changes the world.

What I want is… power. Not the power to destroy continents or command men but the power to choose my destiny. If I want to sit in a tower and play with magic all day I want to be able to do that. If I want to meet new people freely I want to be able to do that. There's a whole world out there waiting for me and I wouldn't even think of hiding myself under somebody else's care. I will make my own decisions.

There are so many out there working for their own gains. Cinder in her pursuit for power. Ozpin in his quest to kill Salem. Salem's attempts to destroy the hope of humanity. Adam Taurus' efforts to commit genocide. Jacques Schnee's attempts to do the same… I don't want to be beholden to any of them.

To do this, though, I need strength. I need to be strong enough to move freely around the world. I had to be strong enough to break the chains that would bind me to a side or to stop me from freely doing what I wanted. What I wanted… was freedom!

 ***Ding! Through intense emotion and a greater understanding of yourself a new skill has awakened! - Aura**

" _ **The light of the soul... No. It's not that. Aura is a road. A path. A weapon. A friend. It can be any of these things and it will always be more. Unlocking your aura sends you where you belong."**_

 **-Professor Ozpin's speech to Beacon's 67th year graduating students**

 **Provides a 5% bonus to all physical stats**

 **Provides a moderate regeneration factor**

 **Provides a functional forcefield**

 **Provides access to a new energy source**

… Perfect. Oh, it's dark red like blood. Pretty.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]

 **AN: Here are the formulas for the stats. They're subject to change under certain conditions.**

 **HP: (VIT x 10)**

 **HP regen: (VIT x .25)**

 **MP: (INT x 40)**

 **MP regen: (INT x 2)**

 **AP: (WIS x 40)**

 **AP regen: (WIS x 2)**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:**

[|||| = **LEVEL 2** = ||||]

I ran away from Vacuo pretty easily. Nobody really paid a two year old faunus any notice. Even if he had a sack they seemed to assume there was nothing in it. Even the orphans only a little older than me ignored me.

It wasn't hard to decide what I wanted to do. I would stagnate in an orphanage and joining up with the gangs isn't really viable because of my age. I'd be tossed out with the other street rats.

So I would try to kill grimm. I had taken the shotgun and pistol from the gangsters. They would help me to fight grimm for a short time until they ran out of ammo. I only had twenty three shotgun cartridges and nineteen pistol ammunitions. I'm hoping that I can get loot from grimm but if I have to make my own armor and such I can manage with a few skills. I'd just have to visit a bookstore for a few minutes.

That wasn't an option right now though. So I walked. It was very tiring. I gained a point in vitality due to the heat though and grew my temperature resistance skill a few levels. This is mountains of growth compared to being stuck inside all the time. There were more points being put into dexterity than vitality, surprisingly. It was pretty hard to keep my footing in the sand roads. I suspected that my dexterity also grew because of my racial bonuses but I can't rightly say.

I finally reached the edge of Vacuo in about an hour of walking. I was practically gasping for breath. For an adult it would have been a casual fifteen minutes to a store or something but for me with my stubby little legs and my sack it was a march.

I fell down onto my ass and breathed heavily. I knew this was a weakness I shouldn't show in the ghettos so I kept an eye open for people who might get an idea. Most of them were ignoring me luckily.

I relaxed myself for a minute with controlled breathing and with a determination in me I set out past the last few houses to the badlands in about ten minutes. I could see a few black blobs in the distance. I casted an observe on them.

 **Taijitsu minor (Lv. 24) - A non-venomous snake-like grimm that dwells Vacuo. Cannon fodder for most huntsmen.**

Ah. That actually reminds me of something. I readied a spinning mana arrow and aimed it as best I could. They weren't affected by gravity, being made of mana, so I could probably snipe with them, right?

 ***Ding!* Enemy killed - 440 XP earned**

 ***Ding!* You have leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* Physical mana projection leveled up!**

No loot? Well alright. I grinned at just the XP but stopped for a moment. How much XP was needed for a level up? I'd gained, ahh, two thousand four hundred eighty from the gangster and leveled up-

 **XP to next level - 220/800 (100 more Xp needed per level up until level 10, where 200 more XP per level up is needed. Then 300 more at 30's)**

Thank you game window. So 100 more xp per level, huh? That's not too bad. At higher levels it will start becoming ridiculous though. Imagine level seventy… that's going to be terrible. Hopefully the stronger grimm give exponentially more XP. For now though…

 ***Ding!* Enemy killed - 480 XP earned**

 ***Ding!* Enemy killed - 620 XP earned**

 ***Ding!* You have leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* Physical mana projection leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* Enemy killed - 310 XP earned**

 ***Ding!* Enemy killed - 450 XP earned**

 ***Ding!* You have leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* Enemy killed - 530 XP earned**

 ***Ding!* Physical mana projection leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* Enemy killed - 490 XP earned**

 ***Ding!* Mana control leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* You have leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* For efficient and mostly safe farming Intelligence and Wisdom increased by one!**

This is ridiculous… and I'll be spending years out here? Well… in reality just killing grimm does nothing to my strength. Levels are meaningless on their own. It's the points that matter. Points which I hope to not use… but I'm not in my safe little house grinding away any more. This is the real world. I can always get more points. I can't always get a different life… it's something for me to think about.

It's going to take some time to make real headway into the desert. I should probably have a compass… Nah. I'll probably have some sort of compass or map spell up when I want to get out. Or a flight spell. I could use that to find some village and get directions.

I should observe everything as well. I have a good feeling about observe leveling up and a hunch I'll need it…

[|||| == ||||]

It happened around the fifth hour. I was getting quite tired and was looking for a cave or something to sleep in. Sleeping out in the cold desert night was just a bad idea on multiple accounts so I wasn't going to do that.

Of course, there was something worse than not sleeping.

"Huh?" I said sleepily. Red eyes were coming closer and closer. I readied a mana bullet and shot towards it but I missed. As the glowing blue bullet flashed by I saw what it was…

 **Sand Wyrm (Lv. 64) - A large centipede-like grimm on par with a deathstalker alpha. Venomous, fast, armored, and extremely dangerous as well as rather rare. This type of centipede has adapted to 'swim' through sand, giving it it's name. Run.**

I did run. As fast as I could. I tried something out of desperation I hadn't before. I willed my aura into my legs in the hopes to run from the beast faster.

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Aura control**

" _ **Mostly we use aura for four things. Semblance, shielding, dust, and enhancing ourselves."**_

 **-Signal instructor Grey Mylar**

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Aural reinforcement**

" _ **It makes you go zoom!"**_

 **-Second year signal student Esther Alabaster**

 **Differing effects based on amount of aura used, potency of aura, and level of skill. Higher levels allow more aura to be used and higher efficiency.**

 ***Ding!* Aura leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* Aura leveled up!**

I could feel myself growing stronger as my desperation payed off. I wasn't very fast still. My legs were short and my stats were impeded by my growth. I still had an 80% debuff to my physical stats. That meant that all I had was… my mind and magic.

 ***Ding!* For keeping a mostly clear head in a moment of terror and making a plan of attack Wisdom increased by one!**

I huffed as I continued running as fast as I could. The Sand Wyrm was gaining fast. I opened my window quickly and used my points as fast as I could. It was hard for me to do so but I value my life more than numbers.

 ***Ding!* By reaching 50 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Magical soul (Passive)**

" _ **After using the powers of magic for a period of time your soul may be… augmented by the powers of mana."**_

 **-High aural wizard Aaron Faust**

 **-Aura may be used in the place of mana in some spells**

 **-50% more mana and aura capacity and regeneration**

 **-Unknown side effects**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 50 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Insight (Passive)**

" _ **Looking past the veils of the mundane is critical to every task."**_

 **-Liera Grendel, monk**

 **-Grants insight to elemental affinity (check affinity tab or meditate)**

 **-Grants ability to use elemental mana**

 **-Dust based effects are twice as potent**

 **-light ability to sense mana**

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **Level – 14**

 **HP –44.8**

 **AP – 2248/3000 (+150/min)**

 **MP - 3000/3000 (+150/min)**

 **STR - 11 + (+15%)(20%)= 2.53**

 **VIT - 17 + (+25%)(20%)= 4.25**

 **DEX - 19 + (+30%)(20%)= 4.94**

 **INT - 50 + (+0%)= 50**

 **WIS - 50 (+0%)= 50**

 **LUK - 25 (+0%)= 25**

 **POINTS - 43**

 **LIEN – 0**

I gasped as my soul was flooded with power. It grew so fast I nearly stumbled. My mind pulsed almost painfully as I grasped new things I hadn't even considered. Everything looked sharper and more detailed. I could think of things faster and in more clarity than ever before.

Most interestingly, though, was something I had never considered doing. My new intelligence and wisdom, no doubt, working to give me a solution.

I drew on my mana and bended it to my will. It grow around me like an exo suit, as I desired. My magic and soul powered into a body more powerful than my frail flesh. It was a little hard to maintain though. I heard a ding of a skill being made but I ignored it. Perhaps I could take the sand Wyrm but I wouldn't. There would be easier and less suicidal ways to gain power.

The wyrm slowly fell behind me as I ran in my aura and mana powered body. It screeched as I was getting away. I couldn't hold my magical body for too long though. It was bigger than bullets or arrows and even with my enhanced pools of aura and mana I was driving it hard. It wasn't easy to keep it up.

I ran for at least ten minutes. My soul was burning with the stress of holding the exo suit and my mana was running at less than a quarter of what it was. Looking behind myself I saw no sign of the wyrm.

I was getting really tempted to just lie down and sleep but no. I couldn't do that. I looked around desperately for any shelter. Anything at all. My eyes settled upon a tree in the desert. I had seen some before but they had never seemed so inviting.

I approached the tree and climbed it in my suit. Just as I was nearing the top the suit finally ran out of aura. I still had some mana though so I made two arrows that I rammed into the tree. I used those as handholds to go up and I collapsed onto the top of the tree. My eyes practically slammed shut as I let go of my consciousness.

[|||| == ||||]

 ***Ding!* New spell acquired! - Exo suit**

" _ **It's sort of like armor but it moves you. We old people need this sort of thing."**_

 **-Elder wizard Cain Renallaso**

 **Using this skill disregards physical stats. Skill level and magical and/or aural capabilities determine strength and durability of the suit.**

I dismissed this notification among some others as I woke up on top of a tree. I looked around and shot mana arrows at six grimm I felt were too close. I didn't level up since they were too weak to push me over the edge. Only one hundred XP to level up though.

I suddenly excitedly remembered the insightskill I got. "Affinities." I said with some excitement. Throwing around fireballs and whatnot might not be exactly efficient but it would be fun for sure.

 **Affinities: From most to least affinity**

 **Air: 47**

 **Light: 32**

 **Water: 24**

 **Space: 3**

 **Electricity: 0**

 **Heat: 0**

 **Shadow: 0**

 **Void: 0**

 **Gravity: 0**

 **Metal: 0**

 **Earth: 0**

 **Time:0**

 **Death: 0**

 **Purity: 0**

 **Corruption: 0**

 **Motion: 0**

 **Knowledge: 0**

 **Crystal: 0**

 **Wood: 0**

 **Explosion: 0**

 **Life: 0**

 **See more?...**

Well that's a rather, ah, extensive list of affinities. I had thought it would be like the Naruto fire, water, lightning, earth, and wind. At least… wait, those don't add to a hundred percent. Perhaps it's more like my attunement for the element.

I can understand air. I do desire to be free to do as I please, after all. Water I can sort of get. I'm pretty capable of going with the flow.

Light is a bit more curious. I don't really get what light is supposed to signify. Or maybe it doesn't signify anything. How did I manage space though? My desire to travel? It was curious.

It's a little interesting that there's purity and corruption there. I'm guessing that corruption is like the grimm and Salem and that Purity is… I don't know. Or care really. It could be like the brothers of light and darkness being purity and corruption.

I'm assuming that affinities are what allow me to use elements and my ease at wielding them. There aren't many other ways of interpreting it.

Well… There's nothing I can really do about my affinities except use them and perhaps figure out how to grow them. I'm placing my bet on items and continually using the elements.

First thing to try is meditation of course. I fell into the trance-like state and rummaged around inside myself. I found my soul pretty quickly -oh dear lord that feels nice to sink into- Ah! No time for distractions! I felt at my soul and found the odd sensation of feeling the elements inside me.

Air was fast and sharp. It couldn't really be controlled. It had a lot of energy but It was hard to grasp. I could direct it though. How anybody without my affinity could direct it I have no idea.

Light was fluffy and full of energy. It kind of burned to touch but was oddly pleasant at the same time. It didn't mind being controlled and just liked to run around at all times. It brought to mind that a laser beam was just a stampede of puppies made of light. That absurd image made me smile.

Water was calm and didn't really do anything. It felt like it was sleepy in a way. It would move if I controlled it but it didn't put in any more effort than the effort I gave.

Space was the hardest to find. It was kind of like an affinity that was there but not really… there. It was also small so it didn't have a really significant presence. It was almost exactly like space in real life. I was definitely going to try to cultivate that as hard as I could. If I could ever one day teleport I would. There was also the possibility of dimensional travel but I don't really care too much for that. I'm happy here in remnant for now. I think I'll just try some more basic things for now.

I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. Let's try light. I gathered mana and reached within myself. I wanted a shield from light. Sunlight is a bitch for sunburns. I shaped mana into a shield and drew my light affinity onto it. Suddenly the sunlight over me seemed just a little thinner than it was a moment ago. I got a notification for a skill called sun screen. I rolled my eyes at the play on words.

I tried a few other things with light. I couldn't really do all that much with it, though. I could do a flashlight and push light into a leaf to make it shiny and I got the imbue element skill and produce element spell but things like lasers and hard light projections were above my level of affinity or I wasn't doing them right. I dumped mana into them to see if that worked but no. It just wasted mana. That produce element spell worked with wind and water too. Wind was almost easy to make. I shot a quarter of my mana with it and a powerful gust shot out of my palm. I decided to not do that any more… for now. I was absolutely grinding that produce element skill.

There was plenty of air around, of course, to experiment with. I tried a few things. Pressurizing it and shooting it as a blade was… really effective. I cut off a portion of the tree on accident but it didn't travel very far. When it hit the ground it poofed up lot of sand but it really wasn't impressive. Short range attack, then. I got a new spell for it as well.

A few other things were tried. I could almost make a thin blade of air but I just wasn't close enough to be able to do that. Flight based only off of air seemed almost impossible. I could hover for just a moment but that drained me of almost all of my mana in a minute. I didn't get a skill for it either. Imbuing air into a leaf made the leaf get really light. Perhaps I could… hmm. I'll try that later.

Water could be useful. I pulled on what little water lied below ground and in the air and felt my hand grow moist… then it was wet. Then I could feel a small pool of water in my hand. It was pretty draining to do that, though. About four hundred mana went into just that tiny little handful. It was actually easier to make it from mana than draw it from the environment.

I tried to manipulate the water as much as I could and made a very tiny pressurised whip of it and got a small spell out of it. I tried evaporating it and controlling it and found I could do that fine. Freezing it was easy enough as well. I drank the cold water gratefully and sighed blissfully. Not having to drink didn't mean my mouth didn't get dry.

And possibly the best element… Space. I tried just a little to pull on it. I warped a strip of space in front of me to be just a little bit longer and got a skill for it. That sucker took a LOT of mana though. I have maybe a half a minute with just this tiny space warp. I waved a leaf through the space and my hand warped with the space. I sure as hell wasn't putting my hand in there. I may have the gamer's body but if I have veins I don't want to know what would happen if they suddenly disconnected for a moment. Yeah, don't use space on myself unless I'm REALLY confident that I'll be okay… grimm are fine though. Screw them.

Space held the most potential in my eyes out of all of the elements. Sure shadow could help me somewhat. Wind would let me fly and stuff and light had a whole lot of hidden power and even water offered a lot of applications for utility though not many for combat.

Space could bridge dimensions, take enemies and just throw them to the moon or something, make me faster by reducing the space between here and there, and probably a hundred other things I haven't thought of.

However, it was also immensely dangerous. Not to just others but myself. I sure as hell don't want to try teleporting just to find I left my kidneys behind. So no space magic on myself until I have an extreme affinity for it and enough health and regeneration to not die from being bisected.

Now what if I used space to sense things? I closed my eyes and I could still see the elements all around me. Not all of them but just the ones I have. If I focused intensely on one particular affinity I could ignore some elements for others.

Most importantly, though, I could see the space things took, which by extension let me just have a rip off byakugan. I don't care about using it for shelter though. Caves, shelter, trees, and more besides the monotony of the desert were visible if I leveled up this new skill up. I just couldn't see very far right now though. Perhaps one city block… I would have to grind this skill to see farther. God, that's going to be a pain in the ass.

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Mage sight**

" _ **A man looks at the world and sees the dirt, light, trees, and rock. A wizard looks at the world and sees the same but the wizard knows their true nature."**_

 **-Larcen the mysterious**

As expected, a skill. I hadn't expected to be able to sense through the other elements but I don't mind at all since I don't have to see through them. It's not what I wanted but

I finally had just one more thing to try. I drew on my aura and imbued it with the air and light element. My aura grew in energy and had a feeling of being light that I never imagined feeling before. I grinned and enhanced myself with my aura and felt my body grow light and full of energy. My aura, unfortunately, attracted grimm with how bright and potent it was. I immediately shut off the imbuement and ran in my suit. So don't imbue your aura. The effects are great but I'm just not strong enough to deal with the grimm.

I ran for a while without my suit since it was good for building muscle and vitality and only used it when I was tired and there weren't too many grimm around. I shot grimm with arrows and bullets and avoided the ones too strong for me. I kept my mage sight on just to build levels with it. I gained five with it and my range of view expanded dramatically each time. I could see a third of a mile now. I wondered how far I could see at maximum level.

All of my skills leveled up a little throughout the day. I used sun screen all the time since it was really low energy. I suspect that it's a really easy spell since… well it's level twenty five now. It's so light on my mana as well that I made about five of them around me because they cooled me down a little. It was nice. It can block about a quarter of the light that goes onto it now, which is useful. It's like I'm walking through a really hot and dry forest now instead of a blistering desert. My temperature resistance skill still leveled up too. I think that fourty two is plenty. I'm in no danger from heatstroke. It's not even that the skill levels up quickly. I'm just exposed to intense heat all the time so it levels up a little. I'm really quite comfortable in my clothes.

I took some time finding a cave. They aren't too common in a desert, as you can imagine. I eventually found a cave that led down about fifty feet. I snuck around just in case there were grimm around. I used mage sight and saw nothing but shadow and rock and the like but I hadn't seen grimm with mage sight so far. They're always too far away since I snipe them with my arrows and bullets.

I lay down on a rather nicely shaped rock and looked to the entrance with worry. I didn't want grimm to come in. That would be… worse than bad. That I found a cave without any deadly grimm is nice and all but more deadly grimm could come in if they cared to.

A minute of thinking solved this. I collected as much water as I could from the cave. It ended up to be quite a lot. Desert caves seemingly were rich in water condensation. How useful! I collected as much water as I could and froze it in a wall over the entryway. The ice distorted the view so no grimm could see me and stopped them from getting through. If by some chance grimm did get through I could probably run or cripple them and then run.

I was a little concerned that grimm could tunnel in but there was solid rock under and around me. I was probably alright. I froze a thin layer of ice over the cave walls just in case. As I fell asleep I smiled. It's a hard life but maybe that's a good thing. It wouldn't be fun otherwise.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:**

[|||| = **LEVEL 3** = ||||]

 _Timeskip - 3 year 6 months old_

I yawned as I woke up again. I had been considering it for a few months but… I was getting bored. Perhaps I should move somewhere else soon. Find a nice mesa or something. I spent too much time just boredly killing grimm nowadays. I had time so why was I so dead set on gaining power? I could always go to greener pastures… going to mantle and learning about dust would be extreme but Mistral would be a nice change of pace. The desert is just… there's only so much sand you can take. I should move to find a nice mesa or something.

Only a few times had I ever seen something interesting. An old temple surrounded by some scary grimm, a tower half collapsed and buried into the desert that held a few scary grimm, and field of trees made of ice with, and get this, ice elementals. Really. I observed them.

 **Petty ice elemental (Lv. ?) - An extremely minor elemental born of a high concentration of mana with an ice affinity in the area. This enemy is naturally hostile due to an artificially induced territoriality. This enemy cannot be killed due to (Observe LV. too low). Only dispelled before they reform. Dispelling enough of these enemies will disperse the high ice affinity in as they are repeatedly dispelled (Observe LV. too low to know exact amount). The ice affinity naturally (Observe LV. too low).**

 **Ice tree (True name unknown(Observe LV. too low)) - A tree composed of ice. This tree naturally (Observe LV. too low).**

It's absolutely covered in secrets. I have no idea what's going on with it but I'm confident that it's dangerous. Very dangerous.

The fact that this was in a desert of all places was absurd. Completely absurd. Remnant really was a place filled with wonders. And magic. It made me wonder how magic wasn't publicly known with a place like this around. I suppose nobody ever goes trekking out into the middle of the desert filled with grimm. I made sure to memorize the sights since I would likely never see them again.

I flicked open my stats sheet wondering if I was strong enough to really move in the world.

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **Level – 30**

 **HP – 132.6/132.6**

 **AP – 3300 (+165/min)**

 **MP - 3240 (+162/min)**

 **STR - 18 + (+60%)(30%)= 8.64**

 **VIT - 26 + (+70%)(30%)= 13.26**

 **DEX - 27 + (+75%)(30%)= 14.175**

 **INT - 54 + (+0%)= 54**

 **WIS - 55 (+0%)= 55**

 **LUK - 31 (+0%)= 31**

 **POINTS - 123**

 **LIEN – 0**

 **Affinities:**

 **Air: 53**

 **Light: 37**

 **Water: 28**

 **Space: 10**

My stats were far more impressive than they used to be. They had grown from the stress of just being used day in and day out mostly. I had also finally hit three years old half a year ago so I got my stats to grow just a little bit on the physical side of things. I wouldn't want to face any grimm in close combat though. Magic was so much better in terms of not just flexibility but power.

My affinities had grown somewhat as well. I was right. Using elementally attuned magic slowly gained you affinity in the chosen element. However, there was more to it than that. Affinities could change not just how you could affect elements but how elements affected you. When I stood in places with high winds I could feel the winds make me faster without any conscious effort on my part. In light I felt more energetic and happier.

My skills had all increased somewhat as well. Warp and observe especially since I kept warp up at all times and observed everything. Observe was actually at level seventy six. It was a little ridiculous but I had seen a lot of grimm and a lot of places and things in my travels. Most of them only briefly interesting. Like desert. My exo suit spell was in it's twenties. The only spell or skill I hadn't exercised was the water whip spell because there really just wasn't enough to use and while I liked water I just didn't have anything that I could use it for.

Air I had used for imbuing into my aura and helping me move faster. I also hovered just a teeny bit above the sand sometimes to make things easier for me. It was more expensive than the exo suit but it was more fun. I had tried imbuing light into my arrows and bullets and found that they moved WAY faster with a light element so I did that a lot. They had less punch though so it was more rapid fire unless I imbued air into them as well to give them a piercing effect. Wind also gave them a whistling noise that might give away my position. It wasn't very loud so I didn't mind. Grimm wouldn't dodge my shots anymore. Well, they didn't do it that often before but now? They just couldn't. It also helped kill tougher grimm when I put air or light elements onto my arrows.

Space was still mostly useless to me but I diligently used the warp spell in my free time when meditating, which I did during sandstorms or when a really bad grimm is outside and I needed to hide in a cave or something. I still couldn't teleport but I figure I'll get a basic blink spell eventually. I reached ten affinity recently but I'm nont going to really bother with it until I'm twenty percent. I tried warp out on myself too. I wasn't too negatively affected, probably because of my affinity, but it wasn't pleasant. I lost about two health points per second with my hand in the warp and about ten with my arm in it.

I could reach a mile away though if I brought the space closer to me. I tested it and petted a taijitsu minor. It freaked out. Have you ever seen a snake do the worm when it looks a mile long? It's weird to think about but hilarious in person. Well, anyways, space was still useless to me but there was definitely potential in it. I was actually considering if I could turn my body into an element and use space while my body was made of that element. It could work given a high affinity and enough mana. Well, space was a long term investment.

But the real question is… am I strong enough? I suppose… I could go. I don't actually need to stay here. Wasn't Vacuo just a shitty place in general? I'm just bored here. Everything is dead or desert and I'm having the odd craving to see a tree that isn't half dead in the sand… I eyed my points with a look. I could probably sneak into Vale or something and read a whole bunch. That would probably increase my INT and WIS a lot… and I could totally sneak out of an orphanage. If I read up on computers I could create a fake family maybe…

Say wait a second… Books! I facepalmed and murmured curses at myself for not having figured out that sooner. Skill books! Oh lord I forgot about those! I had only gotten three from my house and I only ever used sewing to mend my clothes a little. I had completely forgotten about skill books. Elementals, fighting styles, and everyday skills that I could use to be better at things other than fighting! What have I been doing?!

I growled and thought for a moment. I might be able to sneak into a city but a three year old walking around? A three year old Faunus? Hell no! I needed a way to hide my ears or… I tapped into my light affinity and tried really hard to make an image a reality. I've been using a more brute force approach to light so far. Light has power in lasers and the like but it could be used sneakily too.

 ***Ding!* New spell acquired! - Illusion**

" _ **No. I'm not fat or old. Can you see these thighs?"**_

 _ **-Tsuna the faker**_

I angrily made my illusion disappear and put on my exoskeleton. I could hold it forever now. It had gotten more efficient after gaining some skill levels and my mana regeneration had gone up as well. I then modeled an illusion onto myself to make an older and human version of me appear. It absolutely gorged on my mana to hold them both. Illusions were too low in level to hold for long. I'd have to grind it on my way to Vacuo… wait…

Where the hell am I?

[|||| == ||||]

I trudged through the sandy dunes with a scowl on my face. I had seen roads before and, yes, people on the roads, but I typically walked away. I had placed my bets on the sun rising in the east and setting in the west like on earth. I hadn't completely lost track of where I was. I know I'm somewhere east of Vacuo. I might be halfway down Sanus though. Oh, Sanus is the big U shaped continent Vacuo and Vale are on by the way.

I just walked west and hoped for the best. Now it's paid off. I found a road and hoped I was in the south so I walked north. I'm not legging it all the way to Vale obviously.

Now there was a sign in front of me pointing three ways. I ignored two of the signs but I paid attention to one of them. Vacuo, nine hundred fifty miles west/northwest… well I was accurate. I mean, I've been pretty much going the same direction since I got out of the ghetto. There's no reason to backtrack after all. I kill all the weak grimm and leave the strong grimm. Only rarely do I ever try to kill a strong grimm like the centipede. I only killed two, in fact. Even then they were out of desperation. I had gotten lazy setting up camp once and been assaulted by a grimm posing as a boulder once. I had already set up the ice barrier so I had to fight it. Then there was one flying sort of dragonfly grimm that just wouldn't screw off so I had to slice off it's wings with a mana overcharged air blade.

Well… Time to start walking. I threw my rucksack back over my shoulder and made my way to Vacuo.

[|||| == ||||]

 _Timeskip - 3 years 8 months old_

"Hi!" The pretty lady said happily. Her hair was long black with red tips in a low ponytail going down her left shoulder. Her skin was a surprising pale and she hunched over me. I still wasn't used to adults being so tall. I stared up at her.

"Um, hi…" I said awkwardly.

"My name's Summer! Summer Rose. What's your name?" I didn't say that I already knew that. I had known since I observed her.

 **Summer Rose**

 **Title: Silver legend; Wizard's second**

 **Level – 244**

 **HP – 6930/6930**

 **AP – 27,700**

 **MP - 3480**

 **STR - 160 (+450%)= 880**

 **VIT - 176 (+450%)= 968**

 **DEX - 304 (+450%)= 1672**

 **INT - 232 (+50%)= 348**

 **WIS - 277 (+150%)= 692.5**

 **LUK - 71 (+0%)= 71**

 **Semblance: Petal sweep: Race towards the ground if in the air and spread out as a field of rose petals the color of your aura (white) and freely teleport between the petals nearly instantaneously. Expanding the field takes exponentially larger portions of aura as it grows bigger. Multiple fields may be constructed. Up to four. You may also make portals of in the petals using extra aura.**

 **Affinities:**

 **Purity: 87**

 **Light: 64**

 **Motion: 34**

 **Nature: 22**

 **Life: 4**

 **Perks:**

 **Silver eyed warrior (Rank 4) - You've awoken your lineage of silver eyes and have nearly mastered it.**

 **-Grimm will take damage by being in your line of sight as they are purified. The higher your purity affinity the more effective the damage. Some grimm will flee from you even without your eyes on.**

 **-Multiplies your WIS by 150% and INT by 50%**

 _ ****_ **Artificial mage (Rank 4)- You were not born a mage. Your magical potential has been partially unlocked through a ritual yet you will always be inferior to a true mage so long as your core is broken.**

 **-Mana is unlocked at 1/4th of it's full capacity. Given regular doses of mana saturated with an affinity you are attuned to (50% or higher than yours) your core will begin to function properly.**

 **-You gain affinity at one fourth the normal rate.**

 _ **-OBSERVE AND LEVEL ARE TOO LOW FOR A BIO-**_

… Was she a god? No really. Those stats were insane. I wasn't high enough of a level to see her skills but I suspect that they're equally incredible. If I were to dump all of my skill points into INT or WIS I might escape… for a second. Seriously, do you see that speed? Absurd. And her eyes too are equally OP. And she's a mage too. I think it's probably a gift from Ozpin. He gave the Branwen twins the ability to turn into birds, after all.

"My name's Abyss. Abyss Mavros." Summer smiled brilliantly and asked

"And what are you doing so far away from towns?"

I paused for a moment. Dodge the question, dodge the question, dodge the- "Are you a pedophile?" Summer reeled back and gave me a poleaxed look. Like I'd slapped her. "Mom and Dad told me to stay away from pedophiles so… go away?" Summer blinked for a moment.

"No I'm not a pedophile. I'm a huntress. Uh, here." Summer took out an I.D. that did indeed say she was a huntress. Not that I already knew. Well I'm not giving up yet.

"Okay you're not a pedophile." Summer looked relieved. Why would she care so much? "But… why are you talking to me anyways?"

Summer looked to me with that smile. "I was sent here by a very nice man who wants to meet you! You're very special." Oh shit Ozpin wants my wizardry. Go away parasitic wizard!

"No thanks." Summer's smile dropped a little but she didn't seem sad. It seemed more like it became more honest. Or become slightly less upbeat now that it was confirmed that I was not a sweet and happy child. Her eyes were more curious as well.

"Why not?"

"I have places to go." Summer's eyes gleamed at a perceived opportunity. Wow she's getting real serious about outsmarting a child.

"What sort of places? It's dangerous out here. I'd be happy to escort you if you come with me after."

"I don't think I'll be able to go with you. I have my own things to do." Summer's smile dropped a little more but she sure was interested in me. I could see it in her eyes.

"I can wait. You're very special and I have time to spare. I wasn't expected to find you for another month so I can stick around if you want." Shitshitshitshit… she seems so nice but I really don't think Ozpin is. He's a manipulator. I could be wrong and he's doing all of his stuff for good but I think that he cares more about killing Salem. He's using child soldiers after all. Or maybe he's the greater good type like Albus Dumbledore. It seems likely.

"Sorry miss. I'm really quite happy on my own. You seem nice but I won't be taking a month. More like a half a year." That oughta do it.

"I can wait." Wow Ozpin really wants me. Like REALLY wants me on his side. Six months and maybe more from Summer Rose? That isn't a light investment. And there's the fact that Summer isn't kidnapping me. They want to leave a good impression. Or maybe Summer's too nice. No, it's more likely that they sent her because she's charismatic, powerful, and a mage. Raven, if she hasn't gone rogue yet, is too scary and Qrow's too drunk. Tai might work but Summer's better.

"... Alright. I'll meet him but no promises." Summer's smile beamed brilliantly again but it wasn't the fake nice to meet you smile but a real one. Like she was just really happy I gave in. "But I have one condition…" Summer tilted her head a little and hummed questioningly. "I know you're a mage." Summer's eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to say something. I would have continued on but I wanted to know what she has to say for herself.

"I-what?! No! Pfft! Nah I'm a totally normal huntress doing… uhm, huntress stuff." I blinked and looked at her flatly. She was such a terrible liar that she almost sounds like she's trying to be bad at it.

"No really. I know I'm a wizard and I know you have magic." I smiled at her despondent expression. She kicked the ground glumly. Wow she really was childish. It's weirdly cute. As a three year old I really shouldn't be allowed to say that about a thirty year old woman with kids… wait, does she have kids? Bah! I'll ask later.

"So that condition is that You tutor me in magic and maybe as a huntsman. I know I'll probably be recruited by somebody for something. I want to be ready when they do." Summer looked at consideringly with a hint of sadness. Her smile was weak. She seemed to think of something and her eyes grew in determination. It was curious how expressive they were. I quite like them.

"Alright. I'll help you with magic. I don't know if I can teach you much though."

"You can." I confirmed. "If I had a piece of your mana I might be able to unlock your affinities. I already have the light affinity though so I can just learn those from you." Summer grinned a little.

"Alright little wizard. Well where are we going?" I smiled a little too. Her eyes softened slightly.

"Vacuo. First, though…" I released the illusion. Wow that was draining to keep up. Summer looked a little bewildered.

"How the hell did you make such a good illusion? Dust… I'm being surpassed by a two year old." Something seemed to occur to Summer and I felt an impending sense to flee.

"*Squeeeee!*" Summer leapt at my ears.

"No! Wait! They're ticklish!" Summer did not hear my pleas and petted my ears against my will.

 **Through a life changing event title you earned a title: Little Wizard**

 **-Reduces mana costs by 5%**

 **-Increases affinities by 10%**

 **-Increases mana and aura capacity and regen by 25%**

[|||| == ||||]

"So what do you want to learn first little wizard?" Summer asked me amicably. She was still snickering at me whenever she looked at my ears. I had to use my exo suit to get away from her. She could have easily caught me but she decided that if I'm willing to use a spell to get away that should be enough… for now. We had places to walk to.

"I already have a spell to keep sunlight off of me. I call it sun screen." Summer grimaced at the pun. There was a smile in there though. It was a good pun. "I also have my illusions. How about a more offensive spell?" Summer returned to her normal smile.

"How about a flashbang?" I rolled my eyes and collected all the light in front of me into a ball. In moments the light grew immensely bright before I released it aimed right into Summer's face.

"Eeep!" Summer blinked the blindness out of her eyes and glared at me as I smirked. The skill was so simple it wasn't even a spell. Just light manipulation, which ran off of my affinities.

"Rude. Fine. Do you have any ideas?" Summer didn't look to expect an answer.

"Hard light constructs or lasers. Preferably the first since lasers are pretty simple." Summer groaned and hung her head.

"You're not going to be an easy teach are you?" I smiled. She groaned again. Oh how the tables have turned. Sure, I have solid… mana… projection.

"Fine. I firmly believe hard light constructs are an abomination that no weapon can replace but I did say I'd teach you. Hard light constructs are some of the more useful ways to wield light. I use them for lockpicks someti-" I tuned Summer out for a moment. I made a rod of mana and imbued the light affinity into it. I didn't get a skill since it was just elemental imbuing and mana projection mixed into one. I didn't really mind.

"Nevermind I got it." I sharpened my rod of light into a tiny dagger and dropped it onto the ground. It sunk hilt deep into the ground where Summer looked at it emotionlessly.

"Bullshit. Utter bullshit. How?!" I smirked.

"I project raw mana physically all the time. I just added my light element to it. I never thought of that before. Thank you Summer." Summer sighed and shook her head.

"Since I didn't really teach you anything is there something I actually have to teach you?" I thought for a moment. Lasers were nice I suppose but not really complicated.

"Well I'd like to learn some sort of weapon later." I said. Summer nodded. "But for magic… how about keeping light out of an area?" Summer made an ooh sound.

"Tricky stuff." She said.

"Now when I tried this I tried to make a shield to keep light away and while it works in a way you're basically just making the light bounce everywhere and making a mirror. Useful for applying my makeup or when my car mirror was broken but not too useful." I nodded. She had basically made a shape out of sun screens. She just called them mirrors, which might be more accurate actually.

"What you have to do is not bounce the light away but bend it somewhere manually." I widened my eyes. I had never thought of doing it that way.

"When the light bends away collect it and just chuck it somewhere else. I just throw it into the sun myself but if that's not an option you can de-energize it."

"De-energize light?" I asked curiously. Summer grinned again.

"Yup! With mana you can cancel out the energy in light and make it stop being so energetic. Before you ask, no you can't absorb the energy to make mana. Believe me, I tried." I closed my mouth sullenly. Well I'll refrain from trying to absorb light to mana for now. Maybe HP though. Kind of like photosynthesis. Or that would just be a heal spell with a light element. Ugh.

"You going to try it little wizard?" I nodded and reached out into the light. I bent it upwards into the sky and made sure to keep it aimed up there. I opened my eyes and saw a black void. It wasn't empty. It just didn't have any light. I widened it to a sphere absent of light and I could feel the space with mage sight. It wasn't a skill but it was a pretty nifty application of light manipulation. I tried negating the energy in the light that flew upwards with mana and then I heard the ding of a skill being made. I could feel the photons becoming stationary, which I didn't know was possible, but the other photons bounced off of them, making the skill mostly useless.

"Yup! You got them stationary. Don't worry about how it looks in the sunlight. Just do it over all the windows in a house or in a dome and the light inside will be trapped. You can then direct all that light out of the area and have a pitch black area to fight in. You'll be blind too, of course, unless you use another trick I made."

… damn that's really useful and creative. Summer is an awesome teacher. "Can I learn that spell now?"

"Nope! You need a dark space to do it. You've already learned one spell for the day. Practice it." Summer replied happily. I gave her my best puppy eyes. I flattened my ears, widened my eyes, dropped my shoulders, and blew wind into my eyes to make them water.

Summer glanced at me and quickly looked away. Her fingers twitched. She looked to me again and tried to glance away. She bit her lip and swayed indecisively. I sniffled. "Okay Fine! Please stop!" Summer lunged towards me and wrapped me in a hug. I lost a little health from how tight it was. "Damn you!" She cried as I got rid of my puppy eyes and returned to normal. She looked annoyed at me.

Summer waved her hand and instantly I couldn't see. Well with mage sight I could see the wind part around Summer and the ground and the space Summer and the ground took up. It wasn't to hard if I only focused on space. "Alright. Well, your eyes see through light. What you need to do is make a beam of light and keep exact control of it and bounce it from your eyes to the people and the wall of static light. Don't let it loose because then it bounces around and others can use the light to see. Try it."

I didn't really need to but it might be convenient to use it on an ally so I tried it. I shot a very weak beam of light and controlled the photons to only bounce back to my eyes. Those that didn't bounce back I recycled at a different angle to see from. I could see pretty well. It wasn't great. Kind of like it was low definition.

 ***Ding!* New spell acquired! - Controlled light vision**

" _ **Shooting lazers from your eyes sounds like a great idea until you realise you're shooting the lasers back in. Then you're told it's only visible light."**_

 **-Aprentice wizard Jones Barnes**

"Got it." I said happily. Summer then let go of the dome of stationary light and I yelped as my light and the other light all went into my eyes at the same time, blinding me. I closed my eyes and rubbed as the sharp sting went away. I opened my eyes slowly and let them re-adjust to see Summer smirking triumphantly. Fair play, Summer. Fair play.

[|||| == ||||]

I sighed as I sat down on a chair made of hard light. It cushioned me and my aching body perfectly. That must have made it all the better for Summer when she yanked me upwards onto my feet. "Time for training!" She chirped. I despaired but grimly set myself for whatever Summer was about to unleash upon me.

"Fifty pushups! On the double!" Summer said sadistically.

"No! Please!" I cried. She smiled.

"Your legs are tired. Your arms are not. Normally exercising a three year old can lead to muscle damage but you've already got something that can deal with that, right?" … Yeah. Gamer's body would consider muscle damage HP loss. I would be fine. I don't actually have any bodily limits other than my HP, fatigue, and muscle strength. My silence confirmed this to Summer.

"Actually, I've been wondering something else too…" I looked to her curiously. "How are you so smart and mature? I know what three year olds are like. You act like a particularly nice teenager." I looked to Summer curiously for a moment. I didn't think it would be so long for her to ask. Well, why not tell the truth? Or a part of it anyways. No way in hell I'm telling anybody about RWBY. Ever.

"I'm reincarnated. All wizards are. I was seventeen when I died last time." Summer's eyes widened.

"How did you die?" I frowned.

"Car accident I'm pretty sure. Boring way to die. I didn't see anything but everything suddenly went white for an instant and I woke up as a one year old. I was almost done with high school too."

Summer looked at me with a frown. "You're really calm about it for someone who died three years ago." I nodded.

"I've always been sort of laid back. When I get stressed I get… well unpleasant would be putting it mildly. For a while I wasn't doing so well. I poured all of my energy into getting stronger but then my parents were killed-" Summer took a small intake of breath "-and I just sort of left. I wandered Vacuo and eventually got bored about a month ago. That's why I'm going to Vacuo. Well, there's another reason I'm going back but the main one is that I'm tired of being alone with grimm. They're boring after a while."

Summer looked to me worriedly. Her eyes really were extremely expressive. Almost eerily so. I bet she could have a conversation with just her eyes. "That's got to be one of the worst childhoods I've ever heard." I smiled bitterly.

"It can get worse."

"Not really." Summer said confidently.

"My parents were terrible at their jobs. I would occasionally get put aside as an afterthought and be the only one home. They weren't terrible but they were not good parents. If I had been a normal kid I might have died or at least grown up with some serious issues."

Summer stood up. "That's it. You need cuddles." I couldn't protest before I was hugged strongly. I tried to push away but Summer held resolutely and said "Nope." and I gave up my resistance.

After maybe a minute or two Summer and I seperated and she said "Now pushups. Go." And I sighed and started doing pushups.

[|||| == ||||]

After pushups, crunches, pull ups on a hard light bar I had to make myself, and some sort of abomination of pull ups with your legs Summer and I finally got to the good stuff.

"Which weapon do you want to use?" Summer asked. I thought for a minute. Daggers? Too short for my tastes. Swords? They're a bit basic for my tastes. They're too well known and thus predictable. Perhaps something longer to keep people at a range. Spears are a good start but they're a little…

"Halberds." I said. Summer raised an eyebrow. Why halberds?"

"They're long enough to keep people at a distance, which will be the main point of combat for me so I can prepare a spell, a trick, or wait a few minutes to gather enough mana to use a spell. I can slash with them, stab with them, and they won't have the awkward weight from the axe head because I'll be using a hard light halberd. I'd also like to use a shortsword as a backup, for confined areas, and for sneak attacks." Summer nodded thoughtfully.

"You can put those in the same weapon-" what "-and what kind of gun?"

I stared at Summer. "No gun. Just hard light spells and whatever else I-"

"And what. Kind. Of. Gun?" That tone screamed for me to not say the same thing again. Ah, right. Hard light was not to be used for weapons by the orders of weapons nut Summer Rose.

"... Long barreled assault rifle down the shaft." If I was breaking under the pressure I was doing it right. Long range was too much work. I would use light and wind infused mana arrows or bullets if I was attacking from afar. Close range I could use wind blades or my close combat skills. Medium range I didn't have very covered. An assault rifle would handle that.

"Better." Summer patted my head like I was a dog. I didn't even protest. I'm not speaking up. She used the danger voice on me. The voice that all men know means to shut up and play along or else…

"Now, for now we'll have to use… hard light constructs. Use a shortsword for now since I know how to use that better than any polearm." Summer spoke the words with a tinge of disgust. I made a short sword of light silently. I have to say that it was pretty well made. It was plain and I didn't have the control to make it monomolecular or anything but it was sharp enough for my tastes. Sharp enough to cut deep into rock if I gave it a good swing. It would get better as I advanced mana constructs so for now it was fine.

"This is my weapon." Summer said with returning glee as she drew a short and thin sword. Looking closely there were thin lines across the blade in an odd pattern I couldn't discern. "It's called Bloom. A short sword, of course but it's got two transformations. When you perform to my satisfaction I'll show you one!" She coated the sword in aura and blurred.

I used my exo suit and a warp in space to bring my own sword up. Hers clashed against mine with a thud but no sparks flew. It was like her aura was making her weapon more durable. Perhaps sharper as well.

I blew back Summer with a gust of wind and she took the blast amusedly. I'm sure she could have just stood her ground without a problem but that would be outclassing me. She was performing at a level I could handle. I appreciated that.

I thrusted my sword and created a warp between the space of my thrust and her back. Summer's smile dropped and she whirled around to bat my sword away. I show about ten light wind arrows at her and the space surrounding her. Summer must have sensed something so she suddenly turned to rose petals and plunged to the ground faster than I could see. A fraction of a second later I heard a faint fluttering sound and felt a pointy tip at my neck.

I was in quite a bind but I still had a moment to respond. I tried something a little risky and tried a blink spell. Before I hadn't the affinity for it but now I was at ten percent and in need of it. I imagined myself simply trading my space for another - not opening a wormhole or making one piece of space another but just changing two spaces - and felt my mana twist oddly with the space affinity. I heard a pop and blinked at the sudden relocation. That was… odd. So is the blade pointed at my face.

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Blink**

" _ **Simple and effective. You're here then you're there with no in-between. It's not got the range of the teleport spell but it's called blink because of it's speed born from it's simplicity. Even a novice can do it it's so simple."**_

 **-Head spaciomancer Mallus Trill**

"Was that… spatial magic?" Summer's eyes were wide with excitement and interest.

"...Yes?" I said it apprehensively. She laughed lowly. Then it got louder and louder. She looked to me with excitement in her eye.

"Oh we are going to have so much fun." I didn't like the sound of that.

"Again! And I'll hold back more this time. I forgot for a moment that you're a three year old. Good tricks by the way. You actually made me use my semblance. Those arrows are fast as well." I felt just a little bit better.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:**

[|||| = **LEVEL 4** = ||||]

 _3 years 10 months old_

Two months on the road. Two months of training with Summer. God, it's been the worst months of my life. She's kept me always using mana, always using my body in some absurd shape or form. If I wasn't exercising my body I was aching and sore practicing magic. Especially space magic. So much space magic. I thought I was obsessed with it… Summer's intense focus on spatial magic makes mine look like a half assed hobby. But it was so worth it…

[|||| == ||||]

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Little wizard**

 **Level – 34**

 **HP – 222.3/222.3**

 **AP – 4340 (+217/min)**

 **MP - 3990 (+199.5/min)**

 **STR - 27 (+85%)(30%)= 14.985**

 **VIT - 38 (+95%)(30%)= 22.23**

 **DEX - 42 (+100%)(30%)= 25.2**

 **INT - 57 (+0%)= 57**

 **WIS - 62 (+0%)= 62**

 **LUK - 32 (+0%)= 32**

 **POINTS - 143**

 **Affinities:**

 **Air: 60%**

 **Light: 43%**

 **Water: 30%**

 **Space: 17%**

 **(NEW) Heat: 4%**

 **-SKILLS-**

 **Cooking - (Lv. 27),**

 **Sewing - (Lv. 1),**

 **(NEW) Singing - (Lv. 16)**

 **-AURA-**

 **Aura - (Lv. 17)**

 **Aura control (Lv. 25)**

 **Aural reinforcement (Lv. 34)**

 **(NEW)Aura sense enhancement (Lv. 17)**

 **-PHYSICAL-**

 **Dash (Lv. 19)**

 **Controlled breathing (Lv. 92)**

 **Sneak (Lv. 34)**

 **-COMBAT-**

 **Swordsmanship (Lv. 14)**

 **(NEW) Polearms (Lv. 10)**

 **-MAGIC-**

 **Mana control (Lv. 41)**

 **Meditate (Lv. 48)**

 **Physical mana projection (Lv. 39)**

 **Mage sight (Lv. 40)**

 **Imbue element (Lv. 21)**

 **Produce element (Lv. 4)**

 **-SPELLS-**

 **Mage armor (Lv. 43)**

 **Exo suit (Lv. 41)**

 **Sun screen (Lv. MAX)**

 **Air blade (Lv. 9)**

 **Negate light (Lv. 7)**

 **Water whip (Lv. 2)**

 **Warp (Lv. 43)**

 **Illusions (Lv. 16)**

 **Controlled light vision (Lv. 4)**

 **Blink (Lv. 12)**

 **(NEW) Expand (Lv. 5)**

 **(NEW) Spatial negation (Lv. 5)**

 **(NEW) Invisibility (Lv. 7)**

 **(NEW) Still winds (Lv. 18)**

 **-MISC-**

 **Temperature resistance (Lv. 65)**

 **Pain resistance (Lv. 23)**

 **Observe (Lv. 85)**

[|||| == ||||]

OP? Tell that to Summer. According to her Raven is even stronger than her. She isn't going near her fastest or strongest in our spars and yet she hopelessly outclasses me. According to her I'm going through the typical signal workout routine that they do on a daily basis. In other words, my physique is about that of a signal student's. Kind of. I can use my aural enhancement skill all the time because my skill is high enough to not use all of my aura regeneration. I tried a few times to make a magical physical enhancement skill but mana isn't as physically based as aura. Aura can function as mana or aura but aura can't function as mana. This is due to my magical soul skill.

Anyways, I look strong on my stats sheet but in reality? Not at all! Summer can annihilate me and according to her, while I'm a sneaky bastard (my words) with quite powerful and versatile magic (her words) any huntsman just outclasses me both because they're fully grown, experienced, and they've trained like hell. Summer is a badass, she admits, but she's not even breaking a sweat kicking my ass to kingdom come.

Now anyways, on the new spells first. Invisibility is pretty simple. People are seen because light bounces off of them and people's eyes see the light that bounces off of you. It's a little more complex than that what with color and all but that's the gist of it. I just twist light to bend around me. It's going straight for me but then goes in a half circle around me. It's not hard or draining to do but there's a pretty small problem. Sound.

With sound I use the still winds spell. It's really easy to do so I just keep a thin layer of motionless wind around me all the time. The wind still moves a little bit because of the level not being high enough to completely make the winds motionless but it's close. The vibrations from my feet and the chafing of my too-small clothes make noise but it's muffled a fair bit since the winds around me aren't very willing to vibrate and move the sound. Yay science! So yeah, nearly motionless winds around me are cheap and muffle my sound. Good for me.

Of course there's a simpler solution to stopping my light, sound, and eventually I might try to muffle my heat signature and other giveaways as well. If you don't want to be seen just stop existing entirely!

What I mean is that I use space magic to stop affecting reality. I still take up space and stuff but I'm not affecting the space around me. Light passes through me, wind passes through me, and I phase through the ground. The only way for me to not fall through the ground is to blink upwards into the air. I feel like a character in a video game who lags down under the ground only to teleport up into the air and fall down again. It's extremely magically taxing. It's also kind of kard to see in motion. I do get invisibility and soundless. I still emit heat though, being alive and all. I'm working on a few solutions. I'll get to the new affinity in a minute.

The last one is expand. It just expands the amount of space an object takes. I use it on someone and they swell up. Not like a balloon but like if they suddenly grew proportionately to their size. It's not very powerful either. I look like a giant five year old when I use it, for example. It's apparently off putting. No matter how much muscle I have I'm still a very mature looking four year old.

The still wind spell and the spatial presence negation were my ideas. Summer has a lot of ideas herself but most of them are little tricks with raw manipulation.

Speaking of manipulation, how about that new affinity, yeah? Well I got it when I was freezing water. I was using my water affinity to freeze water by sapping it of kinetic energy, since solids are basically just low energy liquids, and it popped up. This gives me a few ideas for gaining new affinities but the system is still puzzling. Why haven't I gained a motion affinity yet, for example. I make things move all the time. Everything but space anyways. My best theory is that everyone has an affinity for every element but it's just so small that cultivating most of them would take a lifetime. Luckily for me, immortality is pretty within reach for me. I've got a practical list of ideas. Well, none of them are viable at the moment. I'll start on them after I get some free time and tell Ozpin to screw off.

Right now I'm just relaxing with Summer… well, as close to relaxing as I can get with her around.

"You have CCT?!" Summer exclaimed happily as she rushed up to a random stranger on a scroll. I stood off to the side in an exo suit and an illusion. I looked like her son to avoid questions. I didn't look too different than normal actually. Pale skin, abyss black hair, and a thin and lanky build, though there were hints of dense muscle under my fake white shirt and grey pants. I had silver eyes a little duller than Summer's and a travelling cloak like Summer's but grey. I was kind of liking the cloak. It made me feel all cool but it was also helpful for keeping sand away and out of my eyes with the hood up. I could make goggles out of hard light as well so travelling through sandstorms were possible now… and good exercise. Damnit Summer.

"Yeah, we've got CCT." The man Summer had nearly assaulted responded.

"Yes!" Summer yelled. She was oblivious to the disapproving looks from the bystanders. "Come on Abyss! You can finally meet my family!"

I drew back and started "No I think I'll-" Summer will not be denied her plaything. She gripped my wrist with her normal brilliant smile and dragged me - literally dragged me - away. Nobody spoke up. Ah, it looks like a mother dragging her belligerent child with her. Why did I agree when Summer suggested I play at being her child?

I gave in and jogged alongside her after the stares from strangers started to unnerve me. Summer didn't even mind. Eventually we found a motel and Summer got us a room in a minute.

I was brought into the room while Summer nearly vibrated with excitement. "So my kids are Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. Yang is taking after her father's name because she has some issues with her mother. Technically they're not siblings since Yang is Rae's kid but I'm pretty much her mother for the moment since Rae left about five and a half years ago. That's a whole bunch of family drama for later though. I haven't seen my kids in three months! Do you know how far into the wilds you were? In Vacuo of all places, where there's barely any CCT coverage. It's like you don't want me to see my kids. Now drop the illusion. I'm dialing."

I dropped the illusion and stared at the screen warily. Summer quieted but was bouncing on the bed in anticipation. Suddenly the screen came on and a cacophony of noise came from the screen.

"Mommy!"

"Finally mom you're back!"

"Summer! What's with the wait? Didn't want to see your husband?" Summer smiled brilliantly through it all and I stood off to the side and out of the camera.

"Hi girls and Love! I've been tracking down this little guy-" Summer flashed the screen towards me and I smiled a little and waved as she took the spotlight back again. "-In eastern Vacuo. The little sucker went off into the wilderness and I had to track him down."

"Cool!" Ruby squeaked. She was maybe five years old. About my age. Her hair was highlighted like Summer's but cut a little shorter. Her eyes were as energetic if not more so than Summer's. She was wearing a loose T shirt and sweatpants.

"What was he doing in the wilderness?" Yang asked curiously. She was about seven I think. Her hair was already long and a little curly. Perhaps the curliness grew in later. She wore an orange long sleeved shirt with a picture of a red dragon on it.

"How was he alive?!" Tai exclaimed. The guy looked almost exactly as in the show but a little less scruffy and a bit more energetic. He was also more buff. He wore an orange sweater with a symbol reminiscent of a burning heart on it.

"Well in order of first to last: Yes, Abyss is awesome and really smart for his age just like Ruby, I never actually asked what he was doing, and he used a whole lot of tricks to survive. As I said, he's really smart." I never did tell Summer why I was there. And thank you for calling me smart, Summer. I take pride in that.

"Why can Abyss go into the dangerous wilds but I can't?!" Yang complained.

"He's not supposed to. I'm going to be bringing him back to Vale after we get to Vacuo and he does whatever he's going to do." Ah, come to think of it I need to make an inventory skill so I can steal every skill book and books on chemistry, biology, aura, and… well everything I can find should be a good start.

Yang was pouting that I got to survive in the harsh grimm infested wasteland but she wasn't. "Can we meet him?!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly.

The answer is- "Of course! I'll drag him there myself if I have to! He's kind of like Raven in that he's always super grumpy but secretly likes attention and cuddles." … no I don't…

"What?! He gets hugs?!" I wish I didn't. "What's next?! Are you going to make him cookies too?!" Ruby gave a dramatic wide eyed look. Summer hummed and rolled her eyes away from the screen.

"I haven't baked cookies in a while. I should keep my skills up… and someone's got to eat them…" I gave Summer a wary look. I don't want to be stuffed… but I might try one. For science. I also might get a poison resistance skill from the undoubtedly pure sugar in the cookies.

Ruby was giving Summer a genuinely conflicted look. Like she wanted the cookies all to herself but she also didn't want subpar sugar from lack of practice. Summer looked to her and immediately broke into laughter. I couldn't help the twitch of my lips at the look on Ruby's face and the laughter of Summer, Yang, and Taiyang.

Ruby blinked at the laughter and pouted when she realized that everyone was messing with her. I rolled my eyes at her antics. She doesn't really change that much from when she's fifteen it seems.

I fell into the background when Summer and her family fell into an easy family banter. Mostly a lot of catching up and Summer admonishing and praising her kids. It was obvious that her words meant a lot to her kids.

"I'll call back soon. We'll be leaving the town tomorrow and it's another two weeks of travel to the next town. Hopefully they'll have CCT but if they don't then I'll call you all at Vacuo in a month."

"Bye mom! I expect cookies when you get back!"

"Goodbye honey. Stay safe. Spend some time home when you get back, would you?"

"Bye auntie! Kick ass for us!"

"Sweetie don't say ass in front of Summer." Summer laughed lightly and shut off the scroll. Maybe it was me but as I glanced at the scroll and looked into Ruby's eyes I thought I saw… jealousy? The scroll shut off before I could confirm.

I had learned a few things from this. Most importantly was that I had about ten years until canon starts. Secondly was that Raven had left a while ago. I personally don't mind that she's gone. She's not really a factor here. Finally was Summer's priorities. Tai's last words kind of indicated that Summer wasn't too often at home. Well, anyways, Summer's a sort of absentee parent in a way. Married to the job, as they say. Well… I can't say I approve but it's not my business.

Summer looked at the scroll longingly before pocketing it. "So what do you want to eat?" I ignored her for a moment and focused on the lamp I had picked up. Just make a pocket dimension and… tie it to my soul I suppose. My affinity could probably maintain the spell, right? That should do it.

 ***Ding!*A new spell has been created! - Inventory**

" _ **I keep, um, three tents, fifty swords, ten hot and ready servings of my mother's casserole, one hundred arrows, all of my gold and silver and copper coins, two medical kits, …"**_

 **-Narfi the hoarder, master of the inventory spell**

 **Current capacity: 78,120 liters (AP x (affinity + 1) = # of liters)**

 **You may sever your inventory from your soul and tie it to another's soul if you so please, where they can access it through inventory spell. In addition, use meditation to visit the space inside your soul, or the soul hearth spell to visit inside other's souls, and arrange the space inside to your whims.**

 **(AN: 78,120 liters is 78 cubic meters, which is the length of a somewhat large apartment with a really high roof in a cube. Since he can shift it's space around it'll be more like a medium/large house. Also, the inventory spell is just a spell to access the space in your soul, which is dictated by your aura and space affinity, and… I have a whole explanation of it next chapter. Don't worry about it. It doesn't have a level. It's OP enough already.)**

So it stores items in my soul and I can just chuck an inventory at somebody else and store it in their soul to free up room in my soul… can I store a house in somebody's soul and pull an Ozpin? Just chill in their soul with that soul hearth spell? "Hehe… hehehehe…. AHAHAHAHAHA!" Summer looked at me apprehensively.

"What did you just do?" I ignored her.

[|||| == ||||]

 _3 years 11 months old_

Sadly the next town did have CCT but it was being shut down for upgrades to link to adjacent towns and their CCT. I think it was supposed to increase the speed or something. I couldn't understand some of the mumbo jumbo about dust tech. If it was a basic circuit I could probably get it. Electrical dust crystals are basically super batteries that can't be recharged I believe. See, this is why I need those books, which is why I'm in Vacuo now. Inner city, even.

Summer flashed her huntress I.D. and got us a bullhead over the ghettos and poorer parts of the city to a dock in the inner city. I have to say that bullheads are really impressive. They're quite fast. The pilot told me a bit about them when I played the part of a curious teen, as I was under the illusion and using wind to deepen my voice a bit. They can apparently go up to 240 miles an hour and the military ones can go even faster with the newest and most high tech Atlas ones going at up to 420 mph.

All bullheads regardless of build or design were equipped with a minimum of chain anti-infantry guns, a hunter emergency resupply kit, a survival kit, and a few parachutes. All bullheads, in times of crisis, were expected to fight grimm under military orders or transport hunters. The same was apparently expected under legal persuasion of those with unlocked auras and an able body and mind. It was an interesting system and a rather efficient one as well. All of the kingdoms had apparently adopted this policy.

Summer chimed in occasionally with something about the policies as well. Like that public areas like hospitals, schools, high government buildings, and really important locations were equipped with bunkers to hide in case of a grimm invasion. There were taxes for this, of course, but not many since the bunkers were nearly abandoned until an incursion. Just a yearly checkup and quarterly cleanings.

As for standing armies only Atlas had one and they rented them out. The other nations had a reserve guard to keep security and other things of that nature but nothing really usable offensively. On the other hand, Atlas had a poor hunter program. They typically used their military, specialists, or hired out foreign hunters to deal with the grimm. I asked if they had any machines to kill grimm and apparently the robot army hasn't been constructed yet though Atlas has publicly announced that they have development into 'mass production of battle droids'. Beacon and the other academies had training droids but they weren't very good at anything. Mostly they're just mannequins with some ability to dodge or block. Useful but not incredible.

Did I mention that the pilot offered some gummy fruit snacks? I was about to take them since I hadn't had anything sweet for a while but Summer stole them and went on our discussion of policies and armies with a mouthful of gummy sweets. The pilot snuck some over to me while she was distracted. I liked the guy.

When we finally landed I knew I had to act quickly. "So where will we be staying?" Summer spoke without thinking. She was busy staring at the tall buildings and mosaic of the cities painted rooftops.

"The sleeping sands hotel at obelisk street."

And with that I was gone. My blink skill had leveled up quite a bit. I could go about forty five yards. I had measured with summer and found that I could go an extra three yards per level. I was at level fifteen of blink now. I had focused on it during training with my inventory spell. It didn't have a level but I still had to try to use it. I figured out after a little testing that inventory was a little different than I imagined it.

For starters, inventory didn't just drop the items I inserted into my soul. It separated them into a little satellite dimension tied to my main pocket dimension in my soul. The items took away from the total space in my soul but unless I brought the items into my soul they'd be in their own little dimension, taking up only exactly how much volume they were made of.

Think of it this way if that's hard to grasp. My soul is a bubble. The size and space of it is dependant on my space affinity and aura size. Now, when I use inventory I take take the bubble and take a tiny bit of the fluid that comprises the bubble and make a far smaller bubble that sticks to it. The item I want to store goes into that smaller bubble. The smaller bubble is exactly the same amount of space as the item it is storing.

Now you have two bubbles. One big one and one small one holding an item. The big bubble is just a tiny bit smaller because it made the little bubble but it's still a really big bubble. Now I can go into the big bubble and change it to whatever shape I please too. I found this out through meditation. I don't really care about that in regards to my own soul though. Sure inventory is super useful but the soul hearth that was mentioned seems incredibly interesting to me.

If I could transport my physical body into another's soul I could use their own soul as a house. I could just chill in Summer's soul and do nothing. Not only would this give me shelter and a place to train but what is Summer going to do? Tear her soul open to get to me? Summer's not stupid. If I chill in her soul she can't do a damn thing about it to get to me. The same probably goes for Ozpin. I might be able to enter his host's soul and chill, actually. I'm manifesting their soul as a physical space so it could be reasoned that I could kill any unwanted passengers like a wizard parasite.

Come to think of it there's another benefit. Inside somebody's soul I can still use my soul and probably magic as well. I could chill in some random guy's soul and call him a wizard so I can just jump ship whenever he gets into danger. I could make magic happen in his soul. I'd be basically Ozpin but without the reincarnation but I could jump souls. Wow, there's one way to get immortality.

Anyways, I could jump in somebody and wizard it up from inside their soul. They'll fight physically and I'll fight magically. I could also give them a little boost to aura. Symbiosis. Actually, I'd prefer that Summer doesn't die. She's a good person. Perhaps I could chill in her soul and train while I give her some magical support. I could teleport out if things got too hot and Summer's about to die.

Come to think of it… hm, yes, that could work. A trade of sorts. Hmmm… yes that would solve everything. Oh absolutely that would work without a doubt. And a flatscreen too.

I snapped out of my brainstorming as I found a bookstore. I entered it without fuss. A tall and muscular man sat boredly behind the counter reading a book. He glanced at me before returning to his book.

I looked through the shelves and looked around for cameras. None? Perfect… I tapped a multitude of skill books, as many as I could find, and moved to the next shelf. I left with about thirteen skill books and a few books on science. I also sat on a really nice sofa. I practically sunk into it but it wasn't too soft. It would be critical for my master plan.

I wandered around for an hour and took as many books as I could find. There were plenty of other things I might need as well though. I took them all.

Weight didn't matter. Only volume. I had over ninety percent of my soul left after taking, let's see, sixty four skill books, two sofas, a table, two ready made beds and three sets of sheets, a wide assortment of clothes my size and a some that were Summer's size, and by some I mean about twenty of everything for her and even more for me. They weren't amazing clothes or anything. Just casual wear. I would have gotten some light armor but you needed to have an I.D. to even enter those types of stores.

I stole two hundred various metals that my observe skill said were good for stuff. One of them conducted mana super well apparently. People used it for some weapons that channeled semblances but it was better for mana. There were also some that were extremely light and strong or a few that were flexible and whatnot. Summer might appreciate them… or not considering they were stolen. Well I'm not going to tell her where they're from because I wasn't paying attention.

Besides those goods there were the things I took because I might need them. Two sets of blacksmithing tools, one of woodworking tools, a large amount of a few different kinds of wood, some more basic metals like iron and steel to grind up my metalworking skill, a modern forge to work all those metals, and dust. Just half of the selection from five stores. I was taking a lot it seemed but it wasn't really like that. Vacuo was a big place and I wasn't taking everything. Everyone I stole from could make their living from what I took. It would take some time to get back firmly on their feet but that was life.

Anyways, I made my way to obelisk street and asked for some directions. I got them and went my merry way to the inn. I asked for Summer and… "That was rude." Summer scolded. I grinned.

"That was worth it." Summer shook her head and left to the other room, where she was watching T.V.. I poked my head around into the other rooms. Another room with a futon, the entrance room with a table, and a bathroom with plumbing. Dear god I hadn't used plumbing in like four years now. I didn't actually use the bathroom with gamer's body though… some things have been sacrificed.

I sat down at the table and laid out the skill books on the table as I absorbed them. **Forestry, architecture, archery, tame creature, mining, digging, speed reading, haggling, forge papers, metalworking, assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, weapons designing, building, driving land vehicles, driving aircraft, driving watercraft,** and a plethora of other skills weren't exactly useful to me. Sure they might come in handy but they weren't exactly what I was looking for. Speed reading and architecture might be useful. I have plenty of other books to read to grind my INT and WIS. The other books would be more useful though.

 **High speed movement** (this replaced my dash skill. It's basically a sustained dash) **, tactics, persuasion, light armor, mechanics, aura transferring, aura suppressing, lip reading, grimm anatomy,** and **humanoid anatomy** were more my style. Still, though, they weren't what I was looking for. Sure, high speed movement was immensely useful although it sucked up aura suppressing and transferring could be useful as well. I'm pretty sure I could have learned aura transferring myself though.

Now there were the skills I was looking for. **Runes, enchant, dust usage, aura sensing, absorb dust, accelerate thought,** and **mimicry,** and **supplement** were goldmines. Ironically enough, the enchant and create golem were from fiction books. The runes skill was a catalogue of ancient symbols that haven't been deciphered yet. The catalogue was created to encourage cryptographers to crack the code. They haven't.

Mimicry was based on emulating a different voice. I'm confident that I can speak through the wind with a bit of practice. I might also get a spell for it.

Supplement's meaning was pretty clear as I opened it in my skills sheet. It was just fueling a body by aura alone in a way. It could supplement air just fine and could quell the negative effects of dehydration and starvation for a time. It also In my case it was like a rebreather. I could fuel my body without oxygen with the skill on. I immediately activated it. I could do so much with this! Within two minutes

I smiled as I looked at my new skills. It wasn't really a power boost but more like a boost to my immediate potential. I would have never learned many of these skills but now I knew what a cornerstone was, the proper way to hold a bow, where the butt of an assault rifle should sit when aiming, how to change gears in a car and what gears are, and plenty more. I would get to grinding these eventually. For now I had things to do. For now…

"Hey Summer!" I called.

"Yeah?" She called back.

"I've got one more thing to test before I can go to Vale. I need somebody with aura for this so I was wondering if you'd be up for it. If you're not I'll just kidnap a gang member by the way." Summer was silent for a moment. I could hear her sigh from my room at the other side of the hotel room.

Summer walked in and saw me putting the last few books back into my inventory. They weren't skill books. They were just books I was looking more in depth at. I had about forty of them and maybe twenty textbooks on various subjects.

"Alright. If it's not dangerous I don't really mind but if it is then I'll be coming with you so you don't hurt somebody." I nodded.

"So you know how inventory works but you don't actually know what it is." Summer was silent and I took that as a gesture to go on.

"Inventory is a space constructed in somebody's soul. Not by me but by everybody's innate affinity with space. It's more of a representation of your soul turned literal. I won't go into the specifics but it's like a big space where you can store stuff and, in this experiment, go into. Hopefully physically." Summer looked rather apprehensive.

"So you want to… go into my soul?" I nodded.

"I'm not going to do anything. I promise. I'll just poke around and see if I can change how your soul looks internally. If I can do that I want to see if I can cast spells from inside your soul. If I can do that I'll try putting my body in our shared inventory. I'm using the metabolise technique for the moment so oxygen isn't a problem." I was also creating more wind in my lungs with the produce element skill. It was my backup in case I couldn't use metabolise forever. I was pretty sure I could though.

"... Alright." Summer looked uncertain but I could appreciate that she was willing to take a small leap for me. I smiled.

"Thanks. Starting now."

"Wait, wha-" I touched Summer's aura with my own and activated the inventory spell but didn't move anything in particular. I could feel her aura though. It was big and VERY pure. It was warm and, how can I put this, motherly. Like a sort of protectiveness and a willingness to lash out against threats.

I looked past her personality to her soul space. I could kind of see it. It wasn't a very large part of her soul at all. I'm pretty sure souls lie outside the laws of space and time, though. I activated inventory on her soul not just to interface with it but to enter her space. I could feel a sort of pulling sensation and I could feel Summer gasp and glow a bright red. The soul strand I had connected to her with was streaming into her quickly. I blacked out then and was somewhere else.

[|||| = **Next level** = ||||]


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:**

[|||| = **LEVEL 5** = ||||]

 ***Ding!*A new spell has been created! - Soul hearth**

" _ **I was kicked out of my parent's house so I'm going to live in Jellal's soul for a while. I hope to see you soon."**_

 **-Letter from Freya Earnest, apprentice spatial wizard to her friend**

 **Title gained: Passenger**

 **-You and your host may share all of your mana and/or aura or just a portion of it. This must be consensual.**

 **-The host shares all of your stat boosting effects from skills (other than aura) and you theirs should you and your host wish it with no dampening to your own stat boosting skills. Physical based trait buffs on INT and WIS possessed by the host will be shared should the auras be shared.**

 **-You will slowly gain your host's affinities as well as your own and vice versa. This process is accelerated by sharing aura pools**

 **-With mutual consent you may share physical senses with your host**

 **-Increases INT and WIS by 20% while in a host**

 **-Should the host die you will be ejected from their body and every physical object in their soul space, should there be anything, will transfer to yours**

I immediately set on that amazing title and wondered at the effects for a moment. Getting Summer's affinities? Yes please. The extra INT and WIS were also very nice. I'm cool with sharing my stat boosting skills as well. I'll keep my pools seperate for now. I'm pretty sure Summer's doing something with her aura and mana pool growing but I'm a little miffed that mine aren't growing too. I want the INT and WIS buffs from her eyes and the insanity of her aura. I'd gladly share. Summer and I working as one would be OP. Like a dragonball fusion. Just annihilate everything.

Summer's aura and mana, and I could only feel her aura before through aura sensing; now I could feel her mana as well, were instantly expanding under the effects of the title. By almost seventy five percent. There was a lot more space here now! It's only going to keep expanding as my space affinity leaked into her as well. I put that all out of mind and looked around.

I wasn't really seeing. It was a lot like mage sight. I was looking in all directions. I immediately concluded this was Summer's soul. It was a pure white in every direction but I knew there was a wall over there somewhere. It was just as pure a white as the rest.

I set to the second part of the experiment. I tried shifting the space in the soul. As soon as I could I felt Summer's soulscape recoil. _"Abyss! You're… in my soul?"_ I inwardly cheered. _"Oh, you're… happy? That feels weird. I felt like I was happy but it was really distant. Weird."_

" _Summer can you hear me?"_ I thought.

" _Yes! I can hear your words! Wow this is an odd experience. Definitely one of the weirdest I've ever been in. Now Abyss… Why is my soul almost twice as large?! I feel like a goddess!"_ Summer seemed positively elated by the the boost in power. I felt the same. If my plans go through… Mmm…

" _Our souls seem to be augmenting each other. There's a sort of mental switch to turn them off if you want."_ I turned them off and I could hear Summer gasp over the link and I turned them back on.

" _Please don't do that! I like the super aura! Taking it away and giving it back feels super weird and uncomfortable!"_ Summer pleaded.

" _Sorry. I just wanted to show you that I could. I could merge our aura pools - not our souls - and you could draw from mine and I could draw from yours. I'm not going to do that now though."_ Only because of Summer's artificial mage trait though. If my mana leaks to hers her core will start the road to working properly. Sorry Sum but that can't happen yet.

I reached for my inventory and felt all the items I had gathered. I materialized a book as an experiment and saw it appear in front of me. _"Whoa! What was that?!"_

" _I tried placing an item from my inventory in your own, which I'm inside of, by the way. Do you mind if I change your soulscape? It's just a pure white square at the moment."_ I heard nothing for a moment before a feeling of agreement came from Summer. I sent a feeling of appreciation back and tried changing the soulscape like I did before.

I tried briefly to merge our soul spaces but I could immediately feel that we had to be sharing our auras to do that so I didn't push it.

There was a little resistance at first but it gave quickly as Summer pulled herself back. In a few seconds the soul space changed to the hotel mirroring what we were in. _"Whoa… this is kind of trippy. I don't think there's a word for how I'm feeling but it's kind of like being petted and molded like clay at the same time. Super weird."_ I didn't respond but tried a few things. Right now the room was brightly lit. I tried making a few shadows to make it more realistic. Summer's soul gave and the room grew more realistic as I made more details. I made the lamp light up when the cord was pulled. The fridge was stocked with sodas and there was a door right there.

The difference between the book from my inventory and the other items was easily apparent. Not in how it looked but in how it felt. I could see with my weird 'seeing' that it was full and real in a way that the fabrications in Summer's soul weren't.

Trying out something a little different I activated my mage sight skill for real. For a moment I had the splitting headache of two three dimensional spaces being seen in my mind at the same time.

" _Ow! What was that?!"_ I groaned over our mental link.

" _I have a sort of spell that lets me see through ambient mana around me. I can see about a mile normally but I'm getting a three dimensional of your soul space and with the miles of busy Vacuo on top of that…"_ Summer sent a pang of sympathy my way and some slight irritation at having to experience an echo of the headache.

I tried this time to make a body for myself. It was really easy actually. My soul was easy to change the form of. I do it all the time after all. I just made myself as I appear under the illusion. I just added my ears. Suddenly I was confined to the experience of seeing in a line again. I activated my mage sight and started small with just what Summer was seeing. Then I expanded it to see the hotel room and then the whole hotel. I could always filter out most of the useless information thanks to my high INT and practice but now it was easier since I didn't have to focus on walking or anything like that.

" _Ahhh, much better."_ I sighed. Summer rolled her eyes.

" _I can see you rolling your eyes you know."_ I commented dryly. She rolled them again and I tried sending an image through our link. She giggled and I think she got it. This is pretty fun.

I suppose I could have asked to share her senses through my title but this allows me to see better than her eyes. I might try seeing through her eyes to experience the amazing eyesight she has from the aural sense enhancement she taught me and all of her insane stats. Her eyesight must be insane.

" _Alright. Just one last thing. Could you please touch my body?"_

I realized how bad that sounded. _"I'm not a pedophile."_ Summer immediately snarked. I sent the eye rolling image again and she poked my body's cheek. I inventoried my body and immediately deposited it on the bed in Summer's soul and used supplement on my body. I inspected my body closely but could find no asphyxiation or anything of the sort. I was fine and my aura regenerated plenty fast enough to keep myself full of oxygen. I could technically stay in here forever so long as Summer would let me.

I pushed my aura into my body and I went in fine. A majority of my aura was based in my body rather than spread throughout Summer's soul. Summer's soul filled in the gaps of aura my soul wasn't filling. I shook my head around and tried moving. Yup, this was my physical body alright. I entered and exited my body a few times and found that I was in no danger. I put myself into and out of my inventory as well with supplement on and I was fine. Good! I could feel my aura connected strongly to my body as well. I wasn't a bodiless entity of aura. I was more like an astral projection… I think. Well, my aura is rooted in my body. I'm just sort of branching out a little.

" _Alright. I just have one more thing to do."_ I told Summer. I then tried to materialise a dagger of projected mana from Summer's hand and she nearly dropped it as she jumped with a tiny "Eep!". Well, that's what I think she said. I can only see with my mana sight. It looked like she said "Eep" though. That's what my lips reading skill said. It disappeared when it hit the ground.

" _... really Summer?"_ I asked incredulously. _"Were you just scared of a knife in your hand?"_

" _Shut up! I didn't know what you were doing!"_ Summer retorted. I sent the eye rolling image again. Is it just me or was it like we were texting and using emojis as images? Weird. It's kind of fun what with how intimate the link is. Nothing can really be misunderstood.

Now I tried something I hadn't really considered until I got in here. I made a string of mana and made an exo skeleton. Summer shot me with curiosity in our link and I gave the feeling of patience. Say, that was a pretty complex emotion. Huh.

The exo skeleton fully formed and I tried controlling it autonomously from my mana string. It moved easily. Now for the real test. I filled the skeleton in with mana to look like a person and moved it a little. Then the spell changed a little and I heard the familiar ding.

 ***Ding!*A new spell has been created! - Remote avatar**

" _ **I make remote avatars for plenty of things. I and my friends use them to fight each other, I make one into a mouse to scare Lily, when I don't want to deliver a message I control one to do it for me, and a hundred other things."**_

 **-Uriel Welsh, apprentice golemancer**

 **-Warning! The Avatar takes 2500 AP capacity from your pool to function. The AP capacity will return when it is dispelled. From there on out it takes MP to retain itself.**

I felt a few small changes. I found that I could see through the avatar's eyes but I didn't care to. Mage sight FTW. I could also control it regardless of the mana string. To finish the test I tried putting something in my inventory from the avatar. A pamphlet on the table. It appeared directly in my inventory. So our auras were still linked. Interesting.

Just to see if I could I tried to tap into the emulate skill and some wind manipulation to speak through the wind. " _The d_ **og** **cro** _ssed the st_ **reet** _."_ the voice came out warbled and with an odd intonation in parts.

 ***Ding!*A new spell has been created! - Wind whisper**

" _ **I chat with my friends from the other side of Vale with this."**_

 **-Adept wind mage Carell Wispus**

Good! I'll practice that. It's a useful spell for certain and I can't be bothered with a scroll. Come to think of it, could I replicate a scroll with light beams carrying an image and wind whisper supplying audio? I'll consider it for later.

I cut the connection between me and the avatar and I tossed the pamphlet out of my soul space and guided it to the table with some wind.

Finally I made two strings of mana and aura from Summer and connected them to two random chairs and tried to put them in my inventory. I couldn't do it with either of them. I suppose to go into my inventory they had to directly meet with my aura and, by extension, my soul space. The avatars were connected to my aura, as evidenced by the shared inventory and being able to return to my aura pool. Useful. I'll try to just use things that Summer touches mostly. Making an avatar for everything would just be kind of wasteful.

To make up for the strings I tried bringing the objects closer to me rather than getting closer to them. I casted warp on the pamphlet again and stretched it's space towards me. I then easily put it in my inventory. That's probably as close to a pickup from range as I was going to get.

I popped my body out and used wind on myself to hover my body to the futon. I then exited Summer's aura and felt a brief lapse in consciousness as I reappeared in my body. "Uuuugh." I murmured. My head kind of hurt. I rubbed it and sat up. "Alright. So a successful test. Thank you Summer." I looked to her. She was lying on the floor unconscious.

… I think the shock from her losing all of that aura from my buffs suddenly deactivating knocked her out. I used a little mage sight and wind manipulation to lift her into her bed, undress her, and tuck her in. Vacuo was hot. I didn't want her to get heatstroke.

I let my aching head rest and fell asleep without much trouble.

[|||| == ||||]

"What the?!" I heard a voice that sounded like Summer's cry out. I blinked blearily and looked at the clock. Six forty eight. A normal time for us to wake up at. "Abyss! Did you undress me?! How did I fall asleep?!" I groaned a little and sat up.

"You were knocked out from the sudden change in your aura after I stopped augmenting it. I'll be more careful next time. I used some wind manipulation to get your clothes off. It was not easy but I figure you'd have preferred that to me touching you with my hands."

"Oh. Thanks little wizard. I'm going to take a shower. You should too. We both kind of stink from the sand and road." I groaned a little more.

After a nice shower and dressing myself in some casual clothes that I stole I made my way out of the shower. "Where did you get those clothes?" Summer asked with some suspicion. She was stuffing some laundry into a sack. Probably to take to a laundromat. She was in her casual outdoor clothes, as I called them. A loose white T shirt and jeans.

"They were in my inventory." I half-lied. Summer narrowed her eyes. "I don't remember where I stole them from." I said honestly. Summer growled angrily.

"I dealt with plenty of this from Qrow and Raven. Even Tai joined in sometimes. Just don't steal anything really expensive or just because you want to."

I paused. Well… those metals I stole while invisible were marked as 'Extremely valuable under my observe… then there was all the furniture I thought I would like… Summer doesn't have to know. If she does find out I'll bribe her with super metals. That should work.

"Alright. I won't steal anything I don't need starting now." Summer stilled but seemed to force herself to relax.

"What. Did. You. Take?" I stopped my walking away… I took an ingot of something called blue steel, apparently extremely light and hard. Also very flexible if forged right. Summer's eyes widened and narrowed. "You owe me some of those. Don't take any more than somebody can sustain and don't take when you don't need it for something. Deal?"

"What about bad guys? Or what you would consider bad guys?"

"They're fine."

"Deal."Summer smiled at me and returned to sorting the laundry.

"So it there anything you're doing today?" Summer asked. I thought for a moment. I would need lien in case I need to go it alone. I'll take from the local gangs and underworld, I think. Just stealing from gangs was fine. They were totally bad guys.

"I'll need to go out and handle some things."

"Would you mind if I come? I only have to go to the laundromat and call my kids and I'll be done with everything for today. I'm happy to help you you know." I thought for a moment… No. I would be killing the eviler side of the criminal underworld's gang members. The ones who killed and ruined families. I would spare the ones that just extorted and stole but the really bad ones with innocent blood were fair game.

On the other hand, playing passenger with Summer might be good for the future…

"No. Sorry but you can't come along." Summer pouted.

"Alright. Meet me back here at night though." I nodded and blinked away.

[|||| == ||||]

It didn't take long to find a gang member. I simply observed people and looked at their biographies. I couldn't do that for people a higher level than me but lower levels offered a bit of a boost to observe, thich let me see their entire stats sheet and all of their deeds. It took a half hour before I found one. I waited for him to be alone and out of sight, which was when he entered a house, probably his, and locked the door. He wasn't guilty of much. A few robberies, extortion, and wounding a poor fellow but that was an accident according to his bio.

I blinked behind him and kicked his knee. He buckled and screamed in fright. I stilled the air around his mouth and the sound sounded more like a high pitched cat's meow than a scream. I knocked the man to the floor and put a hard light knife to his neck.

"The locations of the Frenzy kids. Now." The emulate skill made my voice rough and intimidating. The man spluttered in fright and I pressed the knife a little harder. "East quarter! 3rd street and I! Please! Don't-" I blinked out and started making my way to east street and K.

The building wasn't hard to spot. It was rowdy and masqueraded as a small casino. I wondered if they had a licence but brushed the thought away. It didn't matter. I put on a black mask I stole yesterday and went in invisibly with muffled footsteps. With my sneak and muffled sounds I was silent to just about everyone. I strided past the false front. Nobody in the front was really guilty of anything bad. It was small stuff. Mage sight revealed a basement where the gang was. It was not a pretty scene.

Two men were having their way with a woman. Observe revealed that they were taking advantage of her gambling debt. Lucky me, a meeting was going on. The boss was there smoking a cigar and meeting with other gangsters high in the gang. A cork board on the wall of the boss' office showed a map of the underworld and the headquarters and what information they had as well as a list of their manpower and such.

I made my way down the stairs and blinked inside the first room. Three men were playing poker. One had three counts of rape, one murder, and petty crime. He had aura as well. The second had murder but nothing else too bad. I might have even let him leave if it wasn't a little boy he killed. He had aura as well. The third was clean enough. He was a spare bartender that was taking a break. Only counts were extortion, some taking advantage of women when the real gangsters were done, and a little forgery. No aura. He wasn't a good person by any means but he wasn't unredeemable.

I readied twenty hard light and wind arrows and stilled the wind in a dome around us. I released invisibility and released the arrows at the same time. I also choked the bartender with wind. The two gangsters had their auras shattered with fourth and sixth arrows and died on the fifth and sixth. The bartender's eyes bulged and I went up to him and knocked him out with a projected hard light club.

 **Two humans level 26 and 28 killed! You gained 13590 XP! You leveled up 3x! 15 points awarded.**

The door was soon locked with a key on the bartender and the lock broken. Just in case.

There were six other rooms around. First I would deal with the thugs taking advantage of the woman. One had plenty of crimes including pedophelia. No murder though. The other had plenty of murder, ten exactly. They died and I knocked the woman out.

 **Two humans level 24 and 36 killed! You gained 17300 XP! You leveled up 2x! 10 points awarded.**

Level thirty six now… humans offer a lot of XP. Strangely enough I don't feel bad. I don't mind killing those that I know are guilty of terrible things. I'm not doing this to clean the streets or anything though. This is a small time gang. It's pretty clear from the territory map that there are three major gangs with professionals in charge. Huntsman level opponents. These guys were similar to preliminary hunter school dropouts that went a little farther in strength and found crime.

Anyways, I feel strangely alright with this. These are bad people. Killing them isn't really bad or good. Perhaps I've grown desensitized to violence from the grimm, fighting for my life, and that first kill early on. Whatever the reason… I'm alright with this.

I moved to next room. Three members. Two of them were mostly innocent. Well, one was having relations with his cousin but it was apparently consensual. It weirded me out somewhat but I dismissed that. Only one guy was guilty. He was seemingly the guy to go to when you wanted to kidnap someone. Children included.

 **You have killed a level 27 human! 6170 xp rewarded. You leveled up! 5 points awarded.**

The last room was going to be the hardest. There were seven seats around a pool table filled. The boss, who was a toughie with some actual aura to break, was guilty of plenty of extortion and such but surprisingly no actually terrible crimes himself. However, he knowingly ordered many of the serious crimes the gang had committed.

Nobody around that table was actually innocent. Two were like the boss. No serious crimes themselves but plenty of crimes ordered and some lives ruined one way or another. The rest? Totally bad guys.

To do this I actually needed to be crafty. And for that… well there was one room left. An armory of sorts. The others were the bosses office and a bathroom. The armory had some pistols, a silenced scoped rifle, and some sub machine guns. None of them had alternate forms. There was also some gasoline, a generator that was running for the whole building, and a workbench to fix things and tinker. Most importantly, though, were the explosives. Dust grenades with burn and energy to make them explode, some flashbangs with light dust, three incendiaries, and a remote explosive. Observe said they were extorted from a military gun runner with the rifle for his rather sizable debt.

I took the incindiaries and three explosives and, after some consideration, I left the rest. I then proceeded to silence the door to the pool table room and lock it before breaking the lock. To go a little beyond I tried out a new skill. Runes. I wrote the rune I knew meant durable on the door and felt it take hold. I then tried enchantment. It was a moment's work to push some mana into the door and enchant it to be more heavy. I made the hinges more durable as well.

I abused my inventory a little to carry furniture to the door and barricade it. I got a level in the build skill along the way. That got a chuckle out of me. I locked every other door and did the same rune, enchantment, and barricade scheme on the entrance door to the basement. I also coated the doorframe there in ice to keep smoke in.

Before leaving I grabbed all the hard lien I could from a safe in the boss' office. I didn't count it but there was plenty.

I soaked the barricade outside the pool room in the gasoline from the armory and popped an incendiary grenade on it as I teleported out. The fire would wipe away the evidence and asphyxiate the gangsters. None of them had a semblance as well so they would certainly die.

 ***Ding!* For an effective use of skills and a solid plan of exit you gain 1 WIS and 1 INT**

I made my way across the city to the next minor gang. As I was making my way out I got the confirmation.

 **Seven humans and faunus levels 25, 27, 29, 31, 34, 36, and 47 killed! You gained 69050 XP! You leveled up 6x! 30 points awarded.**

… People offer so much XP…

By the end of the day I had killed off plenty more humans and faunus in four other gangs. I was very careful to make sure the mostly innocent ones were safe. One gang was small time, for example. Only some muggings, blackmail, extortion, robberies, and a murder in self defense. They were all fine. I didn't even touch them. That first gang I killed was one of the worst ones around actually. There was one bigger and equally as nasty called the Djinn that I had to kill off. I stayed away from the major gangs though. They were too large and powerful for me to risk getting found out by.

By the end of the day I had gained forty two levels in total. I had lost count of my kills somewhere along the way. My first words were "Holy shit". Maybe having three hundred fifty two points was a little absurd. I should splurge a little and buy some stuff pretty soon… or relax for a while.

 **LIEN – 201, 692 L**

Ah, right. There was also that. Not an insane amount of cash but since I had no taxes or anything I was set for a long time. I got some dust too… does beacon have a tuition? Hm, I'll ask Summer if it ever comes up.

Gangs won't be really active out of fear for a while. Possibly even a year or two. I'm not sure if what I just did would be seen as extreme vigilantism or terrorism but I don't think I really care either way. I truly do think what I did was good for a fair number of people. Vacuo crime will spring up later though. Crime is just something that happens. That doesn't mean I can't stop it for a minute though.

[|||| == ||||]

After bathing the blood off of me with extra strong soap I blinked back into the hotel room. When I saw Summer casually clipping and painting her nails I knew she hadn't heard the news about the culling I had done. "I'm back!" I said with faked happiness. Summer glanced up with a small relaxed smile.

"Oh hi! How did whatever you were doing go?"

"Pretty well. I may have gone a little overboard but I finished what I wanted to do. I'm ready for Vale now by the way." There you are. Misdirection.

Summer shot up at that. "Really?!" She exclaimed happily. I nodded. "Great! I actually checked the flights a while ago out of boredom. There's a flight at midnight to Patch! We can take a ferry or a bullhead to Vale after I see my family. Do you have everything in your inventory?" I glanced at the clock. It was ten o'clock. Mage sight revealed nothing around the room.

"I'm ready." I confirmed. Summer looked about to grab me and run but she stopped and looked thoughtful.

"Actually… the flight is kind of expensive… do you think you could stay in my soul again? It's also easier to get through security when you don't have a child with you. I get to use my huntsman license that way. I smiled. I pulled up a chair from the table in the other room, set the passenger title, and went limp with my head on the table as I possessed Summer.

I set up the mage sight in a flash and was pleasantly unsurprised when I saw that Summer's soul was as I'd left it. Summer was already poking my cheek so I threw supplement on and kept my body in the inventory.

" _Do you mind if I change your soul a bit? I just made it the hotel room last time as a test. I'd prefer something more comfortable."_

" _Go ahead. Just don't screw with anything important."_ I sent the rolling eyes image and went to work. Before I could really start, though, Summer asked me something.

" _Could you augment my soul, muffle me and put me under invisibility? There's something I always wanted to do."_ She said a little nervously. I thought about if for a moment and decided on a compromise.

" _I'm pretty sure we can share senses. I've got a sort of mental trigger here. Do you mind if I share them all?"_ Summer was silent for a few seconds.

" _Oh there it is! It feels kind of like my semblance. Is this it?"_ Suddenly I received a burst of unfamiliar senses. I could see in detail even more accurate than mage sight. The wind against my skin was easy to keep track of. The lightest shift in it was discernible. My limbs felt filled with a raw strength and lighter than mine have ever been. I gasped in shock out of reflex and broke away from the connection a little and the details blurred a bit and became duller. I eased myself into the new senses slowly.

" _Summer you did the exact same thing I did last time to knock you out. I'm pretty sure I'd be unconscious from information overload if I was in my body."_

" _Sorry! I thought it was like a sort of slider I could slowly ease you into! I didn't mean to give it to you all at once!"_

" _It's fine. Now that we both know how much that sucks I'll augment your aura. If you care to augment mine it should be a similar mental switch. Keep a firm hold of it this time."_ I then augmented her slower than last time. It was kind of like slowly turning a light switch. You could do it but it would only ever be on or off.

Summer's vision went blurry and adjusted between blurry and really sharp. It made me nauseous as much as it did her. I pulled back from the connection a bit to lessen the effect on myself. _"Coward."_ Summer accused.

" _You're just jealous I don't have to face the nausea."_ I said with a smirk image. She pouted. It was weird to feel Summer's lips pout through her. " _Wow your lips are soft."_ I mused. Summer gave me a smirk and I could feel something happen to my aura.

It wasn't like activating my aura. It was more like giving me access to what made her aura strong in a weird way. I could my aura multiply in size by two and a half times. My magic pool multiplied by half. I immediately opened my stats.

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Passenger**

 **Level – 77**

 **HP – 239.85/239.85**

 **AP – 8712 (+435.6/min)**

 **MP - 6120 (+306/min)**

 **STR - 28 (+95%)(30%)= 16.38**

 **VIT - 39 (+105%)(30%)= 23.985**

 **DEX - 44 (+110%)(30%)= 27.72**

 **INT - 60 (+20% + 50%)= 102**

 **WIS - 66 (+20% + 150%)= 145.2**

 **LUK - 32 (+0%)= 32**

 **POINTS - 358**

 **LIEN – 201, 692 L**

Oh! That wisdom! It's so beautiful! My aura's more than doubled! It's almost a third of Summer's aura at it's base! But… with my magical soul augmenting her buffs it grew about a fourth and her mana grew far more. Actually it's probably her mana that caused her to pass out. My mana isn't leaking into hers but the strain from her screwed up artificial magical core probably has more debuffs than just a quarter of her true mana. I'm pretty sure aura isn't just as described as well. It's more complex than that. Other skills are probably similar.

" _Uhh, are you going to make me invisible and stuff or…"_

" _Oh! Sorry. My aura grew about twice and a half as big as before. It's because of your eyes I'm pretty sure."_

" _Oh sure that makes perfect-WHAT?!"_

" _Yeah. Your eyes are helping out my soul to grow. I mean, my soul is composed of mana and aura. Your eyes have a huge affinity for purity. They'd likely hurt me if I had a corruption element but I don't so they're helping me so long as you keep that switch flipped."_

" _... fine. Totally not fair that you get so much more of a boost. And I thought my boost was impressive."_

I sent the eye rolling image at her annoyance at being shown up and gave her a muffling effect and invisibility. I was confused when she ran around the hotel to a ladder and when she climbed it I was working on reconstructing her soul space. When she reached the top She looked to the edge, where there was a several story drop to the next building on the other side of the street. Beyond that a few miles away you could vaguely see the sleek and small airplanes of remnant. They actually called them airships but whatever.

Suddenly everything clicked and I felt like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. Summer took a running start off the roof FAST. Not top speed but really really fast. _"Now wait, Summer, don't you thi-AAAAH!"_ Summer ignored me as she jumped off the roof.

The air howled in our ears as we fell. Summer tucker her feet in and as we dropped onto the building Summer's semblance flared and Summer made a portal. She dropped into the portal and we flew back upwards and were airborne again. "Woohooo!" Summer screamed.

" _This is… really nice actually. Mind if I make us go faster though?"_

" _Be my guest. Just keep it simple so I can predict out landings easily. I don't want to stress about it."_

I tried out my new aura and mana to blow a strong wind behind Summer. I mean a really strong wind. Added up I had about 750 mana and aura regeneration per minute. Only about six hundred eighty were available because of my sustain aura technique and the invisibility and muffle combo. I went over that to roughly a thousand per minute and pushed us along. Summer whooped in happiness and performed some acrobatics in the air. She flipped, twisted, and dived towards the ground. I stopped pushing with the wind as she skydived down into a portal to emerge the other way around into the air, where I helped push us along again.

Summer played around with various poses. I dropped the still winds to muffle her to save some mana. some people looked around in confusion as they heard Summer's cries of joy. She was still invisible though so we were fine.

After maybe ten minutes of this we arrived. Summer was laughing and looking thoroughly windblown. She straightened out her long hair as best she could and I casted an illusion to make her more presentable after dropping her invisibility. I used my spare regeneration to grind my buffs and spells on my body in Summer's soul.

"Now… this shouldn't be too hard." Summer said out loud. I sent a feeling of agreement. We had no luggage after all and a huntress licence, which Summer implied got her through security or sped up the process somehow. My bets are on no security.

Summer strided up to a clerk handing out tickets and showed her licence. "Patch please for midnight. No luggage." The clerk took the licence and swiped it wordlessly. It beeped and he passed it and a slip of paper that was printed out of the machine. Summer took them and checked the ticket. It looked pretty similar to a plane ticket from earth but some of the terms were different. Terminals were called roundabouts and a few other quirks like that. We were at RAB (roundabout) 12, which Summer found with an experienced traveller's eye. That is to say, she read the signs.

In my experience the food and random shops in airports were always behind security. In remnant, though, the food and stuff were first. People could mill about and go through security when they wanted to sit and wait in a less crowded area or they wanted to catch their boarding flight.

Summer went right to security and showed her licence. They let her through without fuss so long as she informed them about any explosives she had on her. Summer showed her thin shortsword and a pouch of dust she had on her and they let her through. I didn't bother to let her know about my dust. I had no intention of scaring anybody or letting Summer know about that unless she asked.

The time was around ten thirty and we had nothing to do so I thought of something fun to try. _"Want to see what I've done with your soul? I can probably pull you in if you meditate and let me. I've got some board games I made from hard light."_

" _What?! Yes! Do you have chess?"_

" _Obviously."_

" _I'll start meditating now. Try to pull me in! "_

[|||| = **Next level** = ||||]


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:**

[|||| = **LEVEL 6** = ||||]

To say I pimped out Summer's soul space would be an understatement. I remodeled it from the ground up. I had taken only the best furniture I could find. I had to assemble some of it with Remnant's IKEA equivalent but it was easy with the build skill, which leveled up again.

Summer gave me a lot to work with as well. With my buffs on her she had over 27k aura so 27 cubic meters. If I cut down the roof to make it more of a building than a cube it was cozy.

The rooms weren't walled with gold or anything. They had white plaster walls and some windows showing a scene I occasionally changed at will. I had only done a meadow with a tree so far, which was a little boring, but again, I'm not a very over the top person.

I had four rooms in total. First was a bedroom, which was where my body would sleep when I wasn't using it. It had a nice feather bed I stole in the middle of a lengthier wall and a dresser and a tiny walk in closet. I wouldn't ever need a TV so I had a screen of hard light projected onto the wall to watch Summer's antics.

Next was the living room. A table for six and two couches with a coffee table in the middle. Pretty simple. I stored some board games and a few decks of cards in a cupboard I mounted on the shelf.

Third was what I called the garden. This is the only place that I actually warped reality for.

I made it so that I had fresh and soft green grass underfoot as well as a few flowers. The sky was always night filled with shining stars, an aurora boreallis, and a full moon, which Remnant didn't have. I missed my moon. I put a lot of detail into the sky even if it was fake.

I made water from mana and put it in a cooler off to the side. I enchanted the cooler to be cold. I just needed to occasionally dump heat affiliated mana into the enchantment.

I put down some exercise equipment I had stolen if I wanted to work my physical body and a sofa to gaze at the stars and considered it a job well done.

Lastly was a very snug and small room I called my study. A nice wooden desk and office chair off to the corner facing inwards, a beanbag for reading, and a bookshelf. All real furniture as well. I deposited all of the ingots in cubbies in the wall.

I was pushing the limits of Summer's soul space with those four rooms despite not being very big. I had to keep the ceilings low to save space and the corners of the workout room sloped inwards to give the study more space.

I had a few other plans as well if Summer gained my space affinity, which I had a feeling would take a while. Well, whatever.

[|||| == ||||]

" _I'll start meditating now. Try to pull me in! "_

I felt Summer's aura calm down quickly and become docile and free of any resistance to me manipulating it.

I pulled her soul inwards and felt Summer's aura have a presence in her soul space. I shaped her into her human form and let go of her in the bedroom.

Summer opened her eyes and immediately said "Whoa."

"Hi." I said amusedly. She looked around a little and walked out to the living room.

"Nice with the couches. I thought about doing something like that at my home in Patch but I never got around to it. Tai is too busy with chores, the kids, and teaching at Signal to get around to anything like remodeling."

Summer looked around a little more and glanced at the boardgames and left to the study rather than the garden.

Summer immediately jumped onto the beanbag with a laugh. "Ooh! This is nice!" I walked in and just watched her with a smile.

Summer's eyes went wide when she looked at the cubbies in the wall filled with the super expensive metals. The bookshelf mostly full was an afterthought.

"Oh my dust… is that all real?" I grinned.

"Everything in here but the walls and floor are from my inventory. Don't jump too high by the way. I had to sacrifice height for width and length."

"Whoa… Can I hang with you in here when I'm unconscious or even when I'm awake I'd love to just be in here. Can I make a forge? There's so much I can do with this metal given the chance. "

"We don't have any more space in your soul. This is all there is."

"What?!" Summer looked to me with wide eyes.

"Can we get more?!"

"I'm working on it. It might take a while though."

Summer pouted. "Fine." she sent a loving gaze to the metals. "Wait for me my sweet!" and with that she hopped out of the bag and walked into the garden. I heard a gasp and walked in on Summer looking with awe at the sky.

The stars glimmered like jewels, the moon a pale sun, and the aurora shimmered like a snake made of different lights in the sky.

"Abyss what… How…" Summer stumbled back and was falling down. I stretched my soul to the sofa, grabbed it with my inventory, and put it under her.

Summer didn't even notice as she gazed in awe at the sky. "The moon… How…" I smiled. That's not really the sky. It's a wall I made in it's image. A whole sky with stars that shine and a moon that isn't torn."

Summer was silent for a moment. "I've seen paintings and pictures and a hundred expressions of the sky being whole. Nothing, and I mean nothing, has ever compared me for this. It's… Otherworldly. Ethereal. Majestic… I'm going to lay here for a while."

I smiled and brought a recliner beside Summer to watch the sky. I paid only some attention through mage sight to the real world.

[|||| == ||||]

"She didn't even try?" I asked with a smirk on my face.

"Nope! And that's why Goodwitch wears a miniskirt!" I laughed at the story and the blackmail I was getting on everybody. I had Ruby, Yang, and Tai down. There were only embarrassing stories to piss off Raven off. Still useful.

Apparently Goodwitch had been a senior two years ahead of beacon from Summer and she and Sum shared social circles.

Raven had been incredibly susceptible to stupid and crazy maneuvers for a while. She was a very calculating person but not the most empathetic. Summer and the others fixed this issue not by getting close to her but by beating the crap out of her with illogical combat maneuvers she couldn't understand.

Raven had been so distraught about such a weakness that she put a massive amount of effort into getting to understand others better and it showed. According to Summer anyways.

Taiyang had had a crush on Raven for a while and decided to act 'as cool as she was' to catch her attention. Qrow 'helped' by putting him in 'cool' situations. Like wearing a baseball cap backwards, telling more puns than usual, and using a skateboard.

Raven worked hard to avoid Tai because of just how uncomfortable being around him made her. Tai took this as signs that she was developing a crush and worked harder. Qrow eventually took pity on Tai and told the truth.

There was plenty more embarrassing stories besides and I was writing down all of them on a leather journal with a remote clone.

"Alright. Your flight to patch is here in a few minutes so you'll have to go now." I said sadly. If only I could collect more blackmail but no.

"What?! Already?!" I nodded and Summer looked disappointed. I cut the connection to my remote clone at the absence of blackmail to write.

"We can still talk when you're out there remember?" Summer widened her eyes a little.

"Oh yeah! But I'd break down laughing in the middle of the airport. I have to say no." I nodded understandingly.

"... So how do I get out of here?" Summer asked. I waved my hand and tossed her aura out of the soul space. In mage sight her aura activated for a moment and she opened her eyes in the real world.

I turned my attention from Summer and the routine of the airport and went back to my experiments. I was grinding up a few skills right now but no more than normal. I had aura enhancements on my body and supplement on it as well. I had aura suppressing on myself and Summer since I could use it on others. It leveled faster.

It had occurred to me, though, that spatial presence negation would make me phase through matter but Sum's soul wasn't made of matter. I activated the spell on a bit of water I made and watched it fall to the floor and just act as normal water would.

I instantly activated the skill on my body and saw my body fall to the floor through the bed. I deactivated the skill and placed myself on a nice part of the floor out of the way. Finally a way to grind that skill. Now I just needed a way to get my wind affinity up and fly… I wonder if my points could help? They're so tempting… Just seventy four points, almost a fifth of what I have at most, and I'd have two kickass new skills - maybe more - and my stats could help me plan for the future.

Actually… I'll be meeting with Ozpin pretty soon. He's dangerous in every sense of the word. I can't bind myself to him as an ally. I don't want to close doors to Salem if I don't get along with Ozpin. I doubt I'll use the door but… I really want to do it. It would make some sense to do it. Am I just being plain greedy be hoarding the points?… fuck it. I can go on another killing spree of the worst of humanity if I need more points. The points aren't doing anything for me and I could use them.

" _Summer I'm going to have to switch off my buffs for a moment. I'm doing something."_

" _What?! Ah just be careful."_ I could feel Summer's worry over our link. I sent a calm smile to her. I wasn't going to die or anything.

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Passenger**

 **Level – 77**

 **HP – 239.85/239.85 [Pending update]**

 **AP – 14,800 (+740/min)**

 **MP - 10,800 (+540/min)**

 **STR - 28 (+95%)(30%)= 16.38 [Pending update]**

 **VIT - 39 (+105%)(30%)= 23.985[Pending update]**

 **DEX - 44 (+110%)(30%)= 27.72[Pending update]**

 **INT - 100 (+20% + 50% + 100%)= 270**

 **WIS - 100 (+20% + 150% + 100%)= 370**

 **LUK - 32 (+0%)= 32**

 **POINTS - 284**

 **LIEN – 201, 692 L**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 100 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Parallel processing**

" _ **Think in different ways at once. Follow every path. Find every solution."**_

 **-Similo the discordant**

 **-You may learn from the experiences of your parallels**

 **-Subservient to the main mind (you)**

 **-Parallel minds are not required to exist. Their consciousness may be put into 'sleep mode'.**

 **-Levels up once per every 50 INT after 100 INT**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 100 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Higher soul**

" _ **I have seen… beings. Beings with a soul magnitudes above what we may use with our ramshackle souls of petty light and darkness. Monsters in men that wear the skin of our kind."**_

 **-Zenithar the mad (Formerly Zenithar the wise)**

 **-Your consciousness lies in your soul rather than a physical body. Skills and the INT, LUK, and WIS stats are based in the soul and cannot be lost except in death.**

 **-Affinities are twice as powerful as before**

 **-Aura and mana may be used interchangeably in some spells at a 75% efficiency**

 **-+100% INT and WIS modifiers**

 **-Replaces magical soul**

 **-Unknown side effects**

I felt the pain of my aura and mana expanding, sure, but I only glanced at the higher soul skill. My consciousness lies in my soul? Then the pain hit.

I screamed. All of the skills I had been keeping active? Gone. Without a doubt. Something about that seemed bad to me for a second but I couldn't find it in myself to care. There was so much pain. I heard Summer yell out at me through our link. She tried to look into her soul I think. I couldn't tell. I felt my soul warp and change and twist and throb and pulse and writhe and break and reform and ohgodithurtsomuchstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop-

[|||| == ||||]

 **Summer's POV**

I jumped in my seat on the airship when I heard the scream. The plane had started moving so people glanced at me and probably assumed I was surprised by the motion for one reason or another. I ignored them either way. Abyss was screaming too loudly for me to hear anything.

I lost my calm for a moment and panicked when the screams got to me. I dove into my soul like how Abyss had pulled me before. I stilled completely when the silver heart amulet on my chest vibrated a little.

Ozpin had given me the amulet. He had known when a new wizard was born. He said he could feel it. I believe it. He claimed to have enchanted the amulet to be tied to his body's health and location through a sample of his mana that he had somehow gotten. Probably a ritual to gather ambient mana of his. He had used something similar to unlock my mana. When it vibrated it meant he was in mortal danger. If it cracked and broke it meant he had died. It had only happened a few times before. I reached to clutch the amulet and I could feel it twitch and vibrate.

Luckily for me I was in the aisle seat. VIP section as well. I rushed into the bathroom and called Ozpin's emergency number. He picked up immediately and I tried to tune out the unholy screaming from Abyss. I had no way of helping him. "Ozpin! Abyss is in danger and I can't get to him! He's in my soul space! Can you help him?!" Ozpin blinked uncomprehensively for just a moment. Then he did something I had rarely seen him do. His eyes widened in some slight panic. He had never done that in all the time I had known him.

Ozpin slammed the intercom button on the device on his desk. "Glynda! Get up here now!" Ozpin then paid me his full attention. "Details."

"Abyss made some sort of spell to enter what he referred to as a person's soul space."

"Soul hearth? I thought it lost…" Ozpin muttered. I continued on.

"He was fine in it for so long. Then he said he was going to do something and he's screaming in my head! I don't know how to help him! Please! How can I help him?!" Ozpin clutched his cane with white knuckles. No wonder. I knew how much Abyss could change the world. How much he meant to Ozpin. He could kill Salem if we helped him, which of course we would!

"Only those with a space affinity can even look into their soul space. It takes a strong one to interact with it… Is his aura diminishing?" I focused on his aura with my own and looked to it's size… dear dust… it wasn't this big a minute ago!

"No. It's… it wasn't this big even a minute ago. It's nearly twice as large as it was before! His mana too…" Ozpin looked at the amulet with an intenseness I rarely ever saw from him.

"Giving him mana or aura when his pools are unstable, much less increasing, could cause catastrophic harm… Is his soul corrupted in any way?" I looked intently at his soul. I flared my purity affinity in my mana and saw no reaction.

"No."

Ozpin took a deep breath in and out. I saw blood on his lips. He was biting them. Then he spoke the words I wanted to hear least. "I don't know. All we can do is wait."

I heard a crack in my hands. The amulet was still. I looked to it with horror. Ozpin wasn't breathing. The silver of the amulet flickered and turned to silver dust. The dusty silver spread through the whole heart in under a second stared at it and felt a brief calm come over me.

"Ozpin! What's… oh." Glynda bursted into the office and looked at the scroll image on the screen. A necklace free from any amulet and silver dust in my palm. She quietly and grimly looked at the image and looked down reeling.

Ozpin silently pressed the intercom button again. He spoke in a hoarse voice. "All classes are cancelled for today. Return to your dorms. Do not cause trouble." He paused for a moment. "Please. Not… not today." He pressed the end call button silently and reached into his desk and came out with a bottle of alcohol.

A tear dropped from my right eye. Then another. Then one from my left. They clumped the silver in my hand together. I brought my hands up to my face and cried. Ozpin ended the scroll call. I continued to cry and just let it all out.

[|||| == ||||]

 **Abyss POV**

I woke up oddly. It was like I was asleep and suddenly I was awake. No blurry vision or sleep gunk in my eyes. I felt something wrong though… what… I couldn't feel the temperature or the air or… I couldn't feel my limbs. What was going on?! I would have hyperventilated but I had no lungs. I fell into my meditation skill and calmed down quickly.

First I tried to recall what happened. Ah, right… my soul was severed from my body and… I looked to my body… or what was my body. My body had curled into a fetal position. My tongue was swollen and purple from lack of oxygen. It pushed against my teeth. My eyes were wide open and had red spots in my sclera. My skin was pale with a few white spots like with my eyes. Besides that there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just that I was looking at my dead body, which was about four years old in case you were wondering.

Only the forced calm from meditation kept me from screaming. Seeing the dead bodies of others was one thing but my own? When I was four years old? To call it disturbing would be an understatement.

I tried making a parallel mind and inspected it a little. It was smart but not really independent. It would follow orders but if it lacked them it would need more or it wouldn't know what to do. It also had less emotions as I did. It wasn't stupid but to call it smart would be an overstatement. I sent an order to scour the apartment with mage sight to see if anything was amiss. Then I did the same myself.

I couldn't see anything bad other than my corpse, which I put into my inventory. Everything was as it should be. My parallel reported the same. Nothing was wrong… Now for the hard part.

I extended my mage sight beyond the space to the real world. Summer was sitting in a plane seat silently. Her eyes were red and puffy and her face eerily blank. Her hands lightly gripped her armrests.

"*Ding* This is your captain speaking. We'll be touching down in Patch in roughly a minute. Please fasten your seatbelts. *Ding*". I was silent as I watched Summer from inside her soul. The link between us, I could feel, was broken. I could reform it whenever I wanted. It was just a connection between our auras. Nothing difficult. I could just fix it and tell her now but… on a busy airship? Not the right place. I'll wait until she's alone.

In the meantime I checked out my stats. God they were screwed up.

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Passenger**

 **Level – 77**

 **HP – X**

 **AP – 14,800 (+740/min)**

 **MP - 10,800 (+540/min)**

 **STR - X (+90%)= X**

 **VIT - X (+90%)= X**

 **DEX - X (+90%)= X**

 **INT - 100 (+20% + 50% + 100%)= 270**

 **WIS - 100 (+20% + 150% + 100%)= 370**

 **LUK - 32 (+0%)= 32**

 **POINTS - 284**

 **LIEN – 201, 692 L**

[|||| == ||||]

 **PERKS:**

 **Unbound soul - You're a higher soul with no true body of your own to call refuge. Should you run out of aura without a host you will be erased. Taking refuge in the an unoccupied body will mark it as yours and you will be able to run out of aura freely so long as you live. HP has become representative of your body's health and AP the health of your soul. Should one run out you will be out of aura or your body will become too damaged to fix. Should both run out you will truly die.**

I didn't have my faunus or child traits. I didn't have physical stats. I didn't even have HP! I had no idea this was possible in the first place. It was certainly not at all what I had expected when I had boosted my INT and WIS. Well, it's partially my own fault. I should have put failsafes in place. I should have had spare air in the soul space. I got cocky and I lost my body because of it… that's it. I was an idiot. Nobody could have seen me becoming a… higher soul, but I should have had failsafes in place either way. Well, what's done is done. Anyways, there's a huge benefit to all of this.

I'm almost OP. My doubled affinity part of being a higher soul carries a massive benefit. Honestly the INT skill is useful but chump change compared to the higher soul skill. I'm kind of tempted to just dump all of my points into WIS and hope to attain godhood but that's a little too on the edge for me. Too much risk for me. I'd prefer to get a nice body, possess it, and put my parallel processing skill to use training the shit out of it. I'll get some anti-fatigue skill and skills to help work out faster. Or steroids. Just lots of steroids. Oh, and a regeneration skill to make the muscles heal and develop faster.

For now I'll put the parallel to work on the wind whisper spell. I'll need it until I find a new body.

I watched with some guilt as Summer got off of the airship and walked out of the airport. She got into a cab and quietly rattled off directions to a place. Probably her family's home… this is probably the closest I'm going to come to her being alone… now how to do this…

" _I'm alive you know."_ I statedd delicately. Summer froze for a solid few seconds. _"Hey don't ignore me. I screwed up a bit but I'm not stupid. I take precautions when experimenting."_ Well I do now. I've definitely learned my lesson. Safety comes as a priority now.

Summer screamed and the taxi man jumped and swore at Summer. "Sorry! Sorry! Really sorry!" The taxi guy glared and returned to the wheel. _"Explain now or I will get a space affinity to get in there and whoop your ass for making me think you were dead."_ Even though I didn't biologically need to laugh I did so. Very nervously.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Removed the lemon that was here because as one guy pointed out, it was 'creepy' and a whole lot of other stuff. I also agree that it was a bit out of left field and probably made a lot of people uncomfortable. As such I removed the thing and stored it away on an alternate document. I**

[|||| = **LEVEL 7** = ||||]

" _You… you ABSOLUTE IDIOT! DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THE HELL YOU WERE DOING?! I THOUGHT YOU DIED! DID YOU THINK PLAYING WITH YOUR SOUL COULD ONLY BRING GOOD THINGS?!"_

I took the mental scolding without complaint. I was a major party in the accidental killing of my physical form. Bad luck couldn't really be blamed after all. We were standing at the start of a pathway with a sign that said 'Xiao-Long/Rose residence: .4 miles.' It was rather dark being six forty five in the morning.

" _I know what I did was stupid. However, I have more than learned my lesson. I saw my corpse in case you missed that."_ Summer quieted herself after that but I could tell that she was still fuming inside. She snarled in the physical world and punched in a call to Ozpin.

The man did not look good. He had tired and sunken eyes and a bottle only a quarter full. Goodwitch sat on the floor in the background just holding her temple and not doing anything. Whether from alcohol or stress I didn't know.

"Abyss is fine. He just killed himself a little." Summer snarled. Ozpin blinked. "I'm sorry, what?" I made a remote clone of hard light and used a little illusions to stop the whole shining avatar look and put on clothes. I looked like I did with Summer but I had my faunus ears. I spoke through my wind whisper, which luckily no longer sounded inhuman and hard to understand. "Sorry sir. I got cocky and killed my physical body inside Summer by asphyxiation. I retained my consciousness in my soul." Ozpin pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This is a poor first impression mister Mavros." I shrugged. "I've learned my lesson. I'm rather confident that I can possess a corpse if it's in good condition, sir. Or a person with a weaker aura than me." Ozpin sighed at the news and Goodwitch shook her head in the background muttering something about more aura parisite wizards. I can't actually fault her on that. I would liken myself more to a carnivore though.

"Please don't do that, mister Mavros. No blood needs to be spilled. Just… I'm not in a good state to deal with this right now. Please appear at beacon tomorrow at…" Ozpin looked at something on his scroll. "Two o'clock. We have much to talk about."

"We do in **dee** d. **Da** mni **t**." I swore as I lost some of my control with wind whisper. My parallel was making good progress with it though. He was at level four with it and so was I since we were technically the same person. It seemed to be a rather easy spell to perform. Ozpin looked at me strangely before shaking his head and cutting the call.

Summer sighed and I dispelled myself back into her soul. She trudged towards her residence at a slow pace. I furiously worked on the wind whisper spell. I could fall back onto my mana control for the spell if I was careful but it was easy to mess up like I had with Ozpin.

In about five minutes I had gotten two more levels in wind whisper with my clone. We were standing outside staring at the home. _"So should I have a cover story or something?"_ Summer physically rolled her eyes. It was clear she was still frustrated with me. _"You have a special semblance that allows you to survive in and augment other's auras. Their auras get bigger and you don't die. You can project yourself through aura and talk but you have to live inside somebody. That it?"_

I thought for a moment. _"I can live without a body actually but it's a good story. Let's go with that. But I'm not going to be a four year old. I don't want to have to float upwards to reach the plates. You know I will. Hard light constructs can fly including my remote avatar."_

Summer shrugged and walked towards the door. She reached into her belt with the pouches and withdrew a key. She easily opened it and walked inside. She hung up her cloak and boots and walked silently to a room. I could kind of tell what she was going for by the layout of the house through mage sight so I muffled her. I was getting good at helping Summer without needing to be asked.

All the rooms were on the second floor. Yang and Ruby shared a bathroom while Taiyang and Sum had a nice and big bedroom all to themselves. And a bathroom with a big shower. The downstairs had a living room, kitchen with a table to eat at, and that was it. The house was more like a large log cabin really. Outside was a garden and a path to a clearing… why does… oh! That's where the yellow trailer for season five took place. There was also a shed with some gardening supplies and weapons stuff in it.

Summer walked into her bedroom without trying to sneak anymore. I prevented a shadow from being casted on Taiyang with invisibility and any sound Summer made was prevented by a thick dome of stilled air. It was way easier to do anything related to air with the affinity. I was barely using twenty mana to do what would have taken eighty before. My affinity was functionally one hundred and twenty after all.

Summer undressed uncaring of what I saw. I wasn't really surprised. Summer wasn't a very modest person really and she was too tired to care about things like modesty even for others… wait a minute…

I forgot that supplement negated the effects of fatigue. I casted the spell on Summer and she looked a lot better. I casted a small illusion to fix the light bags under her eyes from the sleepless night mourning me and the reddened eyes, which hadn't quite faded away. Summer gave a genuine smile to the mirror. I felt it was directed at me as a little thank you.

Sum freshened up with a little deodorant and put on a soft and silky shirt and loose sweatpants. She looked to Taiyang, who was looking scruffy with his five o'clock shadow. I also noted on the alarm clock that it was a saturday. Ruby and Yang were off from school today.

I sent Summer an image of Ruby and Yang in their beds straight from my mage sight. She giggled and smiled a little brighter. She was looking more and more like the happy and energetic Summer she normally was. She just needed some family and a recharge day.

Summer walked downstairs and started a cup of coffee. I had an inkling on what she wanted to do so I stopped the fumes from reaching her family and maybe waking them. Especially Taiyang. Stay at home dads hunt coffee like it's their natural prey. It only took some still air.

I projected myself as my teen form and looked through the fridge. "Eggs and bacon? Maybe those cookies you've been bragging about so much?" Summer nodded with a smile. "Ruby will love cookies no matter what time so long as they're mine. I'll do those. Watch what I do through me. Maybe you'll learn something and I can stop making them every time."

I designated my clone to keep notes on all of the measurements and to try to memorize Summer's movements. "How do they like their eggs?" I asked. "Ruby likes them scrambled like me. Yang likes them sunny side up like her father. Actually can you make some waffles for Tai? He likes a hearty breakfast. And put a bowl of fruit out before we're finished."

I sent a feeling of confirmation and manipulated the wind to carry some waffles to the toaster. I popped down the waffles and cooked them slowly with heat manipulation. I also made sure to spread the heat out evenly across the whole waffle.

Summer finished up with the cookies on the pan. Ten of them to be exact. I cracked the eggs onto the pan and put the bacon into the oven with the cookies. They used the same temperature. Also, the sweet fumes from the cookies might add a sweet little kick to the bacon. Might as well try.

I released the fumes from out cooking and guided them to the family. Ruby woke the quickest. She had a huge grin and wide eyes as she hopped in the shower first. Taiyang was next. He had a large and soft smile as he basked in the smells for a moment before getting into the shower. Yang woke up but rested a little longer while Ruby took her shower.

I started on the berries while occasionally flipping the bacon with a spatula of hard light. I took a nice and large shallow bowl and piled it with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

I directed my parallel to help out with everyday things since Summer was just waiting on the cookies. It swept away the mist from the bathroom slowly and subtly, which was rather hard to do subtly, and changed the temperature of the rooms to a comfortable level. Ruby's almost full laundry bin was brought down by a line of hard light and the sheets of Taiyang's and Summer's bed were remade with some hands made of hard light. It took some coffee in a mug and added an enchantment to retain it's heat. It didn't put much mana into it so it would only last about twenty minutes. Little things like that to just make things a little better. It was a good exercise in control as well.

I finished the eggs and placed them on some plates. Sum got the most, Tai the second most, then Yang, and finally Ruby. I also put the waffles, which were a really nice golden brown, on Tai's plate. Summer finished the cookies and was placing them down when Ruby finally got out of the shower. Ruby ran out rubbing her towel over herself quickly to dry off faster. She ran to her room and put on a red silk shirt and some black sweats after looking confusedly at her absent laundry basket. Yang stumbled in after Ruby was done.

Ruby raced down the stairs like it was christmas and ran quickly up to her mother. "Mom!" She cried happily. She tackle-hugged Summer and Summer laughed and hugged back. I could feel the happiness from our link.

"Hello sweetie." Summer said kindly with a beaming smile on her face.

"How did your mission go? Did you save Abyss? And who's this?" Summer grinned.

"This is Abyss. It's a long story. I'll tell you all when everyone else is down here." Ruby looked with confusion between me and Summer.

"Wasn't Abyss my age?" Summer grinned but said nothing. Ruby pouted but that instantly went away when she saw her plate on the counter, loaded with four cookies. The rest were to be given if Ruby ate the rest of her food. Summer would take them if she couldn't. I made sure to keep the breakfast nice and hot with heat manipulation. It was being surprisingly useful now. I had used about one thousand aura just making breakfast and doing some chores. More if you counted my remote clone, which was my only way to affect the physical world now other than magic.

Yang dressed in a yellow tank top and sports shorts. Taiyang got out at roughly the same time and got into pants and a T shirt. The two almost collided in the entryway but Yang darted forward first and Taiyang walked down after.

"Hi mom!"

"Welcome back honey." Yang and Taiyang said in almost unison. Nobody paid it any attention.

"Hello sunflower! Hello honey. It's good to be back." I stood off to the side just not really taking attention. I finished up the bacon and pressed the grease out with a few paper towels before loading them onto a dish and setting them on the table with the rest. Considering that I would be awkwardly standing off to the side or be sitting and not eating anything I removed that little problem by flipping the table over dispelling myself.

"Whoah!" Ruby yelped. Summer growled in irritation. Taiyang snagged a piece of bacon while the others were distracted. Yang saw him so he snagged a piece for her too. She kept her silence.

"Get back out here you coward." Summer growled through a cookie. I wind whispered a response.

"I would either be sitting down and not eating or standing off to the side. Why wouldn't I dispel?"

"Where is the voice coming from?" Yang asked. "Is Abyss actually a ghost?" Summer looked like she was about to speak but then didn't. I decided to speak up here.

"That's a pretty close explanation actually. It's more like I'm a super ghost that would only haunt you if I feel like it."

"If he feels like it he says." Taiyang muttered.

"Dexter won't be haunting anyone." Summer said. I made a warp between Summer's body and breakfast and I put her whole breakfast into my inventory she scowled. Ruby oohed. Yang looked amused. Taiyang looked interested.

"How did he do that?" Tai asked.

"My semblance." I said in amusement. "If I had a physical form I'd be eating Summer's cookies. As it is I can only enjoy it if she does. Fear me or I'll take your breakfast and laundry."

Ruby's eyes widened. "That was you?! Thanks!"

"No problem." Summer tapped her foot impatiently and I gave her her breakfast back.

"So what exactly is your semblance anyways?"

"I call it passenger myself. I can enter the space in somebody's aura. I can't die while I'm in them and I give them a big boost to their amount of aura. I can also project myself using aura and drag some things into the space in people's aura."

"That's a heavy list of skills." Taiyang said hintingly.

"Not really. Projecting aura is something I had to learn from scratch. I'm pretty sure anybody can do it and would if it wasn't mostly useless. They're costly to make and not very fast to create either. The space trick only works at close range unless a few conditions are met. Like touching the thing. Then I can store the object in question inside my or my host's soul."

"But wait…" Yang said confusedly. "Where's your body?"

"Oh, my body suffocated when I tried putting it into my inventory improperly. My aura was fine, as I said I can't die, but my body suffocated and I didn't notice until it was too late." A moment of silence passed through the table.

"Sorry for your loss." Ruby said quietly.

"Don't worry about it. Summer's body is awesome." Taiyang choked on his waffle and Summer groaned. Neither of the kids got it.

"An uncle Qrow joke." Summer said.

"Oh."

"So that's why…"

"Oh! What if you entered my soul?" Ruby asked.

"I can't enter auras if they're not unlocked. Sorry." Ruby smiled. "Don't worry about it!"

"What about mine?" Taiyang asked.

"I'm fine showing you what it's like."

Taiyang nodded. "I'm curious."

"Alright. Doing the switch now." I weaned Summer off my skills and her aura fell drastically. She grimaced and set her fork and knife down.

"Ugh. It still sucks."

"What sucks about it?" Yang asked.

"When Abyss leaves my aura is larger than I can handle. The extra aura just disappears off to wherever but I feel kind of sick when I have more aura than my soul can handle."

I finished the deactivating of my skill bonuses and exited Summer's soul for a second. For a moment I was free floating aura in the air. Quite literally like a ghost. I just thought about moving to Taiyang and I did. I rushed towards him and entered his soul space through soul hearth.

Taiyang's soul was a fair bit smaller than Summer's. I slowly ramped up my skill effects and Tai grimaced and grunted. I felt roughly the same. I just lost some capacity from Summer's silver eyes. I liked that extra aura. When I was done, though, he gasped. "Holy shit… I feel amazing." "Like you can do anything, right?" Summer smiled. Tai nodded.

I'm not actually doing that much compared to what I do with Summer… Actually, I could pull you all into your soul, Summer." Summer gasped. "Yes! We could play monopoly on that awesome couch!"

"You have a couch in your soul?" Ruby asked confusedly. "Summer doesn't just have a couch. She had a bed, beanbag, a ton of valuable metals, and plenty of nice furniture. I made it myself. It's really nice. Wanna see it?"

"Yeah!" "Definitely!" "I am curious." "Then it's decided!" Summer declared. "I will welcome you all to… Summerland!" Silence reigned for a moment. "I mean… it's not a bad name. Just kind of boring." Taiyang hedged. Summer's face fell. "Yeah…"

"Alright. Let's clean up and we can see Sum's soul from the inside." I've rarely see kids eager to clean dishes. This was one of those times.

[|||| == ||||]

" _So Summer… To make sure I don't accidentally unlock your kids' auras, how do I do it in the first place?"_ Summer sighed mentally.

" _To activate an aura you have to insert a piece of your aura into the dormant aura of another's. It's always accompanied by a ceremonial chant."_

" _The chant isn't required?"_

" _Using one is expected but not necessary. They're supposed to reflect something about you, the one doing the unlocking."_

" _Got it. If I screw up and unlock their aura would something bad happen?"_

" _If your aura is unlocked you become a priority target for the Grimm. They'll hunt you over any single civilian. Additionally, without knowing how to suppress your aura signature, using your aura will alert Grimm that you're there. We aren't unlocking our kid's auras because they wouldn't be able to kill the weakest beowolf as of now. When they're twelve we'll unlock them and start training."_

" _Interesting. Alright. Thanks for letting me know."_

" _Please don't unlock my kid' s aura Abyss. Really just PLEASE don't."_

" _I won't insert any on my aura into them. I won't bar some weird twist but I'm not trying to unlock their auras. It would be meaningless for me."_

Summer sent a feeling of wariness. She believed me but thought it best to be safe. No wonder. An unlocked aura is dangerous for a kid to have… If they don't have magic.

"Alright everyone! Ready to go now?!" Summer called out. "We're ready when you are honey." Tai called back.

" _Alright. Here we go."_ Summer thought. She tried to show confidence over her nervousness for her kids and sat down on the couch.

"I'm going to try you first Tai. I'm confident that I can do this flawlessly but I doubt you want Ruby or Yang to go first. Just relax and go with the flow and I'll do the rest. " Taiyang nodded and closed his eyes.

I snagged Tai's soul with my aura and pulled it into Summer's. His soul was rooted in his body, as souls typically were, but the majority of it was with me in Summer's soul space.

"Whoa!" Tai yelled in Summer's soul space. He was in a bodily form as I'd shaped him. When I was about to leave him, though, I noticed that his soul was withdrawing back to his body…

OH! Taiyang only has his soul in Summer. I had my magic rooting me into Summer's soul but Tai only has his soul here. His body is pulling his soul back and there's no resistance! Well that's easily solved.

I took my parallel from helping around the house (weeding the garden currently) and assigned it to keeping Taiyang rooted in Summer's soul space by latching onto his aura with my own. Like a chain of aura keeping him rooted to my soul which was rooted to Summer's.

"Whoa… It's like being hugged so I don't float away…" he muttered. "Got him. You're next Yang." _"Wait for the others."_ I told Tai in the soul space. He seemed fine rooting through the games cupboard.

Yang smiled nervously. "Oh relax. You'll be fine. It's barely different from what I did with Taiyang. I just have to be more careful with you."

Yang took a few deep breaths and calmed down somewhat. I snagged her soul with mine. It didn't struggle at all. I wonder if that's because of aura?

I was able to get Yang into the soul space fine. My parallel rooted her and waited patiently. Apparently the attractive force between soul and body was pretty weak if they didn't resist.

"Hi sweetie! Hey look at these! They've got a lot of games."

"What's with the warm hugging feeling? And the floaty one? And what games are there?"

"I don't know. Probably Summer's soul being warm and liking to hug people. It seems like her. There's mostly board games."

Finally was Ruby. She wasn't nervous. Just plain excited. I grabbed on to her soul easily and plopped her in on the couch on top of Yang.

"Eep!" "Ruby?!" "Haha!" Man Taiyang is such a great dad. If I ever have kids, which is looking like a pretty slim chance with the lack of a body, then I'd follow his lead so far as raising kids.

"Yang stop hugging me!"

"I'm not!"

"Oh you aren't… BuBut who's hugging me? Mom?"

To finish us off Summer entered a meditative mindset and I pulled her in. She formed in her soul pretty quickly and dropped in on the sofa on top of Ruby and Yang.

"Mom!"

"Ow… could you and Ruby please get off?"

Summer laughed and rolled off and walked to the end of the sofa. Ruby crossed the table and laid on the other sofa for a moment.

I refrained from making my own body and instead looked outward to mess with the family.

"Okay everyone! Grand tour of my soul starts now! We're saving the best for last though. Come on. Study comes first."

I looked through the house with mage sight for a camera. I found one pretty easily and pieced together how it worked easily. I took it into my inventory and hid it in the wall in the garden. I wanted to see their faces when they saw the ceiling.

Summer had just finished up with the study and I decided to have more fun. Now that the souls were rooted in Summer courtesy of my parallel I could mess with their unconscious bodies.

I put Ruby laying on top of Yang with her index fingers up her nose. Yang's fingers were also up Ruby's nose. I snickered at their reactions when they woke up.

It turned out that the farther away from Summer and their soul their bodies were the stronger the attractive force on their soul. It was still really weak though. Even with three people that I was keeping in the soul space.

Next for Summer I laid her out in that 'paint me like one of your French girls' pose but with her clothes on.

For Tai I was a bit stumped so I put him directly face down on the floor and left it at that. His nose would ache a bit but he had a good sense of humor. He'd be fine.

Now Summer and her family were moving into the garden. I readied the camera.

Yang, Tai, and Ruby's faces were awestruck by the scene. Ruby's eyes and Yang's hair gleamed under the moonlight.

Summer smiled softly and looked at her family and the sky.

I took maybe ten pictures silently and put the camera back into my inventory. I hoped I could frame the picture with a printed copy. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Can I do my homework here?" Asked Ruby. I gave her her whole backpack from in her room. "Sure. Stay as long as you want."

"Abyss? Where are you?" Summer asked.

"I was finishing up the dishes. Oh, and that warm huggy feeling? That's my aura. Your auras are trying to escape back into your bodies but I'm tying you down. If you flex your auras a bit you'd make me lose my grip and wake up but only Tai can do that."

"You could trap us here forever?" Yang asked nervously.

"More than that actually. Not that I would. I could probably kick Tai and Summer out and keep you two though. Since your souls are locked you can't resist."

Tai was glaring at me and Summer was giving me a look.

"I'm not going to do that in case you were wondering. You would annoy me too much to be worth it. You could play the trapped princess shtick though."

"What's shtick mean?" Ruby asked. Oh right. She has a really big vocabulary for a five year old."

"It means cliche. A recurring theme."

"Oh! Got it."

I wind whispered into Summer and Tai's ears: "Your kids are REALLY smart for their age."

"I know, right? Especially Ruby. My little girls super smart!" Tai whispered into thin air. Summer and I could hear fine. With me being spread throughout Summer's soul and Summer having her enhanced senses.

I'm not really sure if Summer or the others could manipulate Summer's soul like I did. Perhaps they needed a space affinity to do so. And to consider manipulating Summer's soul space. And to have Summer's permission.

"Say Abyss," Yang asked. "What's your soul like?"

"I don't know. I can't go into my own soul space. I can look inside it and interact with it but there's no point in going there. I use it as a storage space."

"Oh." Yang said disappointedly. "Why the disappointment?" I asked. "Well it's like you have this awesome ability to make your soul pretty and awesome but you don't even use it. You use it as a mobile warehouse."

"There's no point making my soul space nice when I could use it practically. If I improved my soul space what would I do with it? I can only look into it and everyone can pop into Summer's soul if they want to do things. Actually my soul is way bigger than Summer's. "

"How much bigger?" Summer asked. Lets see… aura times double my space affinity with one. Twenty times two so forty one times fourteen thousand eight hundred is… six hundred thousand add a little.

"Six hundred cubic meters. Summer has about thirty two but this space only has twenty three cubic meters. She only has more space because I'm augmenting her soul with my own."

A brief silence reigned. "That's a cube about five soccer fields long in three directions."

"How the hell…" Taiyang muttered. "Whoa-stop making me feel tiny! I was proud of my four rooms!" Summer cried.

"What do you even have in your soul?" Yang asked.

"Let's see… Four chairs, two tables, I'm not sure how much dust that is but it's a lot. There's also some guns and weaponry around. I've got clothing for my non-existent body, and some other more miscellaneous things."

"Where did you get all of that stuff?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Battle loot." I half joked. "Abyss…" Summer growled. "I stole it from gangsters." "Better." Summer said approvingly. Tai looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"Since when have you been all for 'battle loot?!'" Summer looked to him strangely. "Did you even look at the stuff he got? Besides, it's just furniture… And dust. Lots of dust." Tai looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze. I materialized an ingot of one of the super metals and his face showed his realization.

"Why did team STRQ never think of that?" He muttered.

"... So what now?" Ruby asked. Yang and Tai looked to the board games, of which I had maybe twenty.

[|||| == ||||]

Two hours later Ruby had finished her homework and everybody had played some games. "Well messing around in Summer's soul is nice but the real world is better. I like our house." Taiyang said.

"Yeah, mom's soul is great but it's a little small for now." Yang said.

"You're all ready to go now?" I asked. "Yup!" "Yeah." I took Ruby and Yang's confirmations as enough and let go of everybody's souls and pushed Summer back to her own body. I felt them draw back into their physical forms and have their eyes flutter open.

It was chaos. It was beautiful. The camera got it all. "Ruby?! Get your fingers out of my nose!" "Why am I on the floor?! My nose hurts!" "Yang! Ruby! Get off of each other!" "We're trying! Ow! Yang! That hurts!"

A few harsh words towards me and everything went back to normal. "Sorry. He's not normally this mischievous." Summer apologised for me. "I haven't had anybody to mess with other than Summer for a while. It's been gratifying to do so. I won't do this sort of thing often."

Tai sighed. "You're as much trouble as Ruby was when she was a baby. I've got chores to do now though so go do your thing." I took his advice and went into Summer's soul. I had some things to do as well.

Back in Summer's soul I made an avatar for myself and set to work. I got rid of the bedroom entirely. I had no need for it now. I made an offshoot of the study instead. A workshop. It was a little small but that was Summer's soul. It was temporary anyways.

I didn't pay much attention to making it look pretty or anything. As I said, temporary. I put down the modern forge and got to work. My parallel got hard on the grind as well on runes. Sheets of ice would suffice. Runes to reject heat would be put onto them as would an enchantment to make them harder. It exercised water, heat, enchantments, and runes. I would change my parallel to work on my metal projects soon.

 **Viventum ingot (unattuned)**

 **Rarity: Very rare**

 **Material type: Metal**

 **Melting point: 2456 degrees celsius**

 **Hardness: 89/100 (very hard)**

 **Ductility: 27/100 (rather stiff)**

 **Special trait: Soul growth - when infused with aura laced with mana this metal will slowly grow in hardness, flexibility, and resistance to elements. After sustained exposure to mana from one person this metal will become 'attuned' to the signature of their aura and mana and will gain traits according to the person's desires over time. This metal is not all powerful and will not grow to embody some traits. For example, it cannot grow brittle and cannot come to be gelatinous as it is a metal.**

 **Moribus**

 **Rarity: Rare**

 **Material type: Metal**

 **Melting point: 1891 degrees celsius**

 **Hardness: 42/100 (Somewhat soft for a metal)**

 **Ductility: 93/100 (Easily molded)**

 **Special trait: Superior conductor - This metal is capable of conducting any form of energy with no resistance. Mana, aura, electricity, heat, ether, and otherwise.**

 **Novis (Unattuned)**

 **Rarity: Rare**

 **Material type: Metal**

 **Melting point: 1984 degrees celsius**

 **Hardness: 64/100 (Somewhat hard)**

 **Ductility: 54/100 (a little hard)**

 **Special trait: Dust reflective - Upon contact to a dust and/or attuned mana or aura the metal will absorb the dust's or mana's affinity and when mana is channeled through it after treatment it will attune said mana to the affinity of the consumed dust. Grade of dust/Affinity of mana and purity of metal determines amount of affinity granted to the mana channeled through. Mana already attuned will have a more intense attunement after being channeled through if the affinity is the same as the metal's.**

All of these metals would be perfect for making a new body wouldn't you say? A sort of golem... Or a weapon. I've got enough to do both in fact.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	8. Chapter 8

**AN:Son of a-! Okay so it was THIS chapter that had the lemon and I just was unattentive and stupid. Ugh… well it's gone. Refer to the AN last chapter if you want an explanation.**

[|||| = **LEVEL 8** = ||||]

I spent most of the day and the whole night working on metalworking and my other crafting skills. I got metalworking to level 12 to my surprise. I think it might advance faster due to being a mundane skill but I can't rightly say. It definitely gained more levels due to its low level as well though. Runes grew to level five and enchanting to six under my parallel's tireless work.

Throughout the day Taiyang found that he wasn't able to do much after my parallel did most of the chores. All he did was clean a bit and then he sat down to play some video games for a while. Finally he got bored of that too and worked on what looked like lesson plans for his signal students. He got interrupted by Summer halfway through, though.

Ruby looked at a ton of schematics for weaponry for a while before playing with some toys. I didn't fault her for that. She was five, after all. Yang went outside to talk to some friends I think. I was working on steel for the first time at that moment so I wasn't paying much attention.

Summer looked around the house for a while and took a nap. Then she woke up and decided she was in the mood and found Ruby playing with her toys and Yang out of the house and Tai just innocently working on his lesson plans. I looked away when the pants came off. I told Summer as such. I'm not sure if she even heard.

After Yang came back and she and Ruby went to bed Summer and Tai went back for round two and went to bed. I kept my mage sight off since there was no reason to have it on though. I would get up when Summer talked to me.

I did take a break from all the enchanting and stuff after a while. I took a break and went to my study and brainstormed ideas. Firstly, THe new body I was going to make COULD be fully made of metal but did I want to be a golem? No. It would be great for combat but I wanted a form like I had before. A biological form. That's non-negotiable. Eating, drinking, pain, pleasure, and the like are what make a person feel alive.

Luckily Summer had the life affinity and I had a sample of my old DNA in my cadaver. I wouldn't try to bring myself back from the dead but a new body? I could do that. A homunculi of sorts that I could alter with my metalworks and magic to be stronger than my old body. My parallel could work my body out. I would need to learn anatomy to make a homunculi properly of course. I would start that soon. Studying could come after I got a handle on my smithing. It was kind of fun for now, rather than boring. I would get INT and some WIS from studying as well. I should try to get to 150 INT soon to get more parallels to learn faster.

I had a few ideas for my new body. The first one was to somehow apply affinities into my physical form. Novis could do this but maybe I could get dust into my bloodstream? I'll study that later. The next was rather simple. Genetic alterations. Life could probably do that. Third was to take advantage of my gamer's body skill and increase my body's performance in exchange for using more nutrients. Muscle density, for example. I would fine-tune my nervous system to make my body more sensitive like Summer's was as well.

Summer eventually woke up around nine and I assigned my parallel to work on learning anatomy from one of the several books I had in my bookshelf while Summer and I made breakfast for everyone. Everybody split up to do their own thing as Sum and I went to Vale to pick up a few things and meet with Ozpin.

I barely paid attention to the chores Summer did. I worked on runes and enchanting myself and let her have some alone time. She hummed as she moved throughout Vale and picked up some things. Some soaps, food, weapon crafting supplies that I didn't need myself, having already stolen some before, and other small things.

After reading through a quarter of the whole textbook, which had college level stuff, I checked my INT and nearly had a heart attack. Four INT and three WIS from all that reading. In one day. Dust… I would be reading so much from now on. My human anatomy skill was level sixteen now as well. I have another textbook on anatomy as well and maybe fifteen more of a similar level. Oh my god this is going to be such a boost to my stats. I could only read so much, though. I would be able to branch into other topics than anatomy after leveling up my anatomy skill sufficiently for my liking to read more though.

I paid my full attention to beacon when we got there. I asked Summer and it seems that only student teams in the top 5% of both GPA and combat rankings, which I should mention is the average calculated from all four of them, get to call a bullhead to their location to get back to beacon. Everybody else had to take a gondola up the cliff, drive up the road, or, for the lowest ten percent or those under a punishment, the stairs. I shuddered at Summer's dark tone as she mentioned the stairs.

We, of course, got a bullhead, being a magical super huntress with legendary and a wizard that plays with space and the souls of man like a kitten with a ball of string. I wonder how much destruction we could do if we went all out? Probably a lot.

Beacon was really impressive in person. In the show you could see that it was huge but it was always muted by being on a screen. In person? Beacon tower alone was already huge. The campus below, though, had a number of smaller towers pointing upwards to the sky and several large buildings below. When I say large I mean like the size of a costco store. Really huge. I suppose there were student dorms, a cafeteria, dust storage, weapons maintenance, classrooms, arenas… well they probably put all that space to good use.

" _How many students does beacon have a school year?"_ I asked. _"A hundred fifty students per year maximum. They always hit the maximum since, you know, beacon is awesome."_

I had to admit that, yes, beacon was awesome. Really awesome. Ozpin was not as awesome though. Thinking of Ozpin shook me off of the majesty of beacon and see it in a different light.

Summer enthusiastically chatted about beacon's facilities and how awesome it was. I asked questions occasionally and looked around the campus with mage sight. I saw a lot of things happening around campus. Huntsmen in the arena was what I was most interested in for the moment. Glynda Goodwitch was actually already teaching a class in the morning.

I put her out of my mind and looked to the fight. The contestants clashed at high speeds and all and that was great but what I noticed most was how flashy their moves were. They weren't the efficient and deadly moves Summer had taught me. They were moves that put showmanship at the same level of deadliness. I turned my attentions elsewhere with a tinge of irritation at their priorities. I immediately got back into the fight when I saw just how my students were working out together alone on their beds. In one case a whole team. Damn teenagers. Damn Summer and Tai. Damn my lack of a body.

Summer and I went up the elevator with some more praising beacon and me ignoring Summer reading my book. Not that she knew. I just occasionally said "Oh really?" and short phrases like that to show that I was paying attention. I had mastered this skill with my parents in my old life. Every teenager learned it at some point.

Finally we came to the big moment. The elevator opened directly into Ozpin's office. It was almost exactly like the show except for Ozpin's desk, which had drawers under the desk and papers in neat piles on his desk.

Curious, I looked to the desk with mage sight and felt what I can only describe as a gentle slap with foreign mana. I recoiled and took away my mage sight. I looked through Summer's eyes and looked to Ozpin himself.

The man wasn't especially intimidating. He sat calmly at his desk with a soothing smile on his face. I felt less tense looking at it. I got more wary because of it. He looked only a little younger than in the show. His hair was a darker grey than his later years and he was a smidge shorter. Oh, and he didn't have those spectacles. Other than that, though, he was almost exactly the same. Green bandana, cane, coffee, and black and gold color scheme.

"Please don't attempt to spy on my papers, mister Mavros. I do enjoy my privacy." Ozpin spoke without any force. He sounded warm and welcoming.

"My apologies." I spoke formally through my wind whisper. "I do it by habit now." Just like it was habit to toss an observe at Ozpin.

 **Meridian Ozpin**

 **Title: Immortal protector; teacher of heroes; headmaster; Wizard**

 **Level – ?**

 **HP – ?**

 **AP – 1,546,160/1,546,160 (Freely shown by target)**

 **MP - 3,092,320/3,092,320 (Freely shown by target)**

 **STR - ?**

 **VIT - ?**

 **DEX - ?**

 **INT - ?**

 **WIS - ?**

 **LUK - ?**

 **Semblance: Eidetic - You remember everything you have ever seen.**

 **Affinities: (Freely shown by target)**

 **Time: 51876 (+300)**

 **Order: 40684 (+300)**

 **Shadow: 20498 (+300)**

 **Earth: 19876 (+300)**

 **Lunar: 18474 (+300)**

 **Life: 17145 (+300)**

 **Solar: 14970 (+200)**

 **Death: 8785 (+200)**

 **Space: 4604 (+200)**

 **Perks: (Freely shown by target)**

 **Curse of nemesis - You have been cursed eternally to fight against the entity called Salem. Should you fail to kill Salem your soul shall transfer to the aura of the one with the closest signature to yours. You may not gain the purity affinity.**

 **Immortal soul - Your aura never dies. Never changes. Despite not being a higher soul your aura may travel briefly outside of your body.**

 **-Growth to affinity growth takes 1000 times the effort it normally takes to grow the affinity.**

 **-Aura growth takes 1000 times the effort to grow.**

 **-Your soul will never degrade due to time.**

 **Wisdom of ancients - You have seen nations rise and fall. Technology come and go. Lands change. Cultures die out. People live and die. Through one way or another, though, you still live. Millenia have passed and you live still. The knowledge of old and present are available to you and through this you have learned much.**

 **-+1000% to INT and WIS**

 **-2x mana capacity and regen.**

 **Bio: [Blocked]**

OH LORD THAT MANA! And that insane aura! My god that's so utterly out of my league… Summer and I combined don't touch him… That's insane. And that wisdom of the ancients perk… absurd… the affinities are just a small bit OP too. Just a tiny bit. Eidetic memory combined with immortality is also just a little absurd, don't you think? And what the hell is with those modifiers on his affinities?! His INT and WIS are in the double digits. Well… I've got some catching up to do.

Ozpin smiled at me. "What an interesting attempt at scrying. I don't believe I've seen such an attempt like that before. In olden times wizards used to freely show their capacities of mana and as you clearly show yours I'll follow suite. I am professor Ozpin. I'm headmaster of Beacon academy, which you've no doubt seen through the sight of yours. Crafty thing, by the way. More of interest to you, I believe, is that I am the only other wizard in Remnant. A pleasure to meet you."

I hope this isn't leading where I think it is but I'm damn well not going to be rude. "A pleasure on my part as well. I'm glad you found me-" no I'm not. "-but I assume there's a reason you brought me here?"

Ozpin smiled and took a sip of his coffee. "Indeed there is. First though… What exactly happened to you to… lose your physical form?"

"I happen to have my physical form in my inventory right here sir. I have no idea what it is you mean." I said cheekily. Ozpin's smile twitched to form a slight grin for a moment.

"That's good to know but I mean how you are an unbound soul at the moment. How that came to be. Summer informed me that you died in her soul space but survived as a soul. Normally that is impossible. Being in a soul space does not negate death. So would you enlighten me on what exactly happened?"

Ozpin looked to Summer for a moment and took a sip. "Also, my apologies if this seems an odd request to you but Summer informed me of your ability to create a sort of avatar. Could you make one? It is strange to converse with a voice and have no face to look towards."

I didn't particularly like this but I complied and made a remote clone. I appeared in a brief swirl of light coalescing into a form and Ozpin inspected me. "It's good to meet you in person Mister Mavros. Or as close as we are going to get. Now… how this came to be?"

I had come up with a lie for this already, luckily. "I was fine in Summer's soul with my physical body for some time, as Summer might have told you-" A pointed look to Summer from Ozpin and some awkward shuffling told me that she did not "- so I was already rather attuned to her aura. I transformed a small part of my aura into light attuned aura and did the same with Summer's aura. I then made a connection of light attuned aura between us using my privilege of controlling Summer's aura. The separation between my physical body and aura was rather… painful."

Ozpin sipped his cup and hummed. "I suppose that is possible. In all my years I have never heard of something like that succeeding but your developing aura as well as mutual exposure to each other's aura and the shared light affinity makes it possible. You should not have attempted something so risky, however."

"I know. I first tried to simply connect our auras but… after that succeeded I lost a lot of control over my aura and my aura's affinities changed and it just felt so different. I lost control of my spells due to this new aura and my body began suffocating. I hadn't put any backups in place, which I've more than learned my lesson for."

Ozpin sighed. "I'm sorry for the loss of your physical form. I believe I understand what happened somewhat so I'll get to the reason you're here for. What do you think of Beacon?" Oh god it's leading where I think it is.

"It's a very nice campus. I'm sure that it turns out some very fine hunters for Remnant."

"Indeed. I'm sure Summer sung praises as soon as she came here. Have you considered attending it?" Straight to the point, huh?

"I have. It seemed a little appealing but devoting my life to fighting grimm isn't something I'm interested in. I don't care to become a huntsman or devote my life to helping others though I hold no ill intent towards humanity or likewise as a whole."

Ozpin's smile dimmed by just the smallest fraction and he looked down thoughtfully for a moment. "What is it you are looking for at the moment then, if not to kill grimm? There is not much else in the deserts of Vacuo."

"I was training my magic." I answered plainly. Not the whole truth but not a lie either. "After my parent's death-" A slight wince from Summer and a nod of sympathy from Ozpin "- I had nowhere to go but the gangs or the streets. I feared what would happen if my powers were found out so I left with what I cared to carry and survived in the desert. I eventually tired of being alone and went my way back to Vacuo. Then Summer tracked me down."

Ozpin nodded and sipped. "So you are after further mastery of magic?" I shook my head.

"Currently I'm working on an independant project. Runes and enchantments." Ozpin raised an eyebrow and waited for me to continue. I didn't.

"And what is this independent project, mister Mavros?"

"Private." I said shortly. Ozpin frowned a little in a concerned manner, like some sort of concerned grandpa.

"Mister Mavros I assure you that I have no intention to hijack your project or otherwise tamper with it so long as it is safe. I merely wish to assure that it isn't dangerous. I may be able to help you with it as well. I am an expert enchanter and I would consider myself rather adept at runes though I lack the creativity most runemasters had."

"I haven't begun the project yet. In addition to not being anywhere near as dangerous as my last… experiment, I have multiple failsafes waiting if it does somehow go wrong. Thank you for your concern but I would prefer to keep it private for now. In any case, I have a few other priorities as well as my private one. I've been working to increase my affinities and done good work. I've also been working on creating a long distance teleport spell."

"I see…" Ozpin murmured. He looked up to me intensely. "Mister Mavros there has not been another natural born wizard than myself in many thousands of years. I am not the only one who can detect your use of magic. I may not seem it to you but I am far more benevolent of the two able to sense your use of mana. I will not lie that I only mean the best for you. I can say easily, though, that I mean no ill will towards you. If it is mastery over magic I may be the best person to help you… Mister Mavros, if I may be so bold, it may be wise to apprentice yourself to me not just for magical excellence but protection."

Fat chance. "Thank you for the offer but I have to decline." Ozpin's eyes narrowed just a tiny bit. "You see, I am well capable of acquiring a new physical form should I choose to though I don't see the need to at the moment. I'm quite happy enjoying my private studies."

"You could be making greater." Ozpin said seriously. "I am competent at space magic at the level of an archmage as well as educated on all forms of magic and have mountains of experience in magic that you do not. Not to mention my experience in weaponry, though that is more of a hobby than magic to me. I am a huntsman, after all, and am considered the best in the world. I know miss Rose has been tutoring you. I can as well."

"... I believe I have an offer that benefits both of us." Ozpin didn't respond. "I am aware of Summer's condition." Summer stiffened a little.

"I have a condition?"

"Your core was artificially opened… or formed. I don't know the ritual done to unlock it but it performs at one fourth of it's capabilities. If I were to give you light attuned aura over time it would work at full capacity and you would be equal to a natural mage."

Summer was speechless and I continued. "I don't know if you're aware, Ozpin, but I passively augment Summer's soul with my own magical soul to a higher capacity as she does mine. Her mana is similarly expanded. If I were to stay in Summer and freely offer har my mana and aura she would be far stronger than she has been. When I eventually find out the teleport spell I will also be able to transport us away from any danger should Summer somehow encounter an enemy she can't face."

"I gain a safe soul space to perform my studies and you gain Summer more powerful than ever with the capability to teleport wherever you order her to. Should Summer somehow die I will bring her body back though I doubt that will happen with how powerful she would be. Is that acceptable?"

Ozpin stood there staring at me in my avatar. "I do agree that that is a fine compromise. However, I have one condition. In ten years and some months you will return here and attend beacon no matter Summer's condition. After the end of your education as a huntsman at Beacon you and I will create a new deal. In exchange for this I will provide you with a few books on space magic, runes, and enchanting as well as detailed notes on the teleport spell."

"I agree." I said solemnly. Ozpin nodded and flicked his wrist and a few books appeared on his hand. Inventory. "Here." He said as he passed the books to my avatar. I put them into my inventory easily. He repeated the flick and handed me another stack. Finally he brought out a sort of small booklet from his inventory and passed it to me as well. "There are several types of teleport spell. That booklet has all that I know of. Different forms are needed for different purposes, after all." He explained. "The rest are a primer for all magicians and in depth spells for several of what I believe are your most promising affinities."

"Now… I hope you have a pleasant day mister Mavros. I'll see you in nine years."

[|||| == ||||]

" _You're not mad at me for not unlocking your core?"_ I asked incredulously.

" _Nope. I understand why you did it. I know you would have had my back. Besides, it helped you bargain with Ozpin. I don't know why you didn't accept his apprenticeship though. It seemed like a good deal for you."_

" _Thank you Summer. Want to merge our auras and stuff for real now?"_

" _... I suppose this is as good a place as any. Nothing bad will happen, right?"_

" _Not that I know of. Almost certainly nothing but you might feel somewhat offbeat for a while. Our affinities don't quite add up, as you know. Your soul space will get bigger at least."_

Summer shrugged and walked off the forest path near her house. She walked for a minute and sat down on a cut tree trunk. _"Okay. ready?"_ I asked.

" _Ready."_ She said confidently. I slowly opened our souls up to each other freely. Summer gasped and her vision blurred. I kept opening our souls up and they blurred together.

They appeared as a white aura with a number of red tendrils spreading through it like a spiderweb and a red and white core. It kind of hurt but in a strangely good way. I could feel Summer's senses even without trying as they bled onto my consciousness.

 ***Ding!* Purity affinity acquired!**

 ***Ding!* Motion affinity acquired!**

 ***Ding!* Nature affinity acquired!**

 ***Ding!* Life affinity acquired!**

 ***Ding!* Light affinity increased by one!**

 ***Ding!* One point in each affinity will be gained for each day inhabiting Summer Rose's soul until the amount of affinities have been completely shared.**

 ***Ding!* A semblance has been detected. Overwrite your semblance with the foreign semblance, reject the semblance, merge the semblance with your own, or copy it as a skill?**

 ***Ding!* As your semblance is locked it cannot be shared**

 ***Ding!* Summer Rose's Artificial mage trait has regressed to rank 3! Will regress to rank 2 in thirty four days of exposure.**

 ***Ding!*Soul is shared. Senses are merged for so long as the soul is merged.**

Oh holy hell the weird feeling kicked in for me now. I can completely feel the emotions Summer has now and the sensory information is sort of in the back of my mind unless I focus on it. I can't hide my own or block out Summer's anymore. I can, however hide my thoughts and Summer can hide hers.

I can feel her discomfort at having a foreign aura, her confidence at my assurance that everything will go alright, and her happiness that she gets to feel more time with me.

I look further into that last emotion and see that Summer sees me as a sort of stepson but with a really weak link to family. Her own children come first but she feels motherly towards me.

Besides that Summer also considers me almost like a best friend. Qrow is a friend as well but she doesn't see him often and Tai is her husband. She feels that her private life being open to me is fine. Her home is her fortress. She feels that only family and the closest of friends are allowed in it.

" _Well this is… invasive."_ Summer thought.

" _I have to feel your pleasure when you have sex now by the way. I literally can't not now."_ I said.

" _Pervert."_ Summer said halfheartedly. I sent a shrug. _"You don't even mind."_ Summer sighed. I looked closely at Summer for any disgust at that or uncomfortable feelings at the idea and… there weren't any. Well, some discomfort but nothing like anger or repulse.

" _Wait, you don't mind either."_ I said confusedly. I looked closely and… whoa! That… Makes a strange sense.

" _Well yeah. I mean you're a super close friend and I know you're not actually a pervert. Tai and I have had a threesome before with Raven-"_

I saw a glimpse of a memory from Summer. Nothing specific but just sort of proof that it happened. Bodies and the feeling of kissing soft lips and heated red eyes. I felt that it was for Raven's privacy and got a feeling of confirmation.

" _\- and I can trust you especially. I don't know that Tai would mind much either. Do you really expect me to abstain? Hell no. Just be decent about it, which I know you will be. Stay quiet, don't talk about it, and don't make me feel dirty for it. I've always been a really, REALLY open person according to Tai, Raven, and Qrow. It actually got me in trouble a lot. I have a hard time lying with my openness too… You really can't just block out the thoughts?"_

I thought about it for a moment. _"No ."_ I said. " _I can sort of suppress it but it's like you're in another room being really loud but instead of hearing it I see it, smell it, feel it, and every other sense too."_

Summer felt a trace of disappointment. _"I can probably magic up a sensory spell to make it better."_ I thought of it as a sort of compensation for shoving this onto her. I felt a feeling of immense excitement.

" _I've been trying to magic up the bedroom for years! I just can't keep the concentration for it so I'm totally up for it! Aura sense enhancement only works for so long. I got some results from life so try that."_

I tapped into my mana and aligned it towards life, which I could do now! I did the same thing as I did with aura enhancement then. I had tried to do this before but it didn't work that way. Mana wasn't aura but if it was affecting the body than life affinity gave me control over the body.

 ***Ding!*A new spell has been created! - Focused sensory enhancement**

" _ **Undoubtedly the best house magic for any married woman anywhere. Cleaning magic is a second. Sadly there isn't a cooking magic. Golems are crappy cooks. Oh, yes, it works for sensing things better as well but we just use mage sight or aura sensing for that."**_

 **-Selena Bureau, adept life mage**

I had used the spell on Summer's eyesight and saw through her eyes as her vision grew practically telescopic. That didn't really matter though. Summer and I both agreed on that. There was a better use for it according to her and that Selena person in the skill quote.

I turned the spell off and Summer practically pranced home. I checked my parallel and found it halfway through the anatomy book. Two more WIS and INT in the bank! Hell yeah!

" _What are you so happy about?"_ Summer asked amusedly.

" _I made a sort of dummie me with magic awhile ago. It's really expensive and I can only do one but it's halfway through a book on anatomy and I'm just glad about that. I wanted to get through the book before tomorrow so I can get started on the teleport spells. It'll be able to finish the book tonight by itself I think. I wanted it to start on my teleporting spells tomorrow with me."_

Summer just sent a feeling of happy acceptance and continued her way home. It didn't take long. I just watched the path with her. We came up to the house pretty soon. "I'm back!" Summer called happily.

"Hi mom!" Ruby chirped from the second floor.

"Cool!" Yang called down as well.

"Welcome back honey! Did you get the groceries?" Tai said normally from the couch with a novel in his hands.

"Yup! And I've got a sort of surprise for you later!" Summer said mischievously.

"And I can't know now?" Tai gave a puppy dog look and Summer rolled her eyes.

"Later tonight. Definitely not now." Summer winked and Tai smiled happily.

"Ah, I'll just have to wait then… sadly." Summer laughed and walked up to Tai and leaned down to kiss him. I got to do so at the same time as Summer, being in her soul and using her body, so I felt it as well. Tai's lips were rough and strangely pleasing. I can see why people like the sensation… No I'm not kissing a dude… this is going to be a weird time. I should get my old body quick.

"So how did the meeting with Abyss and Ozpin go?" Tai asked.

"It went well. Ozpin wanted to apprentice Abyss to him but Abyss came up with a compromise. He'll open up his aura entirely." Tai looked a little concerned.

"That sounds like it has some side effects." Summer nodded.

"We share emotions to an extent. We can't hide them so he knows I see him as a sort of stepson slash bestie and I know he sees me as a great friend. He doesn't see me as a mother figure like I expected. Besides that we share our aura."

" _Actually I can do some stuff with your semblance and my own. I can merge yours with mine, overwrite yours over mine, not do anything with it, or copy it as a far weaker version of your semblance and retain my own. I can probably mess with yours somehow. Like expand the amount of space the field takes up or make every action inside it near silent to the outside."_

Summer looked surprised. Uhm… he can also change my semblance a bit and he can do some stuff with mine to his as well. Take mine over his, merge them, or copy it as a weaker version. If he wants to do anything at all."

Tai blinked. "... That's a little ridiculous. I wouldn't want anybody messing with my semblance though. Bestie or not that's a really delicate matter."

" _I agree. I still don't know my semblance so I should unlock it first and then decide."_ I dismissed the message about semblances for now.

"I'm not going to mess with my semblance either. There's plenty of other stuff Abyss can do to help. I like my soul just the way it is."

Tai smiled. "Well that's good then. He'll be going with you on missions?"

"Yup! I can get a lot more done with him around and I can visit much more often." Summer leaned in close. "He's really close to being able to teleport like Rae." She whispered. Tai's eyes widened.

"Yes! Great!" He whispered back excitedly. He leaned in to kiss Summer again.

" _Mmm, he tastes like sunflowers in a good way."_ I thought.

" _I know!"_ Summer thought. I wondered for a moment if it was weird that I was kissing another guy even if it was indirectly but… whatever. I'm not into guys but I'm not going to say no to the sort of threesome.

Summer glanced at the clock and we saw that it was only four o'clock. From what I remember Ruby and Yang didn't go to sleep until about nine. _"Do you mind if I go do my own thing?"_ I asked.

" _Sure. Just help out when dinner's ready."_ I sent a feeling of confirmation. Before I left Summer thought another question.

" _Hey Abyss? You mentioned something about affinities, right?"_

" _Yeah. Why?"_

" _Can you teach me some magic from the other types?"_ I laughed at her mentally and sent an affirmative. Summer was happy and I left to start on the skills.

[|||| == ||||]

 **(AN: This is sort of a technical info dump. Sorry, but it's happening. I'll put a summary at the bottom.)**

Out of the nine books Ozpin had given me all but one of them were skill books. There was also the tiny book. I thought about just absorbing them and getting to absorbing them after but I decided to get to that after reading them.

They weren't thick books like the college textbooks. They were thin as a short novel and had thick pages. I counted the page numbers on the largest and I flipped through one hundred ten pages in all with pictures on some pages. Really short. I could get through all that in two hours with speed reading. Probably three to be safe and get all the information.

Ozpin had given me one book for each element but light. The last one was the general primer and the only one not a skillbook. I decided to start on the primer first while Summer was relaxing.

I learned quite a lot from the primer. There were two hundred eighty two affinities discovered at the time the book was written.

The book started on general information on mana. Mana, as the book said, was the blood of the world. It had the power to alter the world through the force of willpower. Many likened it to a more spiritual factor of aura.

I came to the startling explanation that dust was crystallized mana. Mana of an affinity in such high concentration that it takes on a physical form and stabilizes.

There was a whole chapter on making your mana into dust and the uses of it and a more in depth overview on affities further on in the introduction. I almost tried it myself but I held myself back. Besides, the book mentioned that some types of dust were forbidden because they were too dangerous or something of the like.

Next was an introduction to what spells were and how to make them. Spells were a web of mana formed in a specific fashion to cause a specific effect as well as specific techniques different from standard manipulation, which was mentioned as taking less and less mana as your affinity grew.

Specific techniques were a spell because they weren't using raw mana and they couldn't be applied universally. This was why doing something like bending light into an enemy's eyes wasn't a spell. Making the light stop moving, however, would be a specific manipulation and thus a spell.

Still winds was similar to that. Fire, however, couldn't be stilled since it was energy. The same goes to something like space or lightning.

Spells had three different parts. Convert, where you made elemental mana to be formed, draw, where you got a grip on the mana and separated just enough to form a spell, form, where you formed the web which was the spell, and release, where you directed the spell in a direction and released it.

Raw mana manipulation spells like project mana weren't spells because they had no convert spells. Thus they were grouped with the general category of magics like controlling mana, imbuing elements, and some other things.

Next were affinities. There were two hundred and eight affinities discovered when the book was written. Affinities were a state of mana where the mana takes the properties from a concept or element or a combination of some sort and uses the property to various effects.

There were higher energies like space, nature, and time, energies like fire and lightning, and elements like air, earth, crystal, and water. All affinities could be classified as simple or complex based on whether they were a homogenous mix of affinities binded together or just one simple affinity. Earth would be simple because it was just earth, for example, but crystal would be compound because it contained order, earth, and hardness affinities mixed into one.

The reason mana could do this was because mana was SUPER malleable. It was a blank slate to be processed. Unless given a treatment mana had a property. A personal property. To be precise, the mana had an affinity for YOU.

When you used mana in it's raw form you were manipulating mana with a you affinity. When you attuned mana it was incapable of being attuned to something else. It couldn't be attuned to more than one thing at once except for compound elements like nature, magma, mud, unity, and things like that. Compound elements would apparently be explained in detail later.

When something or someone was attuned to something that something was a part of it's personal affinity. To make an Abyss (I mean Abyss as in me. Not the affinity, which is a thing apparently) affinity, for example, you needed some space, light, water, and all the other stuff that made up my affinity page as a compound element. Then you could manipulate my type of mana in theory. But then it got complicated… and that was the reason it was just theory.

You could manipulate elementally attuned mana because the mana would listen to objects with willpower, mana, and an affinity for it's main property. Technically a rock could make Remnant to dust given an infinite amount of mana and the will to do so. Humans and magical creatures were the only creatures capable to manipulating mana though.

By this same manipulation topic some elements would refuse to do certain things if the commanding entity didn't have enough affinity. Among higher elements and energies this was more common than physical affinities.

There was technically no maximum to an element but there was a maximum to the amount of an element human souls could handle. Past that there was no way to make an affinity greater. You could always gain more affinities though. You could gain more affinities through continuously using that type of mana… and yes, you could technically use any element… and that hurt my head.

You see, this reason was that a soul is composed of ALL affinities. The soul isn't an affinity because it was uniquely composed of every affinity in existence. And yes, every soul was unique because they had varying levels of affinity for every element. This was why my affinity sheet had the elements in such a weird manner. I had less than zero affinity but my affinities are rounded down.

You weren't considered as having an affinity until you could convert mana into an affinity aligned mana though. To continue on gaining affinities, though, you needed to have one of your greater attuned elements take the bulk of some work and have the rest of the work be done by another affinity. When I made my water to ice I was unwittingly using water with some heat affinity as well. My heat affinity grew because of this and eventually developed enough to form fully.

Some affinities took longer to grow than others, though. Motion, for example, was notoriously hard to grow (thank you Summer!) and higher elements were basically off limits unless you already had a higher element, which was rare. Purity, a higher simple element (and complicated enough to require a whole four pages devoted to it) was incredibly rare (dust Summer you're a savior!) and immensely hard to cultivate (SUMMER THANK YOU!).

Around there the overview finished and I stopped and read it again to really let the knowledge sink in.

 **(AN: Infodump over. Summary now. Mana is only affiliated to one thing at a time. Your composition of affinities gives a 'you' affinity and that impresses on mana allowing you to control it. Affinities are super complicated but you technically have a teeny amount of every affinity because the soul is composed of mostly a few elements and a slim amount of every other element. Motion and purity are really hard to level and Summer is handing them to Abyss. Summer is awesome.)**

[|||| == ||||]

I read a bit more and was snapped out of it by Summer calling me to help with dinner. I finished my paragraph quickly and got started on helping out. We made some mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and chicken thighs wrapped in bacon. Tai did the asparagus on a grill in the backyard while Summer got the thighs ready and I did the potatoes and gravy.

Dinner passed quickly. I chimed in from time to time and I could feel the rest of the family get more used to my presence as Summer broke down the situation simply to Ruby and Yang. They weren't happy with it but Summer pretended not to notice and fibbed that with my aura helping her and the both of us focusing she could use her semblance to teleport all the way back home most days. The kids were almost to tears they were so happy. Then there was an amazing group hug. Especially since I could feel Summer's happiness from our auras and feel through her body.

Finally Everybody watched some TV, which sort of reminded me of a more mature version of adventure time from when I was alive. Then the kids went to bed. "Tai?" Summer asked.

"Hm?"

"I felt like I should tell you that there's a little more to that bonded aura thing than extra home time and me being super mom. See, Abyss can share my body whenever I want him to but we HAVE to share emotions. "

Tai's eyes were wide. "A sort-of threesome?" Summer smirked, mostly trying to make it seem like everything wasn't going to be super awkward. I really hope I don't ruin Summer's sex life. She brought him in for a deep kiss on the couch. Wow that feels so weird. _"You told him I was sort of nineteen, right? Well more like twenty now."_

" _Mmmmm… yeah."_

"I'm… huh? It's not really different for me anyways." Tai said with a little confusion.

And that was the weirdest night of my life. So that's why Raven fell for Tai.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:**

[|||| = **LEVEL 9** = ||||]

 _4 years 4 months in Remnant_

I closed the book with a happy sigh. Five months of leave at the Rose and Xiao-Long residence. If you wanted to be technical it was the Branwen residence as well. Qrow and Raven pitched into the house with Summer and Tai but only Qrow used it now. He was still on that mission now. It had gotten complicated apparently so he would be taking a while. Another month apparently.

The past months had been peaceful. Ozpin gave Summer three months of leave since hunting me down was classified as a high risk and high priority mission. He also wanted me to have gotten a teleport spell completely down. Not mastered, of course, but enough for me to consistently do it.

I had gotten a portal spell easily. I performed it for Ozpin and he sent Summer and I out on a mission. Just killing a troubling grimm horde. Summer and I annihilated them and portaled back within a week. Easy stuff. Two other jobs had popped up but Summer barely needed my help. I just made things easier for her. The jobs had gotten slowly harder as Ozpin eased us in to combat together. It wasn't hard really.

We had seen a few interesting places. A tropical island off the coast of east Vacuo. A snowy mountain range south of Vale city. A few other nice and unique places.

I'd gotten new skills, new stats, and been studying my ass off. The insane affinities from Summer had equaled out as well. It was fantastic. I even broke through 150 INT and WIS. There was nothing as crazy as before though. I warned Summer I was going to try something for a few days and that I'd be a few days before I reconnected. She was worried but I ran a laundry list of precautions for her. Now my stats were this…

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Passenger**

 **Level – 89**

 **HP – X**

 **AP – 25, 012 (+1250.6/min)**

 **MP - 19,224 (+961.2/min)**

 **STR - X (+115%)**

 **VIT - X (+115%)**

 **DEX - X (+115%)**

 **INT - 178 (+20% + 50% + 100%)= 480.6**

 **WIS - 169 (+20% + 150% + 100%)= 625.3**

 **LUK - 34 (+0%)= 32**

 **POINTS - 344**

 **Affinities:**

 **(4x as potent due to skills)**

 **Purity: 87**

 **Air: 79**

 **Light: 64**

 **Water: 44**

 **Space: 41**

 **Motion: 34**

 **Nature: 22**

 **Heat: 21**

 **Life: 7**

 **(NEW) Lightning: 6**

I had also developed the lightning affinity, which wasn't really surprising. I just made a few thunderstorms which was easy now that I had gotten the nature affinity from Summer. I mean, it was already at the edge of being one of my affinities. It was just at the top of the list under my actual affinities. I have some good ideas for using it. I just need to get it's affinity up more. I've only been able to use it to make a simple lightning bolt spell, which I trained my affinity in often.

My 150 INT and Wis skills were powerful. Really powerful. I mean, they always were but these weren't just throwing higher numbers at me. The INT skill was incredibly useful especially for my project for a new body. The WIS skill seemed underwhelming but it really wasn't.

 ***Ding!* By reaching 150 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Higher understanding**

" _ **The difference between knowing and understanding is as wide as ice and fire."**_

 **-Venetius the arcane scholar**

 **-All skills are understood at an instinctual level as well as a theoretical level**

 ***Ding!*Parallel processing has leveled up!**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 150 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Attuned**

" _ **The world at my fingertips. I can feel the universe shift around me."**_

 **-Farengandur, Grand sage of the world's end mountain**

 **-Twice as potent affinities**

 **-10% less mana used in elemental spells**

 **-Affinities develop 5% faster**

 **-Moderate mana sensing abilities**

Ahhhh, the feeling of getting the skills is always great. The attuned skill didn't seem too great but it was. It really was. Even without the better mana senses. I could feel my affinities as a part of me so clearly now. If I tried I could simply feel through the air. Not mana sight or a skill but simply by tapping my affinities I could use my elements. My elements would respond to my will without any effort from me sometimes. Ruby was running down the stairs and she almost fell but suddenly she fixed herself and I could feel the air itself nudge her in place.

I felt my affinities begin to stir in a way I can't say I understand. The stairs were just one incident. If Summer and I drank some coffee my heat affinity would twitch of it's own volition and the coffee chilled down to the perfect temperature.

When Summer was sparring with Taiyang (I learned her weapons other forms by the way. A longsword and a pistol alongside her shortsword) she and I were backed almost against the treeline. I felt my space affinity push at Taiyang and he traveled towards us noticeably slower. After the fight he described what he felt as a resistance to moving. Like he was moving through water but less potent. That had given me an idea for a skill too. The Spatial resistance skill. It wouldn't bring any decent huntsman to a halt but it made the space in an area or around somebody thicker in a way. It took more energy to traverse it. I can't explain it in a way that makes theoretical sense. All I can say is that I felt like the space was rejecting movement in that area.

The INT skill was as impressive as attuned in it's own way. If I learned a rune I knew somewhere deep inside myself everything about it. How it worked, why it worked, what runes went well with it, and everything else. I didn't know knowledge. I felt it.

With anatomy I could understand human anatomy like I had practiced it a lifetime. With my spells I could feel out how the spell worked and just know. With my cooking I knew how an ingredient meshed with another, how it tasted, and how best to use it by feeling it a little. I also gained an immense appreciation for Summer's cookies. They were almost the perfect cookie.

For my time in Summer's soul I had read through all of the books on spells and absorbed them. I had gained a fair number of spells. I had only focused on the space ones and a few select spells that were too good to just pass up.

 **SKILLS -**

 **Mundane -**

 **Cooking (Lv. 41)**

 **Singing (Lv. 16)**

 **speed reading (Lv. 29)**

 **building (Lv. 3)**

 **tactics (Lv. 5)**

 **lip reading (Lv. 13)**

 **Metalworking (Lv. 44)**

 **Weapons designing (Lv. 1)**

 **(NEW) Oral sex (Lv. 8)**

 **(NEW) Sex (Lv. 19)**

 **See more?...**

 **AURA -**

 **Aura (Lv. 23)**

 **Aura control (Lv. 41)**

 **Aural reinforcement (Lv. 38)**

 **Accelerate thought (Lv. 8)**

 **Aura transfering (Lv. 64)**

 **Aura sensing (Lv. 19)**

 **Aura suppressing (Lv. 47)**

 **Dust usage (Lv. 1)**

 **Absorb dust (Lv. 1)**

 **PHYSICAL -**

 **High speed movement (Lv. 21)**

 **Controlled breathing (Lv. 93)**

 **Sneak (Lv. 36)**

 **Parallel processing (Lv. 2)**

 **COMBAT -**

 **Swordsmanship (Lv. 24)**

 **Polearms (Lv. 19)**

 **Light armor (Lv. 2)**

 **Assault rifles (Lv. 1)**

 **Pistols (Lv. 1)**

 **Shotguns (Lv. 1)**

 **MAGIC -**

 **Mana control (Lv. 54)**

 **Meditate (Lv. 74)**

 **Physical mana projection (Lv. 47)**

 **Mage sight (Lv. 57)**

 **Imbue element (Lv. 37)**

 **Produce element (Lv. 18)**

 **Runes (Lv. 78)**

 **Enchant (Lv. 70)**

 **SPELLS -**

 **Mage armor (Lv. 44)**

 **Exo suit (Lv. 43)**

 **Sun screen (Lv. MAX)**

 **Air blade (Lv. 10)**

 **Negate light (Lv. 7)**

 **Water whip (Lv. 2)**

 **Warp (Lv. 44)**

 **Illusions (Lv. 27)**

 **Controlled light vision (Lv. 4)**

 **Blink (Lv. 18)**

 **Expand (Lv. 5)**

 **Spatial presence negation (Lv. 8)**

 **Invisibility (Lv. 7)**

 **Still winds (Lv. 39)**

 **Wind whisper (Lv. 54)**

 **Focused sensory enhancement (Lv. 27)**

 **(NEW) Portal (Lv. 24)**

 **-Create a portal to connect two spaces**

 **(NEW) Teleport marker (Lv. 14)**

 **-Create a marker in a location and become able to teleport to it.**

 **(NEW) Dimension cut (Lv. 1)**

 **-Create a hole in the dimensions of the world**

 **(NEW) Tornado (Lv. 5)**

 **-You create and control a tornado**

 **(NEW) Fly (Lv. 15)**

 **-You fly on the wind**

 **(NEW) Heatwave (Lv. 1)**

 **-Creates a wave of extreme heat that goes to an opponent**

 **(NEW) Momentum (Lv. 1)**

 **-Maintain your momentum no matter factors like air resistance or gravity**

 **(NEW) Purify (Lv. 1)**

 **-Imbue the element of purity into a corrupted entity or object and wipe away the corruption**

 **(NEW) Flash step (Lv. 2)**

 **-Use a rapid burst of motion attuned mana to kick off at high speeds**

 **(NEW) Sanctify (Lv. 1)**

 **-Erect a barrier to repel all weak forces of corruption**

 **(NEW) Disaster call (Lv. 3)**

 **-Call a natural disaster of varying intensity based on affinities and level**

 **(NEW) Storm (Lv. 7)**

 **-Create a thunderstorm through air, lightning, chaos, and nature**

 **(NEW) Lightning bolt (Lv. 5)**

 **-Create a bolt of pure lightning to fire to enemies**

 **(NEW) Animate (Lv. 1)**

 **-Grant temporary life to an object. Temporary golemancy**

 **(NEW) Ice storm (Lv. 3)**

 **-Add ice into a storm. Lightning jumps between the ice. Requires a storm to function.**

 **(NEW) Heal (Lv. 2)**

 **-Bring back a body to a healthy state**

 **(NEW) Cure disease (Lv. 1)**

 **-Cure a minor disease on a person**

 **(NEW) Grow (Lv. 1)**

 **-Draw on life and nature to rapidly grow a naturally occuring entity**

 **(NEW) Resist spatial interference (Lv. 1)**

 **-The space resists any change that occur within it**

 **(NEW) Weaken spatial interference (Lv. 14)**

 **-The space more easily accepts any change that occur within it**

 **MISC -**

 **Gamer's body (Max Lv.)**

 **Temperature resistance (Lv. 68)**

 **Pain resistance (Lv. 41)**

 **Observe (Lv. 91)**

 **Grimm anatomy (Lv. 3)**

 **Human anatomy (Lv. 94)**

I actually had so many skills that it gave me a bit of a headache to think of them without the higher understanding skill. With the skill I just knew what skill to use when I wanted to do something.

There were a few skills that I thought really showed promise. The growth skill was the biggest one. It had the potential to make a homunculus if I had it down. I'm confident that I could make one but I'd prefer to finish up my anatomy skill. I had finished all the books I could find now. I'm not sure I could get more though. I probably had to dissect somebody… I'm alright with that. If they're the trashiest most terrible person I can find I wouldn't feel very bad about it.

My metalworking skill was still a little low but I felt that it was good enough to make myself a metal body if I ever need or want to. I could actually make an inferior version of my combat body right now with some time. I had the runes, the metalworking expertise, and the enchanting expertise.

However, Summer's soul was superior at the moment with the spare aura and safety. I'm happy to just live here for a time. I want to get it right the first time anyways. No point wasting the metal or flesh to make myself a body just to make a new one later.

I didn't really focus on the spells all that much. I worked them for a week and got bored of them. I was more interested in getting a body. Runes and enchantments were more interesting anyways. Spells just got kind on underwhelming after a while. I didn't abandon them but I wasn't going to just grind them day in and day out. That's just boring. Magic is supposed to be fun. It normally is too. Just repeatedly casting spells is boring and tiring. I left my parallels up to it sometimes but I myself have little reason to work them.

The spell dimension tear though… I don't even know what that does. Portal is like Raven's semblance that goes anywhere but it takes time to make and teleport marker needs a marker, which I put in the Xiao Long house, to teleport to. Dimension cut does something along the lines of rip space apart. I… I'll stay away from that for now. My higher understanding skill I just got is helping a little now but dimensions are hard to understand.

Besides my reading, rune and enchantment studies, and physical world work I tried meditating again. Unlike before, though, I wasn't meditating to pass the time or anything. I was meditating to search my soul for my semblance. I was just a level away from seventy five and it was frustrating. I could catch glimpses of a power more and more often but I could never touch it. I had asked Summer about it and she said that not many people even unlocked their semblance.

To unlock your semblance you had to do a number of things. You had to be in the right mood with the right motive to unlock it. You had to have an understanding of yourself and seek desperately to change it or you had to look at yourself and completely accept who you are. Besides that already rather tall order you had to have a large aura pool, which I had already.

Summer had scolded me a bit when I got so frustrated with not unlocking my semblance. I was a prodigious wizard with a huge repertoire of spells at my fingertips. I had a number of affinities and had achieved immortality. I was even in a super huntress. Summer had heard my complaining and snapped all of this at me. At first I was angry but I meditated and I realized that she was absolutely right. I was powerful. I could take it easy. I should relax a bit. My semblance wasn't critical to me. I didn't even know what it was.

I took a good look at myself through a lot of meditation and I was a little disappointed to realize that I was a power hungry and greedy person. I eagerly grabbed for power all the time. That was why I didn't want to settle for a subpar body. Why I so often desired to level up my spells. I didn't really like that though. If I was always power hungry could I really ever be happy with what I would have? I don't think so. I forced myself to slow down a little after the scolding and just enjoyed the family I was staying with. Slowly it became less stressful to not have a body and not be as powerful as Ozpin or Salem. Just another thing to be thankful to Summer for.

Not that I got rid of the urge to be powerful. I want to be on par with the strongest of this world. I won't be controlled or beholden to anyone. I've got a few ways to do that but they're only ideas at the moment. For now I wait until I'm a bit stronger, smarter, and so on. And relaxing with people who are quickly becoming close can be forgiven. Working too hard is a bad idea, I know.

[|||| == ||||]

 _Miss Rose,_

 _Recently a new maiden has emerged in Anima. We believe her to be the spring maiden. With all due haste you are to track her down and bring her to me so that she will not fall into the hands of Her. A private bullhead will be arriving to your house in two hours. This mission is expected to take several weeks if the last mission of this type is anything to go by. Please act with haste. I suspect that enemies are closing in on the maiden as well. If I have sensed her mana flare than She has too. Abyss' ability to teleport with you has no doubt been noticed by agents of Hers so any agents you encounter will certainly be equipped with an enchanted item to deny teleportation. Sadly there are no spells to bypass such an effect. I have tried. Good hunting. The last pang of mana I felt was in Wind path._

 _-Meridian Ozpin_

" _Oh no."_ I thought. Summer looked up from her scroll. It was dinnertime at the house so everyone was already together. She wore a fake smile.

"Sorry sweeties. Duty calls. I'm off to rescue maidens and beat up bad guys." Tai's eyes flashed in recognition. Saving maidens was meant literally, of course. Summer got up and went to throw on her cloak. Her sword was already standing by the door in case of emergency missions like this one.

Ruby hopped off of her seat and ran to her mother. Summer knelt down and hugged her tighter than normal. "You'll be back soon right?" She asked innocently.

"Of course. I'll be back before you know it." I can only hope. This is obviously a high risk mission.

"Promise?"

"Of course. I'm not going anywhere. This job might take a while but I'll always be here."

I felt a pang throughout my soul. This was it. This was THAT mission wasn't it… _"Abyss?! What's wrong?"_

" _I just have a bad feeling. This is a big mission. There's no backup? Nothing but us?"_

" _Qrow is on a long term mission. Tai has to take care of the kids and he's not a part of the inner circle. Glynda can't just leave right before the final exams. Ozpin has duties here at beacon. No one else is close enough or trusted enough to get there. We're the only ones to go."_

I calmed myself and hoped I could make enough of a difference. Summer was strong. Far stronger than she was just half a year ago. She had her affinities. She had opened her core completely now. She was the second strongest person I know but I still worry. It's a big mission. A burden beyond any I'd felt before.

Summer rushed around the house. She made cookies in bulk for both her and her daughters, gave Tai some kisses, and packed for the trip in my inventory. Sure she could use her inventory. She knew the basics of the spell but I liked her soul space. It was a big house with a workshop, study, bedroom, and whatever I felt I'd need or want projected in it with the handy reality warping powers. I like it that way.

I myself made sure everything was set around the house. My runes were set to keep the house mostly clear of dust? To keep the temperature nice? To make the walls sturdier? The enchantments were in place? Were the runes filled with purity attuned mana filled and powering the sanctify spell? Did Summer forget something?

Eventually we got everything settled and ready. The bullhead arrived and Summer hugged her kids and kissed Tai again. I stayed out of this kiss as I always did with the goodbye kisses. This was one for them and them alone. Ignoring it doesn't actually do all that much but it's the gesture of it that matters since I basically take away all of their privacy.

Summer and I got on the bullhead and waved a little before shutting the door and sitting down. Summer closed her eyes and napped and I practiced my runes a little. I was trying to figure out if runes carved into flesh were actually viable or if they would screw everything. So far they were looking very possible… sort of. The person applying the runes had traces of his or her mana in them since mana was used in creating the runes. I could use them on Summer if I used only her mana. But could she power them herself? And the rune structure for runes on the body would be extremely complex to not kill the person… what about enchanted objects to make people stronger or faster or the like?

It took a long time for the bullhead to reach Wind path. We had to stop for refueling when we hit the coast. Summer slept through most of it and only woke up once, where she sent Tai an update. The scenery of Anima was very nice. It was a huge variety of cliffs, swamps, and I saw some naturally occurring geisers as well. I wanted to see some floating islands but we never saw any.

Finally we arrived at wind path after sixteen hours of flying. The city was… dark. And sort of underdeveloped. And it was also raining. There weren't many sources of light to shine out of the city so it was hard to see. And when I say small I mean more like short. There were no towers or high buildings.

I nudged Summer's consciousness and she woke quickly with a brief application of supplement in place of coffee. "We're here?" She asked. A quick look out the window answered her own question. "As dirty and terrible as I remember." She said with disdain.

" _You don't like the place?"_ I asked.

" _I don't like Anima in general. Mistral is… alright and plenty of small villages are friendly and all around nice places but Wind Path, Kuchinashi,_ _Himawari_ _, and Renge are cesspits of crime. There's some nice people, sure, but the police are corrupt, the children are starving, and gangsters thrive. Only a few places are actually nice in Anima. Tenjikubotan is probably the only nice city in western Anima. Then again, out of eight cities besides Mistral itself only having one nice city west of it isn't much to brag about. Vale isn't perfect but at least our crime isn't blatant about it like Mistral or our government militarized like Atlas… there's not actually much bad about Vacuo. It's hot and sandy but the fact that they have a city at all is impressive."_

I looked out with mage sight and scoured the city. I saw a few different hotspots of crime around in a few miles. All of the crime seemed… organized though. _"The crime seems different here than in Vacuo."_ Summer rolled her eyes.

" _Vacuo's always had a whole bunch of small gangs and one or two bigger ones. Mistral, though, has crime families. They're organised and usually spread throughout the cities. They even get along together except for the Parti family. The Parti family is the only family that actively expands into other family's territory. They're the second strongest behind the Lias family, which owns about half of Mistral's underground and most of Fire Path, Earth path, and Water path."_

I thought on that for a moment. _"Who owns Wind Path's underground?"_

" _The Dell family. They're smugglers through and through. Contacts from Vacuo to Atlas and they move enough dust under the table to make a Schnee cringe. Most of it probably comes from their mines, I mean."_

" _And what about outside the cities? The villages and such?"_ A well of some buried anger reared it's head before being squashed down.

" _Bandits. Not murderers and rapists since spreading too much negativity is bad for business but extortion, raids, and threats are fair game. Most of the bandits are under one of three clans. The Uzu clan, the Insuro clan, or… the Branwen clan. They're the strongest and they focus more on keeping the other clans in line than harassing villagers but they're often the most bloody of the clans since bandits know how to fight."_

I was silent for a moment. I just had one question left. _"Why is the city so short?"_ Summer really wanted to brood and think but she answered it anyways, feeling that I needed to know this out of more than idle curiosity.

" _The winds are intense above Wind Path. Intense enough that making tall buildings is risky if inclement weather comes along. It's why the city is called Wind Path. Everything is underground. The real city is down there. There are tunnels leading down into the underground around somewhere."_

I sent my mage sight into the earth and poked around. Oh! I looked in no small amount of awe at the massive cavern that was Wind Path. I couldn't see all of the city, of course, but the city was still a city. A large amount of buildings sat on the floor of the huge cavern as buildings do. Roads were made of smoothed stone rather than brick and the whole cavern was lit by massive crystals of light dust that sat in the roof of the cavern.

Massive stalagmites pointed upwards to the roof of the cave and even speared almost into it with some of the biggest. The tops of most of them were flattened and a house constructed on it. Around the stalagmites that were… colonised, a road spiraled downwards. Obviously for the rich.

I looked in awe at the sheer size of the cavern. This is the sort of stuff I want to see in the world. Natural wonders that stretch the imagination and make the impossible seem possible. Wonders that beggar belief. This was just one example. I'll bet that somewhere buried in Vacuo lay massive cities and temples filled with riches. In Atlas there could be massive grimm of ancient times trapped in ice. In Anima there are undoubtedly things just like this. And I want to find them.

I gazed at the city as Summer strided through the streets of Wind Path. _"Where are we going first?"_ I asked.

" _We're not going into the underground unless I can't find anything up here. I have a well informed contact named Gerobril that owns a bar here. Qrow introduced me, of course. He'll probably know something."_

I scoured the city in a flash with my parallels and found it in no time. The bar was a rustic sort of style that was open but empty. It's a little surprising that it's open at midnight. Maybe business is bad? Or perhaps most everyone lives underground.

I showed Summer a back alley on the way to the bar to beat up some muggers. She seemed to appreciate my effort. She does like stopping bad guys. Besides, the guy attacked first. His fault really.

Summer approached the bar and sat down. The bartender, a big man with a beer belly, glanced at her and growled out: "You'll be having?"

"Information preferably. Did you hear anything about a girl who had some sort of incident? The one that involves a lot of fire, wind, ice, lightning, or something like that without dust?"

"A'course." He grunted. "Everyone's heard that bit of news by now. Girl in bottom south quarter caused a blackout. You want the details, though, yeah?" Summer nodded and passed a 50 lien card.

The bartender leaned back a little. "Yesterday a rich girl by the name of Bondi Trys was yelling with her boyfriend, some local asshole, about him cheating on her. He gets defensive and it escalates. Bondi screams at him and the local asshole decides to slap her to shut her up. This does not have the desired effect. Now asshole is fried, Bondi is a murderer, which nobody really cares about except the rich people, and a stray lightning bolt of hers shot into a transformer and broke the whole city down for a few hours. You want where she ran it'll cost you extra."

"You know where she went?" Summer asked somewhat excitedly.

"The girl wasn't tidy about getting away. She's a rich and sheltered girl. She bought a ticket out of the city with some pocket change she had. Well, and a little threatening by throwing her family name around. Some sort of lightning semblance, we think. Nobody knows where she got aura, though."

He basically said nothing we could use. He must be running out of fuel to run that mouth of his.

Summer passed another fifty lien card and the bartender shook his head. Summer sighed and passed a hundred. The bartender smiled toothily and passed back the fifty. I guess a hundred lien is the fee. "Furijiya." Summer left without another word.

" _That was easy."_ I commented.

" _It was. It doesn't seem like the girl is very smart though. That's good right now but she's going to be a pain, I can tell. Now we have to get on the bullhead again."_

… I wish I had gotten to go into the underground. It seemed like such a cool place.

[|||| == ||||]

Furijiya was boring. No way around it. The city was fairly new and quiet. Not much happening but some construction. Just a really tiny city still being constructed. It was located northeast - with an emphasis on east - of Wind Path on the peninsula. It had only taken three hours since the pilot had needed to refuel for another half an hour.

" _I've got some ideas for finding Bondi. I'm going to make an avatar and go see if my route works."_

" _What're you planning?"_ Summer said suspiciously.

" _I'm going to go invisible and poke around the local gangs. They're powerful, right?"_

" _That might work. Go for it."_

I made an avatar and sent it invisibly flying through the city. I didn't really like flying but I admit that it's useful. It's really draining even with my absurd affinity for wind. Flight wasn't viable for combat because of it's cost. It was also hard to maintain since it was complex on top of expensive. Funnily enough, according to the book it was one of the best flying spells out there second only to a gravity spell. Everybody just teleported everywhere. It was cheaper in terms of mana and space magic could transport people in bulk.

Either way I could still use flight sometimes. Like now. I flew over the city and looked for a big headquarters for gangs. It didn't take long. Maybe ten minutes. I landed my avatar and swept through the whole building almost effortlessly. I could see everything, go invisible, and silence an area. It wasn't hard to be quiet. I even gained two levels from the more terrible human beings in the building. There weren't many, surprisingly. Maybe it was a Vacuo thing.

I had the boss on his knees with my magic controlling his breath. "Now… what do you know about Bondi Trys. Sort of rich girl, lightning semblance, passed through a while ago… she might still be here actually."

"She got a loan and ran east with a horse twelve hours ago! She came in here all swagger and pomp but actually desperate! She ran right after she got her money! I sent a hitman after her I'm sorry! Please let me live!"

"Of course you're going to live. You haven't done anything really bad yet. Let's see, four counts of extortion, eighteen successful heists, extensive amounts of bribery, and three assisted murders. Smart fellow, though, all those people were real assholes so if you were caught you could plead vigilantism. You're just here to keep an eye on things, right?"

"I-but-but I-dauh-huh? How?!"

"Yes, yes. Now go to sleep. And get a new job. Not everybody is as forgiving as me and I'm a bit of a bastard myself. I also killed four members on the way here. All the assholes who deserved it I assure you but-and he's unconscious."

I hummed as the man's brain finally knocked himself out from the pain of being choked. Anatomy was really helping me out here. I could easily count down in my head how long it would take for the man to pass out thanks to visual cues. It was terribly convenient.

Now with everybody knocked out or dead I could loot the building with a parallel and tell Summer. Say, how is she doing with that bar hopping?

[|||| == ||||]

Summer was currently walking from one bar to the next information hotspot I think. _"I found her. She went east. She has a horse. She has a hitman after her. That's all the boss I interrogated knows since she apparently stopped only for a few hours before running."_

Summer slowed and looked to the sun before walking quickly in a direction. _"I looked in two bars and a bona fide information dealer. How did you find the information?"_

" _I got lucky. The man I interrogated was a local gang leader more here to keep an eye on things than do actual work. He gave Bondi a loan and she ditched him. He had probably already been looking into her to send a message or work her to pay her debt back somehow."_

" _Lucky indeed. Now the only place east worth a fart in the wind is Keshi. A small town around the edge but still just big enough to hide in. Bondi isn't a complete idiot it seems. Bondi is small and out of the way. She could probably hideout there for a while in a brothel or something. Maybe she'll play huntress and shoot lightning at the grimm."_

" _Let's hope for the best. Can we take the bullhead?"_

" _When did Bondi leave?"_

" _Twelve hours ago."_

" _Then we'll sprint it. The bullhead is still refueling and we'll better find her on foot."_

I quieted as Summer walked a few minutes more to the edge of town. She found a road and took down it at a quiet jog. After getting somewhat out of sight Summer sped up and eased into a run. Summer could run for a LONG time too. Her VIT was over five hundred with aura so she could keep herself going for over a day. She once said she had gone two days without stopping once but wasn't anywhere near fighting condition then.

I didn't slack off either. I tapped into the wind and gave her a strong tailwind to push her along a little. I also pushed my space affinity with a parallel and pulled a weaken spacial interference spell in front of Summer. Finally I pushed my motion affinity and made momentum constant while negating air pressure. Summer was going REALLY fast now. Not speed of sound but more like bounding down the road at the speeds of a car with the agility of a professional gymnast, which she probably was come to think of it. Perhaps not a contortionist but no slouch either.

I also looked around with mage sight a bit though I couldn't properly focus with it. I maintained the tailwind, the least draining part of our system, at the same time though so I couldn't properly look.

For over three hours I vigilantly scanned the country while Summer ran. I had pushed our mana and aura regeneration to the limit and sometimes a little beyond to keep the pace. Sometimes a grimm would be in our path and I would blast it with an electrically attuned mana arrow to kill it. They barely impeded us.

Finally after so long following the road we must have gone a quarter of the way across the peninsula. Further ahead on the path I noticed a young lady and an older woman with two horses ahead of us. The lady wore tattered everyday wear of a long sleeved somewhat light blue shirt and dark grey pants. Her blonde hair was short and swept almost over her left eye.

The older woman was far more interesting and clearly more deadly. She wore her ashen grey hair down to her neck in silky curls that stayed out of her eyes. A black and blue almost bodysuit-like attire was on her and no jewelry other than a small steel amulet hanging down to her breasts. Strangely enough it looked almost casual while at the same time enticing. It didn't escape me that she had plenty of concealed weapons underneath her clothing. Her eyes seemed to almost glow with how fiery a golden amber they were. She was dangerous. Extremely so.

I slapped an observe on both of them as soon as they came into view.

 **Bondi Trys**

 **Title: Maiden of Spring**

 **Level – 19**

 **HP – 77**

 **AP – 680**

 **MP - 20,680**

 **STR - 6 (+10%)= 6.6**

 **VIT - 7 (+10%)= 7.7**

 **DEX - 14 (+10%)= 15.4**

 **INT - 47 (+0%)=47**

 **WIS - 17 (+0%)= 17**

 **LUK - 12 (+0%)= 12**

 **Semblance: Locked**

 **Affinities:**

 **Lightning: 1036**

 **Wind: 1024**

 **Nature: 1009**

 **Earth: 1000**

 **Water: 1000**

 **Fire: 1000**

 **Ice: 1000**

 **Chaos: 22**

 **Perks:**

 **Maiden of Spring - You are a maiden. One of the heirs of the legendary women blessed with powers by the wizard. Whether this power is a blessing, a burden, or a tool is decided by you and you alone. No matter your decision you are worthy. +1000% to MP capacity and regeneration. Mana and aura are unlocked. Nature, fire, water, ice, wind, lightning, and earth affinities are increased by 1500. Luck increased by 100 in spring. No limits on your total affinities.**

 **Bio: Bondi Tris was born into a wealthy family in Wind Path. Her parents were upper managers at the local mines that made a sizable sum off of the smuggling operations common in Wind Path.**

 **Bondi decided early on that she wanted to be a musician and she trained under tutors in the clarinet and soprano saxophone. Her parents also allowed her private tutors in every core study typically taught at school.**

 **Throughout her life Bondi was mostly confined to the upper districts of the west under-district of Wind Path and so she grew up lonely. In addition, her parents were rather strict and valued the trait in her tutors, which gave her trust issues of authority figures and a eschewment for many rules. Last year she begged to be granted more freedom after gaining top scores in the REAA (Remnant educational aptitude assessment) at eighteen with several advanced subjects being covered in addition.**

 **She recently murdered her close friend, Cadet Frost, on accident in surprise. She is running from Wind Path to escape her parents, her guilt, and criminal charges.**

 **Ashaya Fall**

 **Title: Queen's finest; Burning spectre**

 **Level – 229**

 **HP – 7362.5**

 **AP – 10,656**

 **MP - Locked**

 **STR - 181 (+680%)= 1411.8**

 **VIT - 155 (+680%)= 1209**

 **DEX - 268 (+680%)= 2090.4**

 **INT - 138 (+0%)= 138**

 **WIS - 296 (+0%)= 296**

 **LUK - 107 (+0%)= 107**

 **Semblance: See the world burn to ashes - Your body may be composed of fire or burning ashes at will. Consumes very little aura at the lowest possible heat. More heat emitted means more aura consumed.**

 **Affinities: Locked**

 **Perks:**

 **Favor of the queen - The queen of grimm, Salem, has grown attached to you. You have slavishly devoted yourself to her and been granted a unique boon as well as other effects. You are damaged by purity affinity. Some grimm will obey you and none will attack you. All entities with a natural born purity affinity will be able to sense your alignment and will be naturally hostile in nature to you.**

 **Boon: Blackest soul: Your soul has been tainted by corruption and eldritch powers. As a result of shunning your soul's natural form your soul must be forced to shield you as it wishes for death due to it's corruption. Your aura provides double the physical buff it normally does. Shielding must be done manually. Aura size is reduced by 10% Regeneration due to aura is incredibly rapid; almost instantaneous; and 90% cheaper than usual.**

 **Bio: Ashaya Fall is the mother to Cinder and Ember Fall and a devoted agent of the queen of grimm.**

 **At an early age she ran from her abusive family seeking strength. She found Salem and was put through trials to serve her. Grimm being the most powerful force on Remnant she eagerly agreed and faced several trials such as killing her family, seducing a man, and committing self mutilation in Salem's name.**

 **At age nine she was formally trained by Salem to become powerful. For years she has served as Salem's primary agent and has even birthed two daughters for her, named Cinder and Ember Fall. She is teaching them when possible and preaching absolute obedience to Salem, who is their mother figure. She is currently attempting to befriend the Spring maiden to sacrifice her to her daughter Ember as well as waiting for Summer Rose to appear so she may kill her. She is equipped with two custom made dustcaster swords equipped with wind, fire, and corrupt dust as well as an amulet enchanted to deny teleportation. She's incredibly skilled beyond that of masters in her twin blades to make up for her physique, which falls just short of that of the strongest hunters.**

 **She knows you are there.**

While the lines about having two daughters I nearly stopped but continued. At the last line in Asha's bio I immediately shouted _"SUMMER STOP!"_ And to her credit she did. I stopped all of my buffs and told her fearfully _"There's an extremely powerful enemy ahead. Her aura is tainted by corruption, making it… different. She isn't a wizard or witch or whatever you call female magic users. The maiden is with her. Be extremely careful since she has an anti-teleport amulet as we suspected."_

" _Does she know I'm here?"_ Summer questioned calmly.

" _Yes. However, she doesn't know that you know she knows. She intends to ambush you. Possibly under the pretense of friendship. Her semblance is to turn her body to fire. Or part of it into fire anyways. She's hurt by the purity element. Her aura pool is smaller than yours but she's also extremely fast and strong. Far more than you on all accounts. Our only advantage is our aura pool and magic. However, she regenerates instantaneously and at a tenth of the cost most do."_

"Shit!" Summer hissed out loud. I felt her soul shift as every aura enhancement she had was applied to her. I pitched in as best as I could with the sensory buff focused on her sight to more accurately let Summer see Ashaya's blades when they inevitably clashed.

" _We'll talk to the maiden first. Even if she is untrained a maiden is powerful enough to be important. Attacking first would be pointless since Ashaya knows we're here and she isn't attacking. Bondi might be hostile if we attack as well."_

Summer kept her sword sheathed and walked up the path at a sedate pace. I noticed Ashaya look towards us and narrow her eyes. My lip reading skill kicked in and I could make out some of what they were saying.

"Is something wrong?" Bondi asked.

"Not particularly." Ashaya said casually. "A rather bad woman is coming here. I can defend you if you want."

"What?! How can you tell?!"

"Like I told you, dear, I'm a huntress. I have good ears as well. You can trust me to know these things."

Bondi looked extremely concerned but also rather hesitant. "I'd like to talk to her or him first."

Ashaya frowned disapprovingly at Bondi but said nothing. Summer came into the clearing with her soothing smile on her. The same one she had when she found me. It was hard to tell that it was fake.

"Hi! You're Bondi, right?" Summer asked cheerily. Bondi nodded. Ashaya casted a burning gaze into Summer's eyes, clearly hostile. Summer didn't look at her but I had a sense that her entire focus was on her rather than Bondi despite the fact that she looked to be talking to her.

"And you are?"

Summer took a deep and dramatic bow while leaving no openings. I wonder how long she practiced this. "Summer Rose! Huntress extraordinaire at your service!"

"Wait, Summer Rose?! THE Summer Rose?!" Bondi looked at Summer closely. "The one from team STRQ?"

" _Why couldn't you have been this way? You called me a pedo and pushed me away! Look at this nice girl playing along!"_ Summer complained to me. I rolled my metaphorical eyes.

"Yup! Ozpin wants to meet with you. Nothing bad, I promise, but people like you are special. Not everybody can do the things you can. I can bring him here right now if you want…"

In a way I could. The portal spell wasn't bound by distance and didn't need a marker like teleported marker. My marker was at the Xiao Long residence right now though. The portal just needed about a minute to form properly since not having a marker made it a bit hard to get it in the right place. I could probably make one faster with practice but I don't care to. Blink is my combat teleportation.

"I… No thanks." Bondi said with a frown.

Summer faked looking confused. "Why not?"

"Ashaya already offered me a job at her family home as a musician. I just want to live my life in peace. I don't want anything to do with huntresses. Sorry if that disappoints you."

" _So the hard way it is then. This is going to be hard, of course."_

" _Could you do something?"_

" _Stall. I've got something a bit draining but no less good."_ I called on several affinities and stirred the sky. Clouds began to coalesce to a darker form.

"He's not going to force you to do anything you know. Ashaya can come too if she wants." Ashaya shook her head. She didn't notice the clouds forming. I made a parallel maintain the light levels from a clear sky so it wasn't obvious.

"I'm sorry miss Rose but we have a ship to catch in Keshi. It would be a shame if we missed it so we'll have to end it here."

" _Done."_ I said. I had combined my disaster call skill with storm to make an artificial storm quickly. It wasn't fast but it wasn't slow either. It took all of my electrical, air, and water affinity to hold it back. Even then it was getting stronger with every second I held it back. At best I could direct it's strike but lightning was more than just electricity. It was stronger. I was missing that core component that only made it stronger.

I collected all of the charge in one place for the first large bolt and waited for a signal. Turbulence kept building the charge in the storm and making me struggle to hold the bolt with my low affinity.

Sadly all I could do to protect Summer was cool the air around her to protect her from the coming heat and still it to muffle the boom. Poor Ashaya, having good hearing.

"End it here you say? Well… we can do that I suppose."

" _Now."_

I let the lightning loose and pointed it straight down onto Ashaya. Somebody screamed and the world went white.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: 18,200 MP + 19,224 MP = 37,424 MP total from Abyss and Sum.**

 **25,012 AP + 31,780 AP = 56,792 AP total from Abyss and Sum**

 **I decided to just repeat it for anyone who had this slip their mind but AFFINITIES DO NOT STACK DUE TO PASSENGER! If Summer and Abyss used the same spell Abyss' would be MUCH stronger than Summer's because of his skills and the 4x total affinities bonus. Summer is more experienced and has absurd physical stats compared to Abyss and she outclasses him on aura and is a thousand off from his mana and that's only because of his passenger title. Additionally, Summer always focuses on fighting enemies physically while Abyss multitasks between sending barrages of spells and helping Summer out. They draw from the same aura pool as well due to merging their souls and mutually granted permissions (They can undo this whenever they feel like it btw).**

 **Enjoy the chapter.**

[|||| = **LEVEL 10** = ||||]

I looked around with my mage sight as soon as the strike fell and saw Ashaya looking fine. Bondi was gasping on the ground in some pain. Did she…

 **HP – 76/77**

 **AP – 0/680**

 **MP - 2,234/20,680**

She did. She blocked the lightning. Then… The scream was her sensing the lightning attuned mana and reacting. Death would have traumatized her from killing her best friend… damn it.

" _Summer. Are you alright?"_

I looked to Summer, who was touching her ears, which were bleeding, and looking to the lightning bolt with a dazed expression. Ashaya was looking to Bondi with surprise meanwhile. I think she was more used to pain than Summer since she wasn't reacting. Or maybe she couldn't feel anything. Maybe Bondi shielded her from the sound. I don't know.

I casted a heal on Summer's eardrums and slapped a supplement spell on her to wake her up… I should make an adrenaline spell… Later.

Ashaya shook off her surprise and blurred forward faster than I could see. Not faster than I could react, though, at her distance. I made a wall of curved hard light in front of her and she slowed and struck it.

The barrier immediately shattered and I dumped mana into a resist spatial interference spell. Ashaya was slowed. She narrowed her eyes at the deceleration and I shot ten arrows of light at her in angles to make her go back.

She dodged them, of course. My DEX was far too low to even see her move if she wasn't being slowed by magic. Actually, even slowed I doubt I'd ever catch her at even a casual pace.

Finally Summer got up as my heal spell finished. I swept through her body with her senses and found no other wounds. Good.

With Summer finally up I pulled water down from the storm and made the air clouded in a thick mist. I then tried a rather risky maneuver. I stole all the light from the air and made a large dome absent of light. A parallel kept the environment the way I wanted it.

Summer flicked on a controlled light vision and grinned. Ashaya was fighting blind and her semblance was blocked off by the thick mist. Turning to fire would extinguish or at least suppress her enough to make her use aura to drive back the mist. I'm leaning more towards her using the latter option.

I shared Ashaya's location through a controlled light vision spell. Mage sight was working fine too just in case. Summer pursued her quietly and I stilled the air to quell sound. Something must have given us away, though, or perhaps it's that warriors instinct thing, but Ashaya pivoted and parried neatly and swiped with her other sword.

Summer leaned back and I shot a wind arrow at Ashaya and dropped the still winds. No blows had connected so far and I had to conserve mana. I was already at about three fourths of our MP. We still had aura, though, which I could take from in an emergency.

Ashaya pursued Summer's awkward pose and Summer rolled backwards. _"Her eyes should be adjusted to the darkness. I'm going to drop the dome soon."_ Summer sent a pang of agreement and acknowledgement.

Summer darted forwards and shifted her weapon to her longsword and performed some fancy swordwork with Ashaya. I could barely see it when Ashaya landed a light slash across Summer's shoulder. I could only feel it with our aura. Summer ignored the blow and pressed further. She received several more slashes and I decided to lift the barrier.

I lifted the dome and made sure to shine an intense beam of light to Ashaya's eyes. She simply closed her eyes. Bitch. Summer whipped a dagger of hard light in her off hand and Ashaya moved just a little bit. The hard light dagger gave her a small cut on her nose and I took what I hoped to be a distraction to fire a flurry of wind blades from Summer's sword.

Ashaya's eyes almost opened in surprise and she slashed in what looked like wild patterns to me but I was stunned as I felt the wind blades to have dissipated. She… slashed the blades to disperse them at that range?! Absurd.

I snarled internally and took a bit of a leap. I drew on my strongest affinity, purity, and melded it with my wind affinity, my second strongest, to wrap a maelstrom of purity charged air around Summer. Ashaya gasped as she felt the air and I saw her skin smoke. Her HP dropped very slowly under the purity but it didn't hurt her much. It did distract her though.

I projected a spear filled with purity mana and thrusted it at her. A small flash of fear crossed her face and she leaped backward in a palm spring. She must have a natural aversion to purity, being a corrupted soul. I dismissed the projectile, thinking it a useless cause, and watched her as she did something.

A mechanism had shifted on Ashaya's swords and she twirled them rapidly. Fire leapt from her sword towards us. Summer and I shared mutual alarm at the dustcasting and Summer cartwheeled out of the way and yet more fire licked her skin. I drew the fog still surrounding us to weaken the fire with it's moisture and only partially succeeded. These were dust based flames. Not campfires.

Luckily I had a good spell for this though I REALLY needed to stop casting so much and urged Summer to move. I flash stepped us out of harm's way and Summer and I flash stepped towards Ashaya who hissed and engaged Summer again. I sent to Summer that I had to rest a little after such an engagement and she took the reigns of the fight.

I rummaged around in my inventory for anything that might help and found only a few things. The dust, firstly. I had the dust absorb ability and that MIGHT help a little… My absorb dust skill was useless without a body, though. I don't know the negative effects and I don't care to find out without a controlled environment. Maybe Summer could do something with it?

The only other thing would be an old project of mine. A weapon, specifically. I had done it mostly out of boredom. An advanced repeating crossbow with special bolts made of an alloy of steel and novis, the dust absorbing metal. The bolts would explode upon contact if I pushed aura into them and shot them. They were powerful as well. But I couldn't really use that on account of not having a body. I don't know if the crossbow would still work right anyways.

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. Purity was Ashaya's natural enemy. I could infuse things with purity… I was internally smirking as I imbued purity attuned mana to Summer's weapon. I briefly thought of it as consecrating the weapon and dismissed the thought. This was no time for that drivel.

Ugh. I focused back on the outside area and was just in time to feel Summer receive a terrible cut to the chest. Aura held out but I checked the pools and we were at maybe sixty percent. Damn that strength of Ashaya's was a killer. Aura sensing told me that Summer had scored a hit or two as well. Ashaya was at seven thousand, three fourths of her aura.

I shot a flurry of light arrows and she had to back off a little. _"I have dust in my inventory. Can you use that?"_ Summer sent a resounding yes and a moment later she asked for a water or ice. I deposited a water crystal in her left hand and she gripped it hard. She swept her hand out and pressurised jets of water saturated with purity attuned aura arced out like a living whip of pressurized water. Ashaya had no choice but to use her semblance for the first time.

She seemed to blur as her entire body became flame. Pale blue flames specifically. Strange. Cinder was more of a red and orange girl. Well, Ashaya wasn't using red anyways. Sadly blue flames were hotter than red flames. Sad for us I mean, though that does give me a few ideas for elements.

I was surprised when I saw that we were actually not using much AP fueling the whip. Most of the aura was seemingly coming from the crystal. Smart. Taking advantage of the crystal to naturally combine the elements was a sneaky thing I wish I had learned earlier.

It irritated me that Ashaya was actually FASTER in her flame body. We could barely keep up with her before and now we had to deal with this? Ridiculous. I decided to go a little adventurous and materialised a low grade wind dust crystal. Immediately I used it to do a new spell I had learned. Tornado. I made sure that Summer was safe and kept the winds mostly calm around her but the tornado sprung up and whipped and whirled near Ashaya. Flames flickered and were torn from her and a wordless cry of pain leapt from her fiery mouth. She turned back to her physical form and I gleefully noted that she had lost maybe three hundred HP. I hadn't used much AP either to use that tornado.

I made a quick note of Bondi, who was thrown out of the way of the fight by the tornado. She had been flung into a tree with her back taking the impact. It was broken, my anatomy skill said. Probably unhealable. Well at least she wasn't dead… just injured and maybe crippled… Well screw her. We played nice. It's regrettable but we tried.

Ashaya slammed a foot onto the ground and closed the distance once more. I sighed and created a warp and resist spatial interference to slow her down and give us more distance and placed a new crystal, ice this time, in Summer's hand.

With a vicious grin Summer used the whole crystal and a large amount of AP - wait that's like five thousand AP you greedy woman! With the hits and the whip and the tornado we're down to twenty thousand. Summer flung a huge spear of ice at Ashaya. I threw in my own two cents and bent the light that bounced off the ice randomly to hopefully confuse Ashaya for a moment.

My plan somewhat worked and Ashaya jumped late. It was likely fatigue as well as the crude illusion caused her to land early and have her right foot yanked backwards by the speed of the spear, leaving a bloody spray as the spear left a harsh gash. She flipped and landed but it was unsteady. A slight wince gave me the satisfaction of knowing she was in pain.

Summer flashed stepped towards her with my unspoken approval and Ashaya smirked. Oh SHIT! Summer was not prepared for Ashaya swiping at her with not one of her swords but a weapon concealed in her suit. I had forgotten about those. Damnit.

Ashaya slashed with a very short shortsword or what might be a massive knife that directly connected to Summer's knee. Summer wasn't done, though. The debilitating strike had just taken almost half out remaining AP and now we were at ten thousand. That high strength was killing us quickly.

Summer's sword transformed to her final form, a pistol. She flicked a switch I didn't know she had for some unknown reason but I didn't pay attention. I sent a powerful gust of wind at Ashaya and tried to blow her back. My mana spluttered and the gust came out as a particularly strong breeze. I recalled the mana in confusion as I got a message.

 **MP too Low! 1931/37424**

Oh no… Ashaya tensed her legs and lunged towards Summer with her sword and knife. A million things seemed to happen at once.

Summer opened fire on Ashaya with her pistol, which was apparently full auto now that the switch was flicked. Bullets rained down on her en masse and I noticed one shatter the metal amulet stopping teleportation.

A red portal sprung open and the tip of a dark red sword peeked out with speed.

Ashaya drew closer, her aura almost shattered. Her swords stabbing towards Summer.

Summer's magazine clicked dry and Ashaya's aura broke as just two bullets made it through, slamming into her torso.

I recovered just enough to make a powerful arrow of mana, not having the presence of mind or time to put an element on it.

The blade from the portal flew outwards with a woman wearing a complex mask of bone. Raven.

Ashaya's head blew off by the arrow and her right hand's blade shifted just slightly. Her left hand's blade still slammed into Summer's gut, hitting the right lung my humanoid anatomy skill informed me quietly, and her right sword just barely missed her heart directly and instead slid just outside of it. A number of dings were heard and I ignored all of them.

My anatomy skill whispered that the blade sliced her heart open even if it didn't hit it directly. No chance of survival. Not from both wounds.

My skill was clearly wrong, of course. Summer wouldn't die. I was strong. Of course I could save her. With both her and me she obviously wouldn't die. That's why I was training of course. That's why I haven't made a new body obviously. With all the training she wouldn't die. Not a chance.

Ah, the best way to get her back home was through the teleport spell, right? The marker one. It was nearly nighttime so Taiyang would be home. He could probably do something.

I smiled inside as I pulled on the marker with my skill. My mana was nearly out. One hundred eight points? Wow, cutting it close with no aura… well I'll be more careful next time. Summer was pulled inwards as we teleported instantly to the marker. She popped into existence standing right in front of the kitchen table. She fell backwards and crashed onto the table. It tilted a little and Summer fell off of it to the floor. She was barely breathing.

" _Take… my eyes… you're making a new body… right? Project… Silver… save them. Ru… by…"_

" _Don't be ridiculous Summer. You'll be fine."_ I chided. Ridiculous. She was just being dramatic. Like the time she pretended to be dying when Tai joked that with all the chores I was doing I was replacing Summer. Or like the time I took away the mana we shared since she was childishly freezing and unfreezing a cup of water. She was going to break the glass! Maybe I was mothering everybody too much…

Now where was Tai? Oh! Right at the table. And there's Ruby and Yang! Dinnertime? Is that canned ravioli for dinner?! Tai that's just pathetic bachelor food. Really now… Ah yes…

"Tai could you help Summer out? She's just being dramatic. It's just a flesh wound." Tai stared with wide eyes. He stood perfectly still. The blood was leaking onto her cloak now. I sighed internally. _"I'm not cleaning it Summer. Blood is even harder to get out than travel stains."_ Well, I assume grimm blood is as hard as human blood.

"Tai hurry up would you? Dinner isn't really as important as giving Sum a hug is it?" Tai stared. Ruby slid off of her chair and took a shaky step towards Summer. Then another and she fell to her knees. She reached for Summer's hood and pulled her hood down with trembling hands. She moved Summer's head and looked at her eyes. Summer's eyes blinked slowly. Very slowly. "Give Abyss… eyes." She whispered so softly it could barely be heard over the silent room. "Love… you…"

Summer closed her eyes and her head fell into Ruby's lap. Ruby stared with wide eyes. There were no tears.

Tai suddenly leapt into action. "SUMMER!" He raced upstairs with pounding feet and came down just seconds later with a medical kit. He tore Summer's clothes off and recoiled when he saw the swords impaled in her. He tenderly placed a shaking finger on the blade pierc- near her her heart. It didn't hurt anything vital. Maybe she'd get some battle scars or something.

Tai took a moment to pull the swords out of Summer and stitched up the wounds. I took a moment to look at the text that had popped up.

 **(AN: He's stitching the wounds to stop his daughters from seeing the blood)**

 ***Ding!* Summer Rose has died. Her inventory has been transferred to yours. She has bequeathed unto you her eyes. They will not decay until they have been used because of this as she intended. Remember to respect the sacrifices of the fallen. Do not forget their last words.**

 ***Ding!* You have killed Ashaya Fall! You gained 19,439,650 XP! You leveled up 63x**

 ***Ding!* As Ashaya Fall's sole living killer her post-mortem acquired XP will instead go to you for the killing of Summer Rose. You gained 14,323,420 XP. You leveled up 34x**

 ***Ding!* As your host has died you have been ejected from her body.**

Strange. The text had never displayed anything wrong before. I looked into Summer and didn't see her aura. I shrugged my metaphorical shoulders and looked around. Oh, her eyes. Those have aura. I drifted towards the eyes and felt a small barrier around them. Like a candle that hadn't been lit. Oh, Ruby. Sorry, I thought you were Summer. My bad. Where'd her aura go?

I took a few more minutes to look at Tai stitch Summer's wounds. He worked fast. He finished as I looked at him and he left to the phone in the kitchen. I floated over to him and heard the conversation through lip reading.

"-in the house now… Yes. She's dead… Yes… Please."

I looked to Summer again and blinked once. Twice. A third time. Then I focused hard. No, there was no aura in her… I focused harder. Still no aura…

Summer is dead… Don't cry Ruby. Please don't cry…

I formed an avatar that flickered weakly due to my pathetically reduced reserves and sat next to Summer next to Ruby. It was the least I could do. Ruby hugged her and bawled on her cloak. Yang stared. Just stared. I held Summer's hand. It was the least I could do.

[|||| == ||||]

We held a funeral service for Summer the day after she died. I used a scalpel on her eyes and put them in my inventory. A sort of stasis went over them but I really didn't pay attention.

Ruby wore a black dress of Summer's because she had nothing else. It was way too big for her. I met Qrow for the first time. He arrived an hour before the funeral and took the service sober. We buried Summer at the cliffside with a small memorial Ozpin brought from somewhere. Raven stood way in the back. Nobody but me noticed because she sat with her legs pressed into her chest in the shadows of a tree.

The only people in the crowd were Ozpin, Glynda, Qrow, Ruby, Tai, Yang, Raven in the shadows, and myself. Summer didn't have very many friends. Besides… keeping her out would be… nobody wanted to do that. Nobody.

Summer's cloak was buried with her. That and her best huntress clothes.

After the funeral I assumed nobody would want me around. I began walking off but Ruby held my hand. I stayed and she cried on my leg. Yang cried into her father's chest while he sobbed into her hair. Raven cried into her knees in the tree. Qrow cried into his hands. Glynda cried silently while taking shuddering breaths. She seemed used to this. How sad. Ozpin didn't cry. He looked tired and empty. I couldn't cry. So I made the sky cry. It rained for her.

Ozpin left first. Glynda left a few minutes later. Then Tai brought Yang back. He didn't seem to want to go… but he did. Qrow finally left after Yang. He left Ruby with me.

Finally Ruby and I sat down. I drew the water out of our clothes and let the rain fall on us. After a few minutes Raven walked over to us and sat down next to me. We sat there for a while. Just the three of us.

It was probably an hour later that Ruby fell asleep on my leg. I kept her warm with heat mana, not having any body heat of my own. Raven broke the silence. "I killed the maiden. Broken back… she wouldn't have survived Salem." I sighed.

"That's fine. You're the maiden?" She nodded sadly.

"My last year before becoming ineligible. I'm thirty four." I said nothing.

"... I need help." Raven said quietly. It seemed like she meant to sound like she had forced the words but they were just sad. "You're a wizard. You can teach magic…" I nodded again. "... Please." The last words were a hoarse whisper. "I don't know how to… use it. I need it."

For the first time I looked left to Raven and looked into her eyes. They were scared. Sad. Regretful. I looked for a while before sighing and standing up. I dried Ruby off with my affinity and opened a portal to Yang with my parallels. I couldn't focus enough, I knew. Yang was in her bedroom sleeping.

For a moment I paused and looked at Ruby. I hugged her and tried something. I gave her a piece of my aura. Her aura slowly opened like a flower blooming and I marvelled at it for a moment. Then I dropped her softly onto the bed with Yang. I would protect Ruby. This was the start.

"..." I stared blankly into space for a moment… Raven… Why was I helping her… I looked at her again. "You kill innocents." I stated it as a fact but Raven sighed wearily and nodded.

"Sometimes. I try… I try not to. Sometimes." I looked at her without emotion. I withdrew the book on magic. The general primer Ozpin had gotten me. I handed it to her without any ceremony. Raven got the message. It was a solemnity between us that we could both understand.

I then left through the portal and left her alone. I bent the light to make my portal invisible and looked at her. She cried just a little bit more on the book and left through a portal.

[|||| == ||||]

A month passed. We all handled our grief in different ways. Yang got more social and left the house more often. I was left with Ruby. Ruby clung to me for her grief. Tai had nothing to do. I took care of Ruby better than he ever could with his grieving and he knew it. I had Summer's cookie recipe, though it was my cookie recipe now. He finally ended up talking to friends and taking care of the house. I think he took up training again as well.

Qrow took up drinking. He wandered off again. Raven threw herself into her magic and her tribe. I checked in with her about once a week and we traded tips. Mostly me giving her advice, though. I was far more experienced than she was. I never told Yang about our contact. Raven's business was her own and I still respected the ideal of freedom. If to Raven freedom was keeping her tribe than I would respect it. We were similar in a way I guess.

I myself threw myself into my studies after taking care of Ruby. I wasn't real. An avatar. A soul in the shape of what I once was. I maxed out my runes and my enchanting was at ninety seven. Strange how those two skills were so useless when I needed power the most. Metalworking leveled up fast as well. Maybe in the mindless work I put into the skill. I only bothered to get it to seventy before I stopped.

My growth skill slowly leveled as I kept it on all the time. The forest grew lush until a parallel leveled it with wind blades eventually. I already knew how to make a homunculi. I had maxed my anatomy skill out. I just needed to be able to grow quickly, which only took the time to level the skill.

It took time to scar over the wound. There was an emptiness in the house. I could only fill it for Ruby and even then I didn't have the love Summer did. Tai was never father material. He could change but he wasn't father material now and now was when it mattered. Yang ran from the emptiness and filled it with cheap friends that changed by the day. She was more like her mother than she cared to realize. I don't know where Qrow went. Probably missions. I never asked Ozpin. In some small way I don't blame him for not crying. He was an empty, tired man. He just didn't show it all that much. I started to think that wisdom of the ages was far more of a curse than I dared to realize before.

Time passed. And wounds began to heal.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]

 **AN: … I feel bad… I'm going to bed. I really liked Summer as a character. She was… nice to write. The toning down of other characters and just filling her to bursting with it? That was intentional. There's no spark in the Xiao-Long/Rose house without her.**

 **Raven is just there. She's not a terrible person. She's a person with problems. She and Abyss are alike in that. That's why they get along.**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Ruby is six years old. That makes Yang eight years old. Well, more like nine by my estimate. I think she's a little over two years older than Ruby but that's just me.**

 **Also, we have a new sort of… feature, I suppose I'd call it. These short little snippets of dialogue between characters. They're important. Very important. I'm using them because more things are happening in the background than Abyss can see. Or that I'm able to accurately display. That's why we have these. To show the world from a slightly different perspective, be it Raven's, Ruby's, Tai's, or somebody who you'll meet very soon… mwahahaha *rubs hands together evilly*.**

[||||= **LEVEL 11** = ||||]

 _4 years 11 months in Remnant_

 _6 months after Summer's death_

" _Abyss?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _How did mom die?"_

"… _she died fighting for Ozpin's dream. A woman named Ashaya Fall died to kill her."_

" _Was she in pain when she died?"_

" _Yes. Her lungs were flooded with blood and breathing further sliced her lungs and heart to ribbons… that she could speak at all was extraordinary. And painful._

" _However… Pain doesn't mean she wasn't happy as she died."_

" _Wh-... What do you mean?"_

" _She died giving me power and a goal. She gave you me. She gave Tai closure. And she honored her promise to Yang to her last breath."_

" _Her promise?"_

" _To always come back home. To never leave her as Raven has."_

" _... I want mom to leave again. I want her to come back then. For real."_

" _... Summer won't be coming back. One day we can all go to her though. We just have to be patient."_

[|||| == ||||]

" _C'mon Ruby. Wake up."_

"Mrblennnn…" I sighed and resorted to extreme tactics. I pushed her out of bed with motion mana and she fell onto the floor with a thump.

Blearily Ruby got up in a zombie like fashion and stumbled to the bathroom. I heated up the water since she was incapable of simple things without a shower.

It wasn't lack of sleep or stress or anything like that. Ruby was just the suckiest morning person I've ever seen right after how I used to be. I tried coffee once but besides her hating the taste of any coffee I can make made her get too hyper afterwards.

After five minutes of waking up under the water Ruby brushed her teeth and did all the girl stuff I didn't understand. I just shampooed, brushed my teeth, and used deodorant when I was a teen. Yang rubs off on her apparently.

She dressed in a red tee with some logo and a slogan. I disliked the logos like Summer did, and Raven too, I recently learned, but Ruby didn't mind if she was comfortable. I just shrugged it off now.

She scared down my breakfast and finally woke up in full. I glanced at the clock. Six forty eight. Two minutes early is alright. Ruby's school isn't super strict on attendance anyways. That attitude applied to most of Patch really.

Ruby tossed on some sneakers and began her jog to school. It used to be that Tai drove her but he had gotten a job at Signal and needed the car to carry things. I looked after Ruby when she was out.

I had taken it upon myself to train Ruby early since she had aura. She was becoming stronger slowly. I hadn't let her handle real weapons yet, but training was fair game.

I made sure to not push her harder than her growing body could take. I could encourage her body to grow more muscle with my budding life affinity, small as it may be. It helped to make growth more efficient as well.

Ruby was by no means a fighter yet. Her DEX was only at ten. Her strength was developing slower because of her body type. Only eight. Her INT and WIS were well above the norm at t fifteen and thirteen. She trained those herself.

I myself had only focused on my skills. I wanted a body soon. I occasionally trained my weapons skills but only gained a few levels in it. It was stress relief more than actual training.

Ruby had asked about weapons and while I had denied at first she swore up and down to be responsible with them to the highest degree. I took every precaution from a quiz on gun safety my most underused spell, mage armor, on her at all times.

Ruby aced the test of course. It was just common sense with guns and to show respect to them. She finished it no problem.

Very carefully I allowed her to test what guns I had in my inventory to see which she liked the best. Aura made sure she didn't break anything important and I fixed any bruises. Ruby didn't even notice most of them.

Of course she liked the sniper rifle the best. Then she wanted to try melee weapons. I forged some weapons like a scythe, sword, ace, and anything else I cared to think of and let Ruby have at it.

It was hilarious! She fell backwards with the axe and couldn't even lift it. The sword was messy because of the weight but not completely unmanageable (these are Ruby sized weapons by the way) and the scythe was an utter mess of getting it stuck in a tree.

The only weapon she was good with was the dagger and that was because anyone could use a dagger to some extent.

I made fun of her a bit and she complained that I made the weapons badly or something. Then I showed her a badly made weapon and she practically sung praises for me.

We both deeded to wait until Ruby was older and had real muscle on her before she tried weapons training. Next year should be fine. I don't know or really care if Crescent Rose becomes a reality. I did offer Ruby the suggestion to research weapons herself.

I should mention now that I spent most of my time in Ruby's soul space with merged souls. It grew both our affinities since apparently even though her affinities were locked due to locked mana she still had them.

Affinities were closely linked to semblance I believe so It's not very surprising. The only worthwhile affinity Ruby had was some wind to bring me up to eighty eight.

I told Ruby all about mana and magic earlier. The whole naked truth. She was understandably skeptical but what can you say to a guy who can summon a thunderstorm and teleported to prove his point?

I think the only things I didn't tell her about was Salem, the maiden's, and Raven. I did say that young women sometimes unlock mana but that it was extremely rare. Not really a lie.

Now it was a special day. I was going to make my body… And get rid of some of my ridiculous stat points. I truly don't need this many.

" _Good luck at school today Ruby. I have important things to do and probably a surprise when you get home."_

" _Really?!"_ she thought in surprise. I hadn't let her have any free time to herself since Summer so it was understandable that she was surprised.

" _Will… I'll be okay alone… Right?"_

" _Of course. It's school. Not a war zone. Go do all the stuff you normally do… Oh, and Miss Discalti has a pop quiz planned. She might use it today. And do your English homework no matter how boring conjugates are."_

Ruby sent a tired confirmation and I separated from her slowly so she wasn't overwhelmed with her smaller soul. She still swayed and felt that sucky feeling of losing a majority of her aura.

" _See you at home."_ I said. _"Bye Abyss. See you later."_

[|||| == ||||]

" _I keep wondering… what now? With mom gone… do I want to follow her?_

" _..."_

" _If I do the same thing she did, follow the same path she went through, will I end up like her?"_

" _Ruby, what was your mother?"_

" _A huntress."_

" _No. She was a hero. She was a hero because she was willing to give up everything for the perceived greater good. All she ever wanted to do was stay here with you and Yang but she felt that fighting for a cause was more important than you or her own happiness."_

" _She wanted people to be happy… but she was… willing to sacrifice my happiness?"_

" _No. She was willing to sacrifice everything. Everyone. She would have done anything for the safety and happiness of Remnant. She had given up much already for the people. Your happiness, her happiness, your family's happiness, a peaceful life, and so much more."_

" _But… heroes are the good guys. They make others happy… right?"_

" _No. Heroes are those that sacrifice others for the greater whole even if it means they sacrifice themselves they would do it easily."_

" _... Are you a hero?"_

" _No. I would burn all of Remnant to ashes if it meant the people I care for were happy. I'm a villain."_

" _... I can't help but be thankful for that. Do you care about me?"_

" _Summer was the only person I truly cared about. She asked me in her final breath to save you. You're the only person I care about."_

" _... Thank you. I don't want anyone close to me to be a hero if it only leads to pain to the benefit of others… so I won't be a hero. I'll just be Ruby… I like that. I feel better. Thank you Abyss."_

" _Of course. I'm always here if you need anything."_

[|||| == ||||]

I sighed and assigned my points. I brought INT to 250, WIS to 250, and LUK to 50.

 ***Ding!* By reaching 200 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Body of worlds**

" **I once saw a child make his hand to fire. That was the only time I ever felt true fear. For what power that child must have in both body and soul. "**

 _ **-High sage Gall Yahldrell**_

 **-Affinities may be represented physically without mana cost**

 **-Affinities with a final value greater than a hundred alter your body should you allow it.**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 250 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Spirit**

" **Her soul was a beautiful cacophony of color and sight and sound. I just wish I could see it one more time."**

 _ **-Samuel Silverthorne, courier**_

 **-Affinities may be unlocked or advanced through meditation**

 **-Affinities may passively alter your semblance or the semblance of those which your soul is melded to should you allow it.**

 **-There is no limit on how high your affinities may go**

 **-Powerful mana sensing abilities**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 200 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Potent mana**

" _ **Mana can, under immense pressure, coalesce into a denser type of mana."**_

 _ **-Elsa Dames, general mana researcher**_

 **-All spells are 20% more powerful**

 **-All spells are 10% cheaper**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 250 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Flood of mana**

" _ **Mana is the blood of a Mage. It is your life."**_

 _ **-Feralls Lier, professor of old Vale academy of magic**_

 **-2x mana and mana regeneration**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 50 LUK a new skill has been acquired! - Gamble**

" _ **Lady luck is fickle if you're boring. Take risks. She loves that."**_

 _ **-Aaron Faust, jester of the old king of Mistral**_

 **-Chance of luck acting favorably in high risk situations**

Oh? The INT skills are boring More mana is nice but not exactly useful. LUK is the same. Useful but not really anything I have to change my fighting style with. The wisdom skills are far more interesting. Not immediately useful but they offer opportunities, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

Body of worlds allows me to basically copy Ashaya's semblance without cost so long as I have the affinity for it. By final affinity I believe it means after my multipliers. My higher soul and attuned skills both double my affinities so my wind affinity is effectively three hundred fifty two.

Spirit of worlds is a little more interesting for the moment. I can meditate on affinities and raise them. This lets me raise my affinities without finding a spell to grind it. I finally have a useful thing for my parallels to do other than grinding spells too! It also made my affinities lose any sort of cap they had before.

Most importantly of the two skills' functions, I can modify my semblance with elements. Whatever my semblance is I should meditate on it more and just hope on my higher LUK stat.

Of the most interesting of all of this is the capacity for alterations to a body given enough affinity. What could I get? Silver eyes from purity? I truly don't know but I want to.

Currently my total affinity in life is one hundred twelve. Impressive but considering I was trying to create life? Well… It's a lofty goal. My skill in grow is sixty two from the months of grinding. I had plotted out my new body with all the enhancements I could think of. I was something of a super faunus. A jaguar faunus in honor of my first body.

I had run as many numbers as I could and came to an irritating conclusion, though. I could only ever age myself to ten at most. At MOST. Around ten puberty begins to kick in and the hormones start to go crazy. Growing at insane speeds was alright for a while because magic could take the load but growing as fast as your body could on top of going hyper speed with magic? No. No that didn't work. Not with any amount of magic. I could speed it up a little bit to about two times the growth but human or faunus bodies didn't work like that. You couldn't just skip puberty.

I was instead going to just age myself to eight years old and age the rest normally. I would be two years older than Ruby (She turned six five months ago in february) and I'd attend beacon with her then. It didn't really make sense to

I would first grow the body. Simple enough. I had runes on a large stone nearby holding a large amount of mana as well if I need it. No I couldn't just store more mana in my soul space. It just didn't work that way. My soul would be holding more mana than I could handle and would eject mana again to equalize it, making the runes useless.

I would finally enchant a sub-dermal armor of carbon onto myself… no really, I would. Carbon was around everywhere. I just looked up some chemistry on the dustnet (internet but remnant style) and figured out how to make diamonds from coal. Some coal and an insane amount of air pressure and a tad of heat and boom. Diamonds to be implanted under my skin. Diamonds are carbon crystals by the way.

I was going to be a wizard with mad tattoos and bling out the ass. Not literally. Surgery wouldn't be very hard. Life affinity is so useful for body enhancements and just about nothing else unless I want to create monstrous chimeras to combat the grimm.

That should be everything… I just need the material now.

I summoned what I needed. Nutrients of a variety. Proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. It wasn't hard really. I just found a cattle and butchered it. Sure, being born in a cow corpse wasn't really a pleasant way to be born but there were worse… probably. I also needed some other things in a body.

I dumped the flesh on the floor in a pool of fresh water. Bacteria didn't matter. I could cure diseases anyways and what didn't kill me made me immune to it. I needed a disease resistance skill, actually. It would be more efficient than just using cure disease all the time… I'll just trickle life mana into my immune system. That should do good stuff. The scientific method can go wank to a microscope.

To the pool of now very bloody water I dumped some other stuff in. A variety of vitamin supplements, some fertilizer for nitrogen, some urine for phosphorus, and finally the main ingredient. A water balloon filled with various parts of my former body.

The balloon had been completely frozen at nearly absolute zero in my inventory. Having no space to hold heat meant that if I took away the heat there was no heat trickling in. Insta-freezer. I had to hack off various samples of cells and thaw them in the water balloon to form a catalyst.

If I just grew a body from the pool of good smells like urine and raw cow guts I would bring myself back as a cow. The most magical and badass cow in existence but a cow nonetheless… no. Just no.

The balloon of my guts and stuff would expand and consume bio matter to make a fetus, a tiny child, and after some time an eight year old. And then we carve into my flesh to give me sweet tats and whatever power runes can give me. I had a ton of them in a whole matrix to be carved on my skin. It had a few VERY fancy functions and the basic enhancements and stuff that were standard in fantasy runes.

I toss the balloon in and begin the spell. I focus all of my parallels on the spell to get it ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. The amount of preparation that went into this ritual was a little ridiculous. So much planning…

The spell kicked in and I sculpted the body to be perfect. I had my accelerate thought speed on as well as my huge INT making me think incredibly fast. My body would occasionally lean out just a little as the spell went a little bit wonky. I or my parallel would instantly be on it to set it straight.

The ritual took much longer than I thought. I stayed at the pool for hours. I had to get every detail perfect. No, the ears are deformed in the canal just a little. Wait, in the stomach. Where's the acid. Parallel two get on it. Eyes! Cornea! Three get on it! Look, the muscles are separating out again. We need them naturally dense. Nervous system now… we're missing strands in the legs. One, fix them.

By the end of the ritual I was tired and cranky. I couldn't stop here though. My heart was beating and everything was working fine but I only had a soulless shell. No will in my body.

I strapped my body down on the table I altered with some belts and directly controlled my avatar. A little meditation cleared my mind and I twirled my tattoo gun. Work time.

First was the deep runes. My entire body was a canvas. On my bones etchings were delicately scribed in spirals. Durability mostly but also density. On my fingers I etched dexterity and reflexes. My joints were the hardest. I scribed fluidity, flexibility, and durability. All these runes were a foundation for survivability and small enhancements to my range of motion and some reflexes.

Secondly was the bridge runes. Nothing complex but not anything to scoff at. These were softly inked onto my organs. Mostly they simply connected the layers but I was able to squeeze in a matrix to resist internal shock. Helpful for keeping my internal organs intact.

I also had something I was quite proud of. Auto-healing. The runes collected life mana into my organs and when injured released them in controlled streams or bursts depending on whether I needed healing fast or efficiently.

Very convenient in the midst of battle where I couldn't heal myself. The runes just couldn't hold much mana. It only worked because they only healed HP because of gamers body rather than actual wounds.

Before I finished on my skin I had to implant the sub-dermal armor. I assigned a parallel to scribe a message to Ruby from my words and tell her not to worry but that this was important. Then I returned with laser focus to my work.

The armor was runed as well as made of diamonds, which was the hardest material I had. I gave it durability. Lots of durability and a sort of complex mechanism for self healing if I supplied more diamonds to the layer to regenerate if diamonds were ever lost. I would be able to fix the layer easily enough with some work though. I added some lightweight runes as well. I considered using a magical metal but none of them were light enough to be better than diamonds. Viventium, the one that grew to fit a person's desires to a degree, might have worked but it was too heavy at the moment and would disfigure me. Not good enough.

Finally the most important and powerful part. My skin. Gods this was a great work. I had spent so many hours planning this. I even got special extremely high quality ink colored silver for this. First was the net mechanism. Aura and mana would leak out of my body due to my skills not being at max when my aura takes a hit or I cast a spell. Screw that. The net mechanism catches ambient aura when detected and absorbs it.

Next was the cloak mechanism. It was an EXTREMELY complex piece though not necessarily a space consuming one. It cloaked me in an illusion to hide the tattoos and such to look like a human or a normal faunus. Useful so I didn't have to focus on an illusion or dedicate a parallel. It was more mana efficient than my skills as well. I could make an illusion on me for the measly price of fifty MP per minute. A normal full bodied rune costs about two hundred MP per minute. More when I was weaker in my light affinity. Hiding my runes didn't even take MP. It fueled itself over the mana in the air.

Thirdly was the boost system. What I did was make a sort of temporary rage mode. It sucked up aura and some mana as well to fuel itself but it would give me a brief window of extreme physical power to overwhelm an opponent. I could only maintain it for a few seconds though.

Finally was perhaps my greatest system. The dust augmentation system. Dust would be stored in a special rune directly linked to a section of my soul space containing dust. The dust would flow, yes flow, through channels of complex runes designed to amplify and contain the dust as it traveled.

The dust would finally be allowed to expel through my palms at will with a control rune. Several types of dust could be used at the same time if I cared to do that. If I casted a spell it would be augmented by dust that I could just steal whenever I cared to. My spells would be supercharged by dust. It was my proudest accomplishment in the runic works.

As I finally finished all of this I stumbled backwards and sat down on a chair I conjured.

 ***Ding!* You have created an artifact of mythical rarity! Please name it:** **_**

"True avatar." I whispered. A body for me to inhabit as more than a puppet of aura. Finally.

 ***Ding!* Name accepted. Establish your True avatar as your true body?**

"Yes."

 ***Ding!* Body established. Implant Summer Rose's eyes?**

"... Yes."

A light shone behind the eyes of my True avatar and faded just as quick.

 ***Ding!* Allow affinities to make changes to your true avatar? *Warning!* Changes are permanent! All changes can be hidden at will and offer only benevolent effects. More changes may be made as other affinities reach adequate height.**

A part of me despaired at letting my creation change and not having a hand in it but on the other hand… my affinities were a part of me. They meant only to help…

"Yes." I decided.

 ***Ding!*Enter your true avatar to begin the changes.**

I moved to my greatest work and touched it. I could feel the void of the soul and the systems of runes I had made just waiting to come to life… I fell into the void and filled it. My soul flared with elements and I felt my new hands. Then pain. Terrible pain. It was my higher soul all over again… I screamed with a new throat and laughed directly after in spite of the pain. I could feel again. And they were all my feelings. Finally.

I screamed and felt everything blur.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Shouldn't you tell Yang about Auntie Raven?"_

" _Auntie?"_

" _She's family. Yang says she isn't but she only says that to stop hurting. It doesn't hurt for me to call her Auntie so I call her Auntie Raven behind Yang's back. Dad doesn't mind."_

" _Good. She's family still. Even if she's not here. The reason I haven't told Yang is because Raven is a person I respect. We're very similar."_

" _Similar how? She left family. You stayed. Auntie is a huntress. You're a villain."_

" _I see I haven't broken you out of that habit of thinking all huntresses are heroes."_

" _Oh right. When I stop thinking of all huntresses as good people Auntie is probably a really bad person…"_

" _In a way. Now, we're similar because we both desire one thing above all others. It's a part of us so important that it nearly defines us. Over all things we both desire to make our own choices."_

" _Your… I don't understand."_

" _Raven left because she wanted to. When others said she shouldn't she did what she thought was best anyways. I do the same. When Summer and Ozpin said to join the Ozluminati I didn't even though the only person in my life said to. I think that's strength. When everybody says that one thing is the right thing to do ignore them. Do what you think is right. Raven and I speak with our actions and absolutely agree on this."_

" _I think I understand."_

" _We're also both villains. You don't actually know this but Raven and Qrow were raised by a bandit clan. They called them family. When they met Ozpin and saw his beliefs Qrow abandoned his family. Raven stayed. Everyone said that staying with them and abandoning the bandits was the right answer she refused and went back to her family."_

" _Why did she leave Yang then?"_

" _I don't know. I assume she was an accident or that Raven left her because taking her would bring too much attention. I still respect her either way. If she were a cruel, weak, or cowardly person I would respect her far less. As it is she is strong. Certainly not kind or brave but neither is she their opposites. Her only actual weakness is Yang. Yang holds power over her mother whether she knows it or not."_

" _So… why don't you tell Yang?"_

" _Because, Ruby… should someone make the opposite of a decision you want for you, citing the greater good, would you appreciate it?"_

" _... No."_

" _Exactly. Also, I respect Raven far more than Tai or Yang. Both are weak willed and easily swayed to anybody with stronger ideals. Yang especially holds ideals that I believe to be narrow sighted. Most of all, though… It's none of my business in Tai, Yang, and Raven's dispute. I wouldn't say you do either but that's up to you. Overall, though, you don't have to do anything. Nobody will be harmed if you do nothing but feelings will certainly be hurt if you tried to help."_

" _... Yeah. I want to help Yang but you're right. I have no reason to."_

" _... would you like to meet Auntie Raven?"_

" _Yes. She's family. She's like Uncle Qrow. She's just away often."_

" _Exactly. Raven is my second best friend after you as well. I think you'll get along."_

[|||| == ||||]

Somewhere along the way I lost consciousness. It was so nice to sleep again. I didn't have to stay awake now but it was so nice that I think I'll make exceptions. The messages are new though… and soreness. Dust, I did not miss being sore…

 ***Ding! Modifications made:**

 **-Purity: Silver eyes already present. Enhanced existing silver eyes with your aura and purity. See boost for details.**

 **-Wind: Wings added. Passively consume wind attuned mana to fly. Dispel when not in use.**

 **-Light: Bioluminescence. No mana cost to produce light.**

 **-Water: Dexterity boosted under perk "Flowing movements", which provides +20% DEX.**

 **-Space: A fully livable artificial soul space resides in a seal on the back of your hand. Your physical body will be perfectly represented there with touch, smell, and the like. Channel space mana to your right hand to enter it and again to exit it.**

 **-Motion: No debuffs due to speed.**

 **-Life: Healing factor already present. Healing factor no longer requires mana to function.**

 **-Nature: Meditation may be done without movement restrictions.**

 **-Heat: Resistance to extremely high and extremely low temperatures granted.**

 **Precursor silver eyes (Rank 1) - You've acquired eyes of pure silver through the willing sacrifice of a friend and enhanced through your affinity for the pure. Your eyes are the first of a new strain of silver eyes.**

 **-Looking at Grimm may deal damage should you will it.**

 **-+250% WIS and +150% INT**

 **-Purity mana may or aura will be made if aura or mana are channeled through your eyes. This mana can be used by you or to further damage the grimm via eyesight.**

 **-Your eyes may be 'flared' to multiply your purity affinity by 100x. No other affinities may be used in this time. All mana and aura is purity attuned during this time.**

Well if that's not the remnant version of the rinnegan then I don't think it exists. I don't think unless I'm absurdly outclassed by a Grimm I'll be fine.

Everything on that chart is useful in some situation or another. Even Bioluminescence will be extremely helpful in dark areas. Most disappointing is motion but being immune to G-force isn't that bad. However… there's two more windows…

 **Bodily runic matrix (3 layered) - A master of runes has inscribed upon your body a matrix of three parts. The effects are:**

 **-+35% VIT and +10% more STR from reinforced bones and shock resistant organs.**

 **-+20% DEX from runes joints**

 **-+100 HP/min from auto healing factor.**

 **-Extremely strong sub-dermal armor. Regenerates if given gemstones.**

 **-No excess mana or aura emitted through techniques via net system. Excess is absorbed.**

 **-Illusionary cloak may be donned for 150 MP per minute.**

 **-+600% STR, DEX, and senses when boost system is enabled. Consumes 6000 MP per minute.**

 **-Dust system may be used to enhance spells with dust.**

 **Enhanced body (homunculi) - Your body was grown to be as efficient and powerful as possible. Muscles and bones given density beyond that of normal people, a nervous system with reflexes near instantaneous, eyes of telescopic quality.**

 **-+50% STR, VIT, and DEX**

 **-Greatly enhanced senses**

 **-Faunus features**

 **-No debuffs due to age**

 **-Reduced need for sleep. Moderately increased need for food and water due to increased muscle mass and more powerful bodily functions.**

… Oh… well… Good. That HP per minute is very nice but it's backed by my life affinity and runes so it's expected to be good. The boost system is as expected. However, I could hold it for about ten minutes if I didn't use spells. It was stronger than I expected.

Everything that was on here was useful but the only things I needed to remember were the dust system, boost system, and cloak system. Everything else was more background for stats. I wonder though… What are my physical stats?

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Passenger; The Gamer**

 **Level – 188**

 **HP – 693/693 (+101.7/min)**

 **AP – 47,000 (+2350/min)**

 **MP - 74,000 (+3700/min)**

 **STR - 37 (+190%)= 107.3**

 **VIT - 22 (+215%)= 69.3**

 **DEX - 44 (+220%)= 140. 8**

 **INT - 250 (+270%)= 925**

 **WIS - 250 (+370%) = 1175**

 **LUK - 50 (+0%)= 50**

 **POINTS - 685**

WELL THEN!... that's just… A slight bit ridiculous… that's far too weak physically. I'll assign a parallel to exercise my body for a while. Until about a hundred dexterity, seventy five vitality, and fifty strength. That should be good.

I put my body in my soul space and let my parallel start working on it. Easy enough. I hardly have to do any work as well! I just have to deal with the reduced MP and AP. No big deal.

Speaking of parallels I should assign my others to meditate on elements. I'll maximize air first. It's the one I use the most. Next I'll bring up electricity not only for the trait but because it's very useful in combat. Then would be water since, while it's not particularly useful alone it has numerous utilities. Finally would be heat. Or purity.

With a faint curiosity I looked inwards at my body in my soul space. I looked… Well I had a lot going on. My skin was as pale as Ruby's and decorated with intricate swirls and patterns. Runes, I knew, but it would look to others like an interesting full body tattoo.

My wings were rather eye catching as well. Black and feathered like a Raven's wings. Ironic. It was fashionable though. They were also convenient. They appeared only at will and as cool as they were I don't care to use them unless I was actually flying. They would make it hard to sit down. As for my body I was lean but had some dense muscles showing slightly. Kind of like a slightly more buff version of my previous body. Most importantly were my eyes.

My eyes were hypnotizing. A shining silver of Summer's or Ruby's with dark red lines too thin to be veins spiderwebbing through it. I briefly made my parallel activate my flare through my eyes and saw as the crimson lines crept out onto my skin and formed another spiderweb. My eyes glowed a pure silver and I felt my other affinities fade to the background as purity flowed through me like a river. I gasped at the feeling of… _brightness_ running through me. Like sunshine coursing through me.

I deactivated the flare through my parallel and returned it to it's workout. I had to meet with Ruby now.

I got out of my soul space and darted back to the house. I was there in minutes and looked at the time. Five in the morning? Oh it had only taken twenty two hours - wait, thursday?! … so forty six hours… Time for Ruby to get up… how badly did the house fall apart?

[|||| == ||||]

" _Auntie?"_

" _Hm?"_

" _What is strength?"_

" … _Freedom. What made you think of this question?"_

" _Abyss said that uncle Qrow was powerful but that he wasn't strong. I don't get what the difference is."_

" _How true. Power is easy to quantify. It's skill. Ability. Things like how capable you are whether it is at combat, magic, or even craftsmanship in some cases. Power gives you options. Strength, though, is the ability to use that power - those options - at your discretion."_

" _But… huh?"_

" _Power is being able to take every cookie on the shelf. Strength is being able to take those cookies whenever you want."_

" _Oh! I get it now… so… who's stronger and more powerful between you and big brother?"_

" _The hardest questions… Abyss is easily the stronger of us. He does whatever he pleases whenever he pleases. He has no need to depend on others whatsoever. If he wants something he takes it. If he dislikes something he destroys it or discards it. The only person he truly cares about is himself and you. Between the more powerful of us… I would say myself. I'm leagues above him in skill and in body and aura though I'm nowhere near him in terms of magic."_

" _I… I kind of see that."_

" _That's good then."_

[|||| == ||||]

" _You're able to handle yourself alone at least. I'm proud of you."_ I said happily. Ruby sent a feeling of irritation. _"If it was going to be so long could you have at least left some leftovers or something? I had to eat canned ravioli! That's bachelor food! It goes against everything I stand for!"_

" _While I'm glad you share my belief that bachelor food is for suckers the fact that you can even do that at six years old is more than almost every kid can do. You do realize you're a prodigy right?"_ Ruby growled cutely menacingly.

" _So you don't want to see what I was working on then?"_ I teased. Ruby growled softer this time and huffed before sending a weak feeling of irritation and resignment.

I decided she had had enough. I do feel kind of bad about leaving Ruby out in the cold so I pulled out my secret weapon. _"I am sorry you know. Tell you what, I'll help you with school today. You can chill in my soul space and I'll do all the boring stuff."_ Ruby immediately brightened up considerably and sent a mollified feeling.

" _Alright." "I may have baked cookies and stored them in there under a heat enchantment…"_ Ruby audibly gasped, breaking her breath control in her jog. She stumbled and righted herself quickly. _"You're forgiven! Totally forgiven!"_ I chuckled at her easy manipulation.

When we finally arrived at school Ruby seemed a little nervous. _"Actually since all of school is boring…"_ I sent the emotional equivalent of a deadpan and pulled her inside while assigning a parallel to go through her routine. I was always with her anyways so I knew it pretty well.

Ruby's body made it's way to the bathroom to change into nicer clothes and I showed Ruby to my body. "Wait here. I'll get the surprise." I got into my body and bathed the sweat off quickly while Ruby played some video games alone. I had moved the games system from the living room a while ago. A stolen TV, some furniture, a battery, and some junk food nearby made Ruby a very happy kid.

I came to an annoying realization that I had no clothes to wear. I sent an avatar to the store under invisibility, a motion spell, and fly to rob it of clothes that fit me and got a wardrobe in under ten minutes.

I donned some loose grey sweatpants and a darkish blue short sleeved shirt along with my illusion cloak on over my skin to hide the runic matrix. Then I snuck up on Ruby. I waited for her to finish her round of road raiders before hugging her from behind.

"I got a body!" I exclaimed. I also became acutely aware of how soft Ruby's skin was. I had never experienced it before. "Whoa. Your skin is really soft." I murmured.

"Wh-Abyss?!" Ruby yelled. I nodded. "I managed to grow a new body for myself. It took a ton of practice. I've been trying to make a new body for… around a year now. It feels like longer."

Ruby stared at me for a moment. "Why didn't you make your old body?" She asked confusedly. "This one is way better for a variety of reasons." I explained. "Besides the wings for flying there are a ton of other more subtle changes. Most importantly of all are my runes." I emphasized this by dropping my cloak and Ruby looked with wide eyes. She drew a hand across my cheek and hands tracing the silver runes. "Whoa… pretty." She said softly.

"There are runes inked on my bones, organs, and skin. I also have armor under my skin to stop blades from hurting me even without aura. The tattoos give me enhanced vitality, reflexes, speed, strength, and I heal really quickly. If I was on death's door I could be up and at em within seven minutes without even using mana to heal myself. I've got a few surprises too. My silver eyes are personalized for my aura as well. They work far better than normal silver eyes."

Ruby traced the runes with awe. "Can I get some?" She asked. "When you're going to a hunter school I'll give you some runes. When you're twenty two and fully grown I'll give you the full set."

Ruby hummed and nodded. Then a thoughtful look crossed her face. "Why can you use the runes if you're not fully grown?" "I wasn't born. I'm made. I made myself right." I explained. I was actually just going to re-apply the runes whenever I pleased.

"Can you take off your shirt?" Ruby asked. I didn't respond and took it off. Ruby traced the runes a little more like I was some sort of expensive art piece, which wasn't an inaccurate way of thinking about it. She stopped when her fingers found the boost system, which looked like a sort of spiral with a network of little marks in between the spirals attached to the spiral.

"What's this?" She murmured. "That's the boost system." I explained. "The wha?" she asked.

"The boost system is a network of runes I made myself. They give me immense strength, speed, and health, but they burn up my mana so fast that I can only use them for about ten minutes if I'm using no other spells."

"I see…" she muttered. "Anything else?"

"The dust system on my hands is my greatest work. It expels dust so that I can add an extra element to my spells or just amplify them. There's often a way to combine different affinities so I don't do it that often."

"So cool!" She whispered. I smiled. I didn't much like people who inked their whole body but yet I looked pretty awesome. I'd hide most of the runes in public though.

"Not their intended purpose but yes. My runic matrix is awesome."

"... Do you have a weapon for yourself?" Ruby asked with wide eyes.

"No. Come to think of it, though, I should make one… Or have you design one and I'll make it myself. Shame yo sad that you aren't good at designing weapons…"

Ruby's eyes widened. She dramatically got down on her knees and bowed. "Please teach me mighty Abyss!"

"I can't." I shrugged. Ruby looked up at me with a surprised expression. "I have no idea how to design weapons. I tried once. I can't draw a stick figure. I can work metal though. So I actually do need you to get good at designing weapons because I suck at it."

"That's… you're not… really?"

"I'm not exaggerating. I had to practice to make a stick figure…" Ruby looked at me skeptically. "no really. I'm not cut out to be an artist." Ruby shrugged acceptingly. Then her eyes widened. "If I design a kickass amazing weapon would you make it for me?"

Ah, a very difficult and weighty decision. My apologies, young grasshopper. Patience is a - "Sure. Only if it's good though. Write what runes you want it as well. Maybe an enchantment as well. And make it a gun. Remember though that you shouldn't make a really good weapon you want to use until you're older and know what it is you actually want to use. Whatever suits you best." - patience is a sin for weenies who discriminate based on age. Giving guns to a six year old is a great idea.

"Yes!" Ruby cheered. She jumped back on her feet and threw her hands in the air. I shook my head. I swear she acts so mature and then goes and does this stuff… Ruby is awesome.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Auntie is nice…"_

" _I know. She just acts scary because it's fun for her. I don't get it. Well, she doesn't want to scare you anyways because you're trying to be stronger and you're scarily smart for your age."_

" _I know. I'm awesome!"_

" _You'd be more awesome if you could stomp down that ego. Having an ego is bad in just about every way for a personality."_

" _Awww…"_

" _Don't worry. You're young. You don't have to be perfect. Sometimes I wonder if I'm raising you wrong. Nobody else is doing it but my ideals aren't really for kids and no matter how mature you act you're six."_

" _I don't mind them. I like mom's more but yours are honest in a way hers aren't."_

" _Don't forget your mother's ideals. Even if they aren't correct you shouldn't forget that the world has good in it with the evil. You simply haven't seen much of it lately."_

" _It's hard to remember that there are good people in the world worth protecting."_

" _What did you see?"_

" _Huh?"_

" _Don't 'huh' me. That was a reminiscent look on your face. You remembered something. Spill."_

" _... Two guys were beating a girl behind the school today. Huntsmen in training I think. I didn't do anything… The two were belittling her about being an animal. I don't know why they were doing something like that."_

" _It's because the girl was the faunus."_

" _A what?"_

" _The people with animal appendages."_

" _What makes them different from other people? Sure they've got cute animal stuff but why mess with them?"_

" _Hahahahah!"_

" _Wh-hey! What did I do?!"_

" _Ah! Ah… I sometimes forget that you're such a good person. You don't even realize it do you?"_

" _No! I don't! Tell me!"_

" _Fine. Fine. They were bullying her because… she had animal ears."_

" _... and?"_

" _And that's it. Well, sometimes they do it only because they think it's the thing the cool kids do, because they enjoy hurting others, or because others are doing it so it must be a good idea. At it's core, though, people often hurt others because they're different."_

" _But - but why?!"_

" _Because faunus are called a lower species than humans. Having animal appendages immediately marks you as less important than humans."_

" _But that's stupid! If they're the same as us but cuter we shouldn't hurt them!"_

" _But people do. Because people are stupid. I don't think you realize how much of an outlier your family is. Being racist and publicly acting like it isn't really common. Being racist in private, those would be the dirty looks and the whispers, is extremely common. Being kind in private is uncommon. Being kind in public and not caring what others think? I've never met anyone but your mother who's kind enough to do that."_

" _What about dad and Yang?"_

" _Yang and her father went along with your mother's ideals. Perhaps Tai is a good person but I doubt it. Summer was a strong person with strong ideals. Even before Ozpin met her she had similar ideals to his. Tai reflects these ideals. Yang does the same. I know for a fact that your sister is a weak person."_

" _I know you don't like Yang but can you contain your dislike for her?"_

" _Only in front of her. I'm polite. Not kind. I'm no Summer."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL=** ||||]


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Ruby is seven years old**

[||||= **LEVEL 12** = ||||]

 _5 years 11 months old_

 _1 year 6 months after Summer's death_

" _I still disagree."_

" _And I disagree right back."_

" _Why can't you just admit that you're like a brother to me?"_

" _Because I'm not family and I won't be."_

" _You take care of me, train me, send me to bed, get defensive about me, and a hundred other little things I can't even name."_

" _Family share everything. I sure as hell don't."_

" _Then share!"_

" _No. I know things that others would refuse -"_

" _Would refuse to believe, that would turn their understanding on it's head, that they wouldn't want to believe, blah, blah, blah! Quit your pity festival! I'll listen if you just talked! I want to know! Mom thought of you as a step son and everyone could tell! You've been around for what, a year after Mom died?! Quit r-"_

" _NO!"_

" _..."_

" _No Ruby. I'm not family. Besties I can do. A brother is not something I can or will be."_

" _But you are. You've been a brother to me for more than a year now. You got me christmas gifts. You cook dinner because you're the only decent cook in the house. Maybe you do ignore Yang and Dad and maybe I should too. More than a year of not talking in the same house is ridiculous. But you're family even if you deny it."_

" _..."_

" _... what's holding you back? Dad and Yang stay away from me because I remind them of mom but you… there's nothing holding you back but yourself. So what's holding you back? Please. I'm not smart enough to figure it out on my own. I don't understand people like you do and I know you know why…"_

[|||| == ||||]

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Passenger**

 **Level – 188**

 **HP – 3697.5 (+9.24/min)**

 **AP – 53,392 (+2669.6/min)**

 **MP - 79,032 (+3951.6/min)**

 **STR - 100 (+300%)= 400**

 **VIT - 87 (+325%)= 369.75**

 **DEX - 145 (+330%)= 623.5**

 **INT - 267 (+270%)= 987.9**

 **WIS - 284 (+370%) = 1334.8**

 **LUK - 57 (+0%)= 57**

 **POINTS - 685**

 **Affinities:**

 **(4x as potent due to skills)**

 **Air: 199**

 **Purity: 128**

 **Electricity: 114**

 **Light: 105**

 **Heat: 78**

 **Water: 74**

 **Space: 61**

 **Motion: 49**

 **Nature: 44**

 **Life: 35**

 **Ice: 5**

 **50 VIT - Energetic**

 **-50% more stamina**

 **50 STR - Buff**

 **-50% more physical damage**

 **100 STR - Brawler**

 **-500% more physical damage with fists. Your knuckles are extremely hard. This applies to all unarmed combat.**

 **50 DEX- Reflexive**

 **-50% faster reflexes**

 **100 DEX - Eye for detail**

 **-You take in all sensory information with no cost to brainpower or focus.**

 ***Ding! Modification made:**

 **-Lightning: Weapons may have lightning passively channeled through it.**

I didn't really care about the stat increases. I needed them, sure, but I wasn't much of a physical guy. I was the mage. My affinities reflected this. I just needed some sort of physical affinity.

Using water and then heat was too complex and a bit slow. I needed a direct one step move. A direct affinity with ice made making ice less complex. It also helped my magic sessions with Raven go smoother if we used ice.

I had awoken my electricity affinity as well and meditated with it often to get results. I would mostly use that one in combat I think. I had made progress in my skills too.

Most of them weren't important but there were a few which needed notice. Cooking, which was a level eighty nine on account of all my cooking, persuasion, which was a twenty nine, and singing, which had reached thirty four from me just screwing around sometimes. I was still human (Faunus? Soul? Homunculi? Whatever) and needed breaks. This was sort of one anyways. I was letting my parallels do all the work anyways.

I had also gotten the teaching skill from teaching Ruby so much. It was level thirty eight on account of me being a good teacher that taught a lot. There was also the mathematics skill, which I got to max level on account of my previous knowledge.

On combat I had actually bothered to level my weapons skills. They were both at level thirty nine. I didn't much care about them but I figured I should have something for when I ran out of mana. I still had high speed movement for that though. It had gotten to level sixty one and gave me six hundred ten percent more speed for one hundred forty percent more stamina. It was just really slow to level. **(AN: Nerfed it a lot. Was way too strong. Still a really strong skill because Abyss is super speedy already but whatever. He'll be fighting in the big leagues. Give him some love)**

There are only a few other skills worth mentioning. Air blade, which is level fifty nine, shock bolt, level thirty nine, storm, level fifty, purify, level seventy nine, sanctify level forty, and tornade level thirty five.

I had grinded my electrical affinity to hell and back as well. It was too useful to not do so. The modification was nice too. One of the better ones for sure. Just not one that I'll ever be using often.

The passive were alright I suppose. Brawler was worthless but as a backup it might work a little. Eye for detail was the only really useful one though reflexive is good as well.

With eye for detail I could use my mage sight as max without any penalty to how clear the picture was. It had always been a problem for me but I just sent a parallel to monitor it. With my INT it wasn't too hard since I thought so fast.

I was just bored of training. I was in a little bit of a lull. Why train when I have Ruby here to train the life out of? So my parallels handled it most of the time and I used my body when I felt like it to let them meditate on affinities. Most of the school day my body was working out. Speaking of…

Ruby was working hard. She was learning algebra (against my consent. Little masochist) to better learn ballistics. She had decided on scythes and snipers (who would have guessed) since she felt they fit her the best. Thankfully having a few pragmatic bones in her she also talked about a shortsword with some dust functions as a backup. Ambitious but deadly. I liked it and had been teaching her the shortsword like Summer had taught me.

It had taken the teaching skill to realize that Summer was actually a terrible teacher. She knew what it was she was talking about but she often left me to work out issues in my style by myself. Perhaps she assumed I would find a way to fight that fit me eventually. Tough luck, Sum. I wasn't level fifty yet.

Anyways, Ruby was working hard. All the time actually. I used my resist spatial interference spell on Ruby now. It built up muscle and tired her out so she didn't seem incredibly out of place in her grade. Not so much the aura. Kids had aura sometimes if their parents were training them early.

Yang still didn't have hers. Tai had told her to start training her body now, which she had, and he would unlock hers when she was thirteen like any other signal student. Somehow they hadn't realized Ruby hasn't been training. I honestly don't know how. Truly I don't.

Ruby works out in the mornings and after school so maybe they assume she just goes out with friends like Yang does? Ruby has been more confident with me with her. Ruby isn't really muscled either. Just exercise every kid would do but scaled up about five times, or more recently like ten times, to build muscle along with some books on grimm, huntsmen, aura, and the like. All with me teaching her of course.

I had already asked Ozpin about getting Ruby a place in Beacon and he was filling out paperwork before you could say 'Silver eyes'. He was already fine admitting her since I had been training her myself and she was Summer's daughter, which he still pretended to feel guilty about (empty husk of a man… I still pity him). But the silver eyes really made him pounce. I hadn't told him about my super silver eyes. I wanted to irritate him and surprise him.

I just wish I didn't have to wait for Ruby to grow up so slowly. It was irritating and tiresome. Half the time I just drew her into my soul space and taught her myself. Do you know how irritating it is to see her trying to independently study ballistics? Terrible! I tapped that mathematics skill and teaching skill and stole a whiteboard to make her stop trying futilely. She was manipulating me but I don't even care. Force of gravity? Fucking book. Don't round down to the first whole number you absolute idiots.

I had maxed my observe skill a while ago and had checked the teacher's skill level. Was it sad that he had the persuasion skill leveled to sixty eight and teaching at level seventeen? Might I remind you that mine was at thirty eight. Ruby already knew the material from my pushing her to be her best so she never listened to her.

I made sure she had a childhood as well. Ruby could pretend to socialise as much as she cared to. It wasn't actually socializing since she didn't care even the slightest about her classmates, which sounds callous and it kind of was but to be fair it was SO boring for her.

She had two friends at least. I was pretty sure she found them boring most of the time but she couldn't live only talking to me and, rarely, her family. She wasn't a complete introvert though she didn't much like talking with others.

I had come to a conclusion about Ruby actually… why she was so smart. She was raised poorly in the original world of RWBY. In a normal world Yang would have kept all the other kids away to defend her precious little sister after Summer's passing. Ruby would grow attached to Yang and get social anxiety like she claimed to have in the show. Or social awkwardness at any rate.

I, on the other hand, actively pushed Ruby to try being social. I showed her a few ways to direct a conversation, what looked confident and what didn't, and the likes. Things you never really learned unless you were older and social conundrums got more complex.

Ruby learned how to be confident and outgoing when she cared to… she didn't care to at all. Ever. She wasn't even that close to her two only real friends. I'm certain if the Weiss mix-up happened she's interrupt Weiss right back and plainly point out everything that was rude that Weiss did. I'm so proud of her.

On the academics side and Ruby's soaring to middle school levels. Well, Ruby's smart in the show. She uses a sniper rifle on the fly. That takes some math to use and to make a sniper scythe and be a gun-nut in general took lots and lots of math. Truckloads of it. I hated math. She taught herself that stuff.

In a normal world Ruby would have been bored senseless in easy classes and never really had a reason to try. One of the downsides of forced equality in standardization of early grade levels was that kids could stagnate and never exercise that sweet sweet neuroplasticity. Ibis idiot can't be Genma genius so Genma genius gets dumbed down to the grade level of Ibis idiot. Standardized learning.

I pushed her to be great. I played motivator to be great. Ruby fulfilled that with ease so I pushed harder. Gain some momentum and good habits and she took off into basic ballistics of guns in her third grade.

I didn't just teach Ruby math either. Well, some math. I just never taught her algebra since I'm terrible at advanced algebra and even the most basic of calculus is beyond me. I taught science. Lots of science. I was a chemistry nut in high school so I taught her all of the basics of that and biology and physics. We were getting started on them at any rate. It was still middle school stuff. Nothing insane or high school level.

Physics was just applied mathematics so of course Ruby ate it all up like candy. It was kind of absurd how much Ruby loved to learn. Then again, we lived in a world with people like Oobleck and whatever kind of super genius professor Poledina was so it wasn't too out there for Ruby to be stupidly smart.

I hadn't focused on english or the arts at all. They were the more fun classes in my opinion. School had to teach her SOMETHING at least. I couldn't be bothered to teach her everything and my personal biases leaked through into what I was teaching sometimes. Ruby has never and will never learn of significant figures. I hate the rounding rules with a passion. Calculus as well. Only the very basics of it.

She had barely even touched on it before deciding it was way too advanced for her. But she still drooled over the textbook equations before scribbling in her algebra one book.

I liked math but advanced algebra and calculus just… ugh, that's a different conversation. Ruby agreed with me on calculus at least. She was skeptical on algebra. I didn't stop her from learning it herself though, which she did. Nerd. I didn't make her a lunch that day.

Oh right! The soul space. I actually tended to use my bodie's inbuilt soul space since it was superior to my personal soul space. It was just like a very large house with three floors and an attic. Gas stove, wood fireplace, heated as hot or as cold as I liked, beds made perfectly, an aisle of guest rooms like some sort of hotel with nice and teeny tiny rooms, couches super soft, a TV and games console (I stole the console and games), and a hundred other things that made it the best house ever. I let Ruby inside sometimes.

She loved it and had a slumber party. It was great. We made s'mores with strawberries and I got some cookies as gram crackers for Ruby. I made it cold enough that we had to huddle under blankets together by the fire. There was something about cold air and a warm fire that was just nice. She stayed in my physical soul space, as I called it, whenever she was feeling down.

Through our shared souls I felt that it felt more like a home than her own house. I didn't have the heart to take that away from her. It would be cruel to give her a place that feels like home and then take it away.

Sometimes I wondered, though, if it was crueler that I was taking Ruby's family from her emotionally. She never talked with her family. Ever. They didn't either. I expect her to move out when she turns thirteen and goes to Signal's high school portion, which was more combat intensive than their middle school division. She doesn't have to but… why would she? The house only reminds her of better times with Summer.

In the normal reality Ruby held the family together. She kept Yang in the house to face her problems and she came out better for it because she needed all family close. She kept Tai from falling deeper in his depression by needing a parental figure. She kept Qrow around more to teach her the scythe and take the pressure off of Tai since she was needy when she was vulnerable and heartbroken.

Yang got into fights more often now. She hung out with friends so much now that she wasn't there for dinner sometimes.

Tai had fallen into an emotional depression. No Summer. No kids. Not even Qrow dropped by often. When he came home he didn't often see me and Ruby doing our own thing since he oh so often came back to an empty home house. When he took on missions again leaving me in charge it sealed where he was in my mind. That he also still had his job at Signal meant he was barely ever at the house.

Qrow, at least, dropped by occasionally. Roughly once every few months. Partly out of his semblance but that was more of an excuse than anything. He never came back because there was nothing to come back to. Everything came apart when Summer died and separated with my influence taking Ruby. Then there were his missions to take care of as well.

Ruby didn't hate her uncle or anything though. She still cared for him plenty. He hadn't ever wronged her. He just… didn't come around. Ruby did, however, harbor some very extreme disapproval towards Tai-Yang. He had basically dumped her with me to escape his problems in his work like Yang did. She told me that she planned to just ignore them, calling that punishment enough. I agree. However, I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for this.

I had brought Summer back home to die in front of her family. Tai had lost the second woman he cared for right in front of him this time. Ruby still had nightmares if I wasn't sleeping in the same bed as her and she clung to me and treated me as the only true family she had besides maybe Raven. Yang had nobody holding her to the house and nothing but bad memories of better times there.

I had broken the family. Shattered it into pieces so small that it was unsalvageable. I had stolen Ruby, the next centerpiece of the family, from her home to bring her to what I call a better life. I still believe it is. For her and me. I had stolen her when the other two needed her most and they had payed the heavy price.

I don't regret it. But I'm sure that Summer would be crying in her grave. I'm so sorry. But I will have your daughter survive and become strong. No matter what she will not die. Even if the world is against her she will stand tall with me at her side.

[|||| == ||||]

" _No thanks auntie. I got it."_

" _Alright Summ-"_

" _... I'm not my mother auntie. I can't be her."_

" _... You're so much like her. It's in your eyes."_

" _What about Abyss? He has her eyes for real."_

" _No. Those aren't Summer's eyes. When I look into his eyes I see myself in so many ways… He acts like me but he acts partly for the reasons Summer would do things. Like acting on kindness as well as cold logic. I don't understand it. He makes so much sense but when you think about it nobody understands how he thinks."_

" _I can understand him."_

" _... Interesting. So you do. That's a valuable power, niece. Abyss is the strongest person I know, as I said before. He is not burdened with the fates of others like I or Ozpin. If he wants something he takes it, which is a power few have. In remnant there is not a single enemy I would fear more than him. He could burn my tribe to the ground if he desired to and I could not stop him or get any form of revenge.. He wouldn't be able to kill me but does that matter? He knows that I cannot kill him and that he can destroy what I hold dear. It is why he does not fear me as I sometimes wish he would."_

" _He wouldn't kill your tribe unless you did something to make him really mad. And why wouldn't you just take me hostage if you wanted to get to him?"_

" _Destroy the lineage of the silver eyes, Summer's daughter, and my niece? Do you recall me being a monster? I am cruel and I know it. I am not a monster. A monster doesn't know any better. I know better than to always act cruel."_

" _Oh. I still have a hard time understanding others."_

" _So do I and so does Abyss. Summer could only see the best in people. Her only flaw, in my opinion. I would say that's a flaw in understanding others."_

" _Maybe it's a good thing mom was so kind hearted."_

" _Oh?"_

" _Would you really want to live in a world where everyone was cruel?"_

" _... No. In any sense of the question."_

" _There was another way of interpreting the question?"_

" _You're so hopeless, Ruby. I'm a bandit. I'm a person. Two different meanings for my two different jobs."_

" _I wouldn't call it a job to be human…"_

" _Then you're a good person. Being human comes easy for people like you. Enjoy that you have a kind heart… I believe it is time for you to go."_

" _Oh! The portal! Bye auntie Raven!"_

" _Goodbye my niece. Remember to think twice before saving kittens from trees. You can slip and snap your neck so easily."_

[|||| == ||||]

" _Soon adults will stop patronising you and actually treat you like you're not stupid. Well, maybe fifth grade. People teach you like you have a brain around third through fifth grade. Then they teach you like an idiot in need of their holy guidance at middle school and finally in high school they work you like a slave. Well, that's how civilian schools are. Now quit your whining. I don't want to take the test either."_

" _Aren't I already working like a slave?"_ Ruby thought sarcastically. A bad habit she picked up from me. At least she got my work ethic. To everyone's relief her time around Raven hadn't given her her morals. I had a nightmare about Ruby spouting Raven's 'weak die, strong live' philosophy. Then she was super buff. Weird dream though it might have been more like a nightmare.

" _You're working like you seriously want to be a huntress."_ I snarked. She rolled her eyes. My bad habits again. Maybe Summer's habits having a resurgence.

Ruby and I traded words as she entered the building's playground. I actually thought it was an awesome playground for a kid. It was also good for Ruby to use to mess around. She gets enough training as is.

"Hi Ruby!" A brown haired kid with bright green eyes shouted cheerfully. "Hi Jam!" She shouted back. Jam was actually one of the few kids I remembered. Both because of his memorable name, my high INT that made me remember nearly everything, and that he was one of Ruby's really good friends.

"Ruby!" Another kid, a girl this time, with harsh black hair in contrast to her lightly tanned skin and orangish red eyes shouted again. "You're almost late!" This girl was Pepper. She was the only other person I could call Ruby's friend.

"I would have been fine." Ruby dismissed out of hand. She smiled slightly and shrugged. I glanced at the clock. Eight fifty two. We still had two minutes left and I had two teleport markers on campus. One in the bathroom supply closet and one in a little hidey hole on the roof. You couldn't get up there unless you were strong, which I was in my physical form. I flew when I was lazy. My wings were almost my favorite enhancement. Super silver eyes took the cake.

"Sure you would have gotten here without missing anything but you know the missus has it out for you!" Jam said with a friendly smirk.

Ruby shook her head exasperatedly. "Let's go already." Pepper laughed and she and Jam walked to class from the yard. I didn't pay attention to the things they chatted about. Ruby always did a magnificent job of pretending that she knew what had happened in the class… would she be marked as present if her teacher knew she was playing video games in class?

Wow that's actually a really good question. On one hand, marking her as absent when she was sitting there was like marking someone as absent if they just weren't paying attention.

On the other hand, while Ruby's body is pretending to pay attention (I'm always so glad my parallels have muted emotions. They couldn't feel boredom like I could) Ruby's consciousness was getting homeschooled. Or playing video games. More of the first than the second, surprisingly.

I had gotten the acting skill from all my work pretending to be Ruby. It leveled up pretty quickly luckily for me. It helped a lot.

Ruby walked into her homeroom as the bell rang. The teacher, a mean younger woman with a permanent scowl, locked eyes with Ruby and attempted to telepathically communicate just how irritated she was that Ruby was almost late.

Ruby's teacher, Miss Riddle, was one of those people who were never really happy. She got the job by sleeping with the principal but despite many beliefs the woman was competent at what she does. Especially math. She was great at math. Really really good. I gained a level from her once when one of the kids brought a complex problem and she showed them how to do it even if it was beyond them.

She's fine for teaching children really. She doesn't swear, she doesn't lay a hand on children, in standardized tests the kids get fine grades if not the best, and she dealt with parents well.

If she was a nicer person she would have gotten her teaching license easily. As it is, though, she didn't like Ruby because she didn't pay attention. So I glanced at her computer password and changed Ruby's grades whenever I felt like it. I also attended the parent teacher conferences as Tai Yang with wind whisper and an illusion. I actually kind of liked the conferences. Everybody lied there. The teacher lied about the classroom and the kids in general and the parents repeated the lies their kids told them.

No, Tangerine wasn't 'dating' Todd. She just follows him around trying to make a friend. No, Aqua wasn't useful at all in the classroom. She was social and nice in her own way but she wasn't smart. No, Aero wasn't the cool kid in the class. He was more like the clown.

The teacher had once told me that Ruby was being a brat and interrupting lesson time with her two friends and I gave her the best 'are you an idiot' look I have ever pulled off. I pulled her aside after the conference and basically told her to not spread lies about Ruby with her lack of a teacher's license as a threat.

She tried to seduce me blatantly and I ignored her and walked off. She treated Ruby a little better after that at least. She still tried to seduce me though. Or Tai… Well, maybe she likes 'bad boys' or something. A shame, really. She's a fantastic mathematician.

I pulled Ruby into my physical soul space and I taught her more about electrical systems for a few hours. I didn't know the specifics but I did know that they graphed them the same way and wired them similarly to Earth. She and I did a small experiment where I let her make a graph and provided her the materials to make a system herself.

By the time we finished Ruby had gotten five systems set up with some dust and conducting wires. I also briefly taught her about a few primitive engines like the steam engine and the hand crank engine.

Outside Miss Riddle was teaching about basic multiplication and division. Ah, I remember that. I just did speed drills with Ruby and used cookies to motivate her. She learned her ten by ten multiplication tables and she did the rest herself in ballistics.

She still wasn't good enough at ballistics to really do them in combat but for something like a few minutes and a static target she could hit it. Not good enough for combat at long range but enough for now. I mean, nobody gets good at math that quickly. Ruby was a genius no doubt but she had a long ways to go to be a competent huntress in training even, which was setting the bar low with me helping her.

Finally recess came and Ruby played around with her friends while I put spatial resistance on her. She kicked ass in hide and seek where I blinded her and enhanced her other senses to their peak. She could hear the faster heartbeats and smell the stains on clothes. She wasn't to the 'feel the wind' point that Summer was at yet. I was because of my homunculus bonuses but Ruby was restricted to just her dulled and mostly untrained childlike senses.

The school days on Remnant were shorter on Remnant and even so Ruby's school was particularly short so she got out at two o'clock after some video games and lunch. The school didn't have a lunchtime. They had a snacktime before the fourth class period.

Finally after science class at the end of the day Ruby and I went to the possibly best part of the day. Battle block, as Ruby called it. It lasted three hours of Ruby and I tinkering with weapons, practicing weapons skills, light sparring (Light for me anyways), and quizzing each other on various things.

Sometimes we made a lot of progress. Ruby would dismiss a few ideas for her weapon and we would make a few more ideas to be considered for next time. We might find out some trick to the guns or something too. More often we had normal days. We would spar a little and drill our muscle memory (or skills in my case) to handle guns better.

I taught Ruby some stealth as well as refine my own. Ruby learned that somewhat slowly but soon enough she got the basics down. Weight spread in a certain pattern and legs bent just enough as well as developing the muscles correctly.

Sure, I could just cheat and fly a tiny amount off the ground or still the winds or some such but Ruby couldn't do such a thing. Besides, sneak had benefits other than just staying out of sight. Sneak could help my spells made as a surprise attack not be noticed until later or help me hide my presence better. Humans and faunus were instinctual things and as such could sometimes tell when a person was around even when there is no scientifically conceivable way for them to have detected me.

I had tried to sneak up on Raven once. I was invisible, didn't disturb the airflow at all, didn't smell, released no mana or aura, and didn't even have a heat signature. Despite this, though, Raven swung at me as soon as I was about to strike. That is to say, poke her in the side with a stick.

When I revealed myself and asked Raven said that she hadn't heard me, sensed a disturbance in the air, didn't even know you could sense mana, couldn't sense aura (apparently very few people could. That I could didn't surprise her), hadn't seen anything out of place, and all that. She had just had that gut feeling as soon as I stepped into the tent. She kept all senses on full alert and when I finally 'struck' her instincts blared and she acted without thinking.

I don't know how she did it. I don't know why even spatial presence negation, which literally makes me impervious to affecting space itself, doesn't work either. I don't understand it at all and I don't know if I ever will.

Finally at the end of battle block Ruby was teleported home since she's always exhausted. I send out my squad of parallels in avatars to do any chores and made dinner. By now it was about six or six thirty.

I and Ruby finally separated to do our own things. I might pop by Raven's for a chat or what have you or maybe Ruby will do the same. Ruby didn't often have homework since we tended to finish it all quickly at school. I might play around with magic or something or Ruby will read a little for leisure or meet with a friend. I might drop by Vale to restock on games to play or rob a bookstore. I didn't purge the criminal underworld. There was no need to. It might also change Cinder's plans.

Finally around nine or ten each night Ruby went to bed and I did as well. We often held each other. I sometimes slept or sometimes didn't. It depended on whether I wanted to do anything else that night. I rarely left the bed. Most things could be handled the next day.

It might be a slightly boring routine for some but I enjoyed the routine quite a lot. It was nice to have a time of peace in what had been a very tumultuous life so far.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Auntie… Is Abyss my brother?"_

" _Not biologically of course. But as for how he acts… Well I can't say. I believe he acts like he is."_

" _He says he isn't. That we're beasties but not brother and sister. But he does all the things a big brother does. He makes me dinner, tucks me in, gets me up, and even tells me stories. He's even protective of me."_

" _That sounds like family looking out for each other."_

" _But he says he's not my brother…"_

" _Family. Not a brother. Family looks out for one another."_

" _That's dodging the question auntie."_

" _You never asked a question."_

" _But I implied it! Ugh. Why doesn't Abyss just admit that he's family and my brother? I don't understand!"_

" _Do you need to?"_

" _... No."_

" _Exactly. I don't understand Abyss. He confuses me often and has no apparent answers. But that's fine. People don't understand a lot of things. Grimm, aura, where life came from, how the universe as a whole exists… But we don't need to understand something to enjoy it."_

" _I know… But I still want to understand him. He's my family whether he likes it or not and I'm going to make sure he's happy. I need to understand him for that."_

" _Good luck with that. You'll need it if you're trying to understand somebody like him. I still don't understand why he helps me with my magic practice and I doubt I ever will."_

" _One day you'll figure it out auntie. You're really smart."_

" _Thank you Ruby. You're smart for your age as well. More importantly, though, you're mature. Be proud of that. It will get you far."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Ruby is ten years old now. A three year four month timeskip. I might also say that Ruby's about in the middle of sixth grade right now. Let's say that it's like january. That sounds about right! Sorry but I'm not keeping track of Remnant time down to the month. I have a life you know...**

[||||= **LEVEL 13** = ||||]

 _9 years 3 months in Remnant_

 _4 years 10 months after Summer's death_

"No. Twist just enough to improve your striking power but hide your muscles coiling. If you don't you're easily predictable." Raven instructed. Ruby nodded a little and readied herself again. She was panting and sweaty from the sparring session but of course Raven wasn't going to be done just because she was tired.

Inside Ruby's soul space my body was working out as it did with my parallels and my other parallels were studying one thing or another. In all honesty I wasn't paying attention. My parallels are like Naruto's shadow clones really. Just infinite training forever. It's nice. Perhaps a bit OP but not crazy. I know that being as strong as Qrow or Raven or somebody with strength like that is just the start. Qrow nearly died from just Tyrian and he had team RNJR as backup.

"Again." Raven drilled. Ruby swung but it was shaky and slower than the norm. "An enemy won't stop because you're tired. Again. Properly this time." Ruby's next strike was still a little shaky but better than before.

"Enough." Raven said a little lighter. Ruby seemed to deflate and I dropped a chair for her, which she collapsed in.

"You're getting better." Raven said calmly. For her that was high praise. "But your horizontal strikes sag and the weight is too focused on the tip. Your grip is weak when you miss a strike and you fail to act on openings when you feel they're unsafe. You're training for combat. Some risks are inevitable."

For a split second something strange passes over Raven's face and I showed Ruby my curiosity. Then Raven reached down and laid a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "You're doing well." Ruby beamed at her, still breathing hard. "I'll see you saturday. Don't shirk your grades."

Raven's hand slipped from Ruby's shoulder as she walked off. I smiled internally. She had changed, even if she didn't admit it. Physical contact and Raven weren't two words I would use unless that physical contact was strangling her enemies or breaking an arm. That she was comfortable enough to touch Ruby showed a lot of trust in her.

" _You ready to go or do you want to have tea with her?"_ I asked. _"I'm alright with going."_ Ruby said happily. So she had gotten the message as I did was good. I sent a feeling of satisfaction at her relationship with her aunt. She giggled in response as I finished opening a portal. I got it down to about thirty seconds through practice.

Ruby stood up a little shakily and I casted weaken spatial interference to make it a little easier for her to get around. Ruby just fell through the portal and landed on her bed. A contented sigh came from her as I left her soul space and readied a shower for her. My wind affinity just kept increasing. Wind just did as I asked now. I just flicked my affinity and it worked. Tornadoes were out of my reach without expending mana but a gust strong enough to blow Ruby off her feet was obtainable. With all my mana I could start a hurricane I believe.

As I walked downstairs I glanced at Tai on the couch writing notes for his classes at Signal. We ignored each other as we do. Curiously enough Qrow was here as well laying down playing a game on his scroll.

"Qrow? No missions right now?" I asked as I walked to the kitchen. He paused the game and looked over to me. An observe showed him as only buzzed. Something important coming up?

"Oz wanted me to run out to Anima but it's been awhile since I met with my nieces. Strangely enough though I can't find either of them. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"Ruby and I just got back from practice." I said as my winds got whatever tools I would use to make rice and fish. I sent a flat look at the measuring cup and my affinity took it back to the cupboard quickly, as if in apology. I rolled my eyes and poured he rice grains and some water into the cooker. Really, a measuring cup? I can eyeball it quite accurately. It's like my affinities insult me.

A flash of mage sight and I found Yang several miles away playing basketball with her friends. The time was eight o'clock so I wouldn't expect her back for another hour. I'll be nice and leave some food for her. Perhaps some for Qrow and Tai as well.

"Yang is playing with her friends. Want to see her now or wait for her to get home?"

Qrow looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. "I'll see sunny later. Do you mind making me some stuff too?"

I looked back at the fish. We had about seven of them in the freezer… sure. I could do that. I pointed my wind affinity and got to pan-searing the first fish.

"Sure." I shrugged. Tai's eyes glanced over to me curiously. I've never made food for him or… Anyone really. Just Ruby and myself.

He and I both knew it was more out of isolation than any feeling toward the other. Looking at Ruby was still a little painful for him. I could see him flinch every once and a while that he looked at her.

Qrow on the other hand just had no real reason to be here. His semblance would be bad for the family somewhat and he had a hefty duty being Ozpin's intelligence and field agent.

"Thanks kid. What have you and Ruby been up to? School going well?"

I snorted. "Ruby's a genius and I don't use that term lightly. She's just about mastered algebra and touched on calculus before finding she hated it and focusing on ballistics. Every other subject but music she excels in."

Qrow's mouth opened slightly before he closed it and smiled a little. "I've got to see that. Ballistics, huh? She wants to be a huntsman?"

"I've been working on her technical skills while working her on he physique. Some magic to make training go more smoothly. She's looking into weapon designing now since I promised a few years ago to make what she designed."

Qrow smiled. "Is she good?" I finished cooking the fish and dropped it to the side to start dressing it with butter and herbs while I fried another.

"Hell no. She's ten. Still, though, she's better than most ninth year students at Signal. She can match some tenth years too."

Qrow grinned and Tai looked skeptical. "Atta girl. She'll be joining Signal's high division, right?"

I nodded. Of course she would. I couldn't teach her everything. Signal was a middle school and high school for aspiring hunters so it covered sixth through twelfth grade.

Sixth grade through eighth grade focused on aura, dust, and knowledge both huntsman specific and conventional while the high school years looked to actual combat. They were also the only times a kid could theoretically be called a 'huntsman or huntress in training'. I'm going into the high school division next year.

"Good… what sort of weapon is she using?"

"Shortsword. Also snipers. I think she wants to learn the scythe, though. Just saying…"

Qrow looked interested. A sort of gleam in his eyes. I just got him hook, line, and sinker.

"Subtle, kid. Real subtle. Sure, I'll see if she really wants to learn. If she does, though, I can only be around every so often. Do you think she'll be okay with that?"

I didn't even need to think about it. "Of course. She's plenty good with a shortsword. Slowing down a little is fine so long as we have the weekends sometimes."

Qrow grinned and nodded. "Sounds nice. I'll spar her after I eat."

And on that note Ruby came down the stairs in a rush. She immediately noticed Qrow and ran to him to tackle-hug him. He chuckled and hugged back with a grin.

"Hey there kid." He got out through her squeeze. Ruby looked up at him with a grin. He grinned back. She grinned back harder. He narrowed his eyes and forced himself to grin harder. Once more, though, Ruby one-upped him in a show of valor and-

"Trying to split your faces in half?" I questioned dryly. The two quit their strange competition and Ruby hopped up on the free space on the couch beside her uncle.

"Where have you been the past few months?" Qrow looked amused at her as he began regaling her with what had been going on. Not the truth, of course. Ruby wasn't allowed to say that she knew about all the magic stuff. A part of our agreement. So she sat and took in her uncle's extremely edited version of the truth. She enjoyed his stories even if she knew they were fake.

On my side I dropped the fourth fish down and glanced at the rice. It had a few minutes left. How irritating. My maxed out cooking skill just made everything I make taste better and show me what to do. It didn't actually take time into account. Or maybe it didn't because it didn't need to. I kept the food perfectly hot with my heat affinity and a little mana after all.

I briefly wondered what to do or make while the rice was cooking… I'll make some salads. We've got some berries in the fridge. I quickly retrieved them with some lettuce, sprouts, and a raspberry vinaigrette. I portioned it out into five salads and tossed them.

Just as I finished the cooker finished as well. I set the salads aside, set the rice in bowls, and put the fishes on a plate. I melted some butter and poured it on, salted it a bit, and added some herbs from Tai's garden. Rosemary mostly.

Amusedly I wondered whether my life had become cooking simulator. Maybe the sims? Nah. It's just a lull in the action for the moment.

I looked with some pride at the meal. A sampling of my meal brought a smile to my face. Man I was good. Or my skill was. Well I consider it a part of me so yeah I'm skilled.

A little boring time dishing out servings and I was done. My portion was bigger than the others since being a homunculi I needed more food and water than a normal human. I could last a lot longer without sleep though.

I narrowed my eyes and looked to the fifth plate… a frown pursed my face as I dropped a heat barrier spell, which stops heat from escaping an area, onto the meal and set it into a corner. Damnit Yang. Sure I could just abduct her but it would be even more awkward than Tai-Yang over there trying to ignore that he wasn't a part of the family conversations. I also ignored his hands gripping his book way too tightly to be calm.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Was it the family moment that was a part of him? Still caught up on Summer?... damnit Tai.

"Dinner's ready." I called. Ruby zeroed in on the food with the look of a predator. Qrow looked to the food curiously.

Ruby ran over and grabbed a bowl of salad and the fish and rice. She walked back and forth from the table and carried two loads. When she got the third, however, I saw Tai silently leave the house. We locked eyes and I saw shame in his eyes. He flinched as he looked at my eyes. I frowned at him and sent a wind whisper.

" _These aren't Summer's eyes Tai."_ He gritted his teeth as he silently closed the door behind him. Ruby didn't notice his absence and went to grab a fourth pair of bowls. I softly pushed her hands away and she looked at me in confusion. I locked eyes with her and jerked my head very softly towards the living room.

Ruby pursed her lips and turned to look for her father. All three of us, Qrow, me, and Ruby all looked to the door in silence. Qrow wore a stern and judging look. Ruby wore a sad one. I turned to the two other portions of food and thought for just a moment. It wasn't a hard decision. The two bowls meant for Yang and Tai were put into the sink and the food went to our bowls.

[|||| == ||||]

Qrow smiled and leaned back in his chair. I finished off the last few bites of food with a smile of my own. Ruby still hadn't finished. She wore a smile too.

The fish and rice had been even better than normal. The more the merrier I suppose. It wasn't really merry though since we were all too busy eating. It was certainly nice though.

"Okay… why were you hiding this from me Abyss? I thought we were friends?!" Qrow said jokingly with a fake sad look on his face. I rolled my eyes.

"I've just improved you old fart. I've hidden nothing." Except my gamer powers, my contact with Raven, my reincarnation, and my knowledge of the future.

"Well then you've improved beyond what I ever imagined. This is five star restaurant stuff kid. And you made it with store bought fish and what you could scrounge up in the kitchen. Be proud." I kept my smile up. That's nice of him to say.

"Thank you. Weren't you going to spar with Ruby sometime?"

"Not on a full stomach, kid. I am open, however, to playing video games."

"Huh?" Ruby said. "why would uncle Qrow and I spar? I don't think I can learn all that much from him…"

"You wanted to learn how to use a scythe, right?" Qrow asked. Ruby nodded with a little confusion.

"Well I know how to use a scythe. I'm also your uncle so I have a sort of responsibility to teach you. It's what family does."

Ruby still looked confused. "But I thought Abyss was going to teach me." I shook my head.

"Ruby I have no idea how to use a scythe. I could learn with you but I'm better off continuing to learn the shortsword and halberd. If I get good at it I'll pick it up with you."

Ruby didn't look like she considered that. Did she think I would be personally teaching her? When I made the offer a month ago I meant finding a tutor.

"Well come on kiddo. I've got to kick your ass."

"Never! I've been practicing with Abyss!"

Half an hour of Ruby's pride being stomped on later Ruby gave up. She didn't win even once. I just stayed out of it myself.

"Alright kiddo." Qrow started with a wide grin. Ruby looked flatly at him.

"We'll be doing this… You try to hit me and I'll be dodging everything you throw out there. Start now."

I tossed Ruby's typical shortsword at her and she caught it swiftly and charged at Qrow. He didn't even flinch as he simply stepped backwards.

Ruby let loose a torrent of stabs and slashes and even a kick to the shin but Qrow simple dodged or deflected it all with a bored or disapproving expression. I could tell from his eyes that he was actually following her form closely and wasn't actually bored or disapproving at all but Ruby couldn't. I could sense that it made her angry.

Ruby kept up her idea of pure offense and Qrow just kept dodging or slapping her blade away. It only pissed her off more. I had done very little to harden her to insults so I was actually surprised that she had held up for almost four minutes now.

Then, as expected, Ruby snapped. Children aren't exactly known for tolerance or patience.

With a small snarl Ruby got a little sloppy. Her blade work was fast and strong but there were more gaps in her guard and less focus on Qrow but more anger. Not exactly a good thing but easily fixed in time.

Qrow seemed to share the sentiment with me as he looked at Ruby and smirked. "Alright. I've seen what you can do. Now defend." Without waiting for her to respond he weakly jabbed at Ruby's chin. She widened her eyes and tried to stop her momentum but Qrow still hit her softly. She flinched and I could realize that she had bitten her tongue trying to say something. A flash of guilt appeared on Qrow's face but it was hidden from Ruby due to her flinch and slightly teared up eyes.

Ruby focused once more on Qrow. Her face clearly showed cold anger and irritation. Not the clouding anger from before but more like a grudge against Qrow. He really was getting her riled up. He was treating her like an ass after all. This was a good test of how she manages herself in a high stakes fight actually.

Qrow tried a few different moves on Ruby and she dodged or blocked plenty of them. Whenever Qrow hit her now he opened his palm and hit her. It was like a soft palm strike rather than a soft punch.

For a few minutes Qrow inspected her form while pissing her off. Ruby cooled down a little but was still seething.

"Alright enough." Ruby stood back and clenched her sword. Was she really that pissed? I've treated her too well. I didn't think I was spoiling her but if she's actually that immature as to fall for a disapproving expression on her skills then I need to fix that. It wasn't just a bad habit for battles but it could develop into hypersensitivity later on. Or some other sort of issue.

"You're strong for your age." Ruby narrowed her eyes a little. Not the opinion she had expected apparently.

"But you're emotionally weak. Stunted, even." Ruby's eyes widened. That apparently meant a lot to her. It made sense, really. Qrow was basically saying that Ruby valued the opinions too much. I had once told her that true strength is valuing your own opinion and doing right by yourself was more important than the opinions of others. But she valued my, Raven's, and maybe even Qrow's opinions a lot. Too much maybe.

"When I insulted your abilities you got angry and didn't manage to suppress that until later in the match when I landed a blow… on your face. If this had been a real fight you would have lost badly and not because you were too weak or unskilled but because you were too prideful. A bad flaw to have. Some pride is perfectly fine. Some might even encourage it. I do. But you have too much pride in your skills. If someone insults you you'll get thrown out of the calm mindset that you really need in a battle."

Ruby looked disturbed by Qrow's observations. "Yeah…"

"So that's what we'll be working on first tomorrow." He continued. Ruby blinked a few times and looked to her uncle incredulously.

"Scythe work will come soon enough. I'll teach you the basics of basics tomorrow and get you a little thicker skinned when it comes to what others say about you. Being easily manipulated is just plain bad. Talking in battle is bad but having the tactic work on you is a hard no. It just shouldn't happen. We'll start when you get out of school."

Ruby smiled at her uncle. He grinned back. I rolled my eyes off off the side.

"And you need to get good at video games too. Or at least decent." And just like that Qrow ruined the atmosphere. Ruby looked irritated. I laughed at them off to the side.

[|||| == ||||]

 _*Ring ring*_

" _Ah, hi this it Taiyang speaking."_

" _Hello mister Xiao-long. This is Miss Riddle. Ruby's teacher. I'm calling because of your dau-"_

" _Is she hurt. What's going on. Where is-"_

" _-sir she's fine. School's over if you recall. She walked home as usual."_

" _Oh. Oh okay."_

" _Yes, now, Ruby is typically fine but I've noticed a few things that bring concern over her home life. For one thing she only has two friends. Not very close ones either. Pepper Lancer and Jam Magenta. But with the other kids she just sort of… brushes them off."_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _A cold shoulder. Ignoring them. For the more persistent ones she even resorted to harsher words. Not swearing, thankfully, but certainly not kindness or anything. Do you know what could have caused this?"_

" _...Yes. I do."_

" _Would I be correct in assuming the passing of her mother did this?"_

" _... indirectly."_

" _Could you shed some light on this for me?"_

" _... When… when Summer died she was with a close friend of the family. Abyss Mavros. He has a teleporting semblance. When Summer was on death's door Abyss teleported her right in front of the whole family as we were eating dinner."_

" _Oh god."_

" _With Summer gone Yang took off and Abyss took care of Ruby as best he was able to. But Abyss… Abyss has some issues. Extreme pessimism, a loner complex, stress, and plenty of events to cause trauma worse than a war veteran… Look, this information was regarded as classified by Ozpin himself but… do you remember the Vacuan purging about year ago?"_

" _I… Yes."_

" _Abyss was the sole enactor of the purges. He was responsible for the crippling of Vacuo's criminal underbelly and the murder of seventy nine or more suspected and confirmed gang members and the collapse of four minor or auxiliary gangs. The loss of those minor gangs caused a power vacuum and the enactment of a string of violent gang wars. He's responsibe for all of that."_

" _But… he's taking care of a CHILD?!"_

" _..."_

" _Good dust…"_

" _When Summer died she left him with a very personal… gift of hers. I can't say for certain but I think she wanted him to keep her children safe. Being a huntress had made her some enemies. Abyss apparently interpreted it as 'keep Ruby safe' with Yang being the child of me and my former wife's."_

" _I-I see."_

" _I'm not proud of it but I was depressed for… quite some time after Summer's death. I eventually got over it but… Ruby just… she looks so much like Summer. And I thought Abyss would help her heal. And she has. I can't say that my other daughter, Yang, is alright._

" _Whatever Abyss did Ruby is better now. But… Yang goes out and does… something. Socialize I think. I'm… not really in touch with my kids these days. Ruby is doing things with Abyss. She's training to be a huntress though. She'll be great at it."_

" _... Mister Xiao-Long have you considered family therapy for you and your children?"_

" _Therapy, huh? I did. But Ruby was already gone from the family by the time I got myself stable enough to consider that and mostly healed from whatever Abyss did. Yang isn't great now but she's slowly healing. We still talk sometimes."_

" _... I see. Ruby is doing well in school. She's very smart and frighteningly mature… I'm sorry to make you talk about this Mister Xiao-Long."_

" _I-I'm sorry I made you listen through all of that. It just came out… I'm sorry I need to go. Goodbye Miss Riddle."_

[|||| == ||||]

 _9 years 8 months in Remnant_

 _5 years 3 months after Summer's death_

"Kid you're going to break your wrist if you block a blow like that! Use your forearm!" Qrow twirled his scythe again and I shot a few more low velocity ice bullets that he blocked easily to prove his point.

Ruby didn't speak and tried to spin her training scythe like Qrow did. She sort of succeeded. Qrow groaned and stomped over to her. Ruby spun again and Qrow fixed a few things. Ruby slowly reverted back to her old incorrect way of spinning and Qrow fixed it again. Then she sort of got it down.

"There aren't many good ways to block with a scythe. That's one of the best despite it's simplicity. The blade block might work better on you with your small body but damaging the blade isn't a good idea, as I told you. The spinning block works better for almost any static situation." Ruby nodded and kept at the spinning block.

"Work on it kiddo. The slashes too. All twelve angles and their recoveries and chains. You can do it with all that new free time you got. Now my flight's in two hours. I'll be seeing you next year." With a wave Qrow grinned and walked off.

With school ending just a week ago I gave Ruby a break from training and just messed around with her for a few days. Qrow managed to get a free day to train Ruby and she took full advantage of it.

Ruby had gotten pretty good with the scythe over the last five months. That said, the scythe was a very, and I mean VERY hard weapon to learn. Any idiot can slash with it but so few can slash with it and then lead into five other strikes from various angles with a kick thrown in just for kicks… heh.

I had trained with my shortsword against Qrow and gotten something I'm actually excited for. My swordsmanship skill reached fifty as did my polearm skill and I got a personalized combat style from them.

 ***Ding!* By reaching Lv. 50 swordsmanship skill a new skill has been acquired! - Sting style (Shortswords)**

" _ **Why would I bother to aim for anything if it's not vital?"**_

 **-Abyss Mavros, the gamer**

 ***Ding!* By reaching Lv. 50 polearms skill a new skill has been acquired! - Sting style (Halberds)**

" _ **Why would I bother to aim for anything if it's not vital?"**_

 **-Abyss Mavros, the gamer**

The skill was vague but in action it was way better than what I had before. My personalized skill was uniquely fitted for my body and fighting style in every way. I used my knowledge of anatomy to tear apart a person's weak points with a thrust or close slash after slipping through their guard or throwing them off balance. Perfect for me. It even integrated with my skills in firearms into the style. The skills with guns weren't eliminated. They were used with how smoothly I could use the gun parts of my style instead.

The halberd style was more grounded and based on defense than the shortsword style. The shortsword style was more for offense and more flexible than the halberd style. Good for me considering that I preferred shortswords than halberds. Summer had been right after all when we first met. Speaking of I still need to make a weapon whenever Ruby gets good at designing them. I could only read the schematics with my skill. I couldn't make really good ones.

"I'll see you around, Qrow." I called to him as he left.

"I expect a spar next time we see each other, kid!" He called back in a fading voice. I shrugged. It might be fun.

"So… other than training do you think we can do anything over the summer?" Ruby asked me as she handed her scythe to me. I put it in my inventory and thought about that for a moment.

In the previous summer's we had mostly trained and worked on whatever Ruby wanted to do. There wasn't much to do otherwise. I had a few ideas but no real reason to do them. This year I might try them out.

"I think we do enough training already. No need to do any more." Ruby smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Signal is coming next year for me… I've got a few ideas as a sort of celebratory Summer. First is you spend the summer with auntie Raven and the tribe." Ruby's eyes lit up. She really was getting closer and closer to her aunt.

"The second is to travel. See Vale, Vacuo, and other places." Ruby didn't look as enthused by this as the first option but didn't seem to disapprove of it either. I know that she expects to see the world when she becomes a huntress.

"If we travel we could visit old ruins and potentially find something." I hinted. There really might be something in those ruins too. I have no idea but treasure hunting sounds fun to me. Ruby seemed to agree with me.

"I have a few places already marked by the way. They're dangerous though. Just saying…" Ruby looked torn between her auntie and adventuring so I gave her an out.

"We can always come back to adventuring later when you're stronger. I would do almost all the work if we went now. Then you can help next time."

"That sounds so much better." Ruby looked relieved. I smiled. From those two years ago… I still remember that icy forest in the desert and the tower and temple. I still want to go back there one day. But I can wait until I travel with a friend. Leaving Ruby out of it wouldn't be very nice and I have no immediate need of more power.

I want to travel, though. With or without Ruby I'll be traveling around. I need to meet with some people. I speak, of course, of Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, and maybe Weiss Schnee. Probably anybody else I feel like visiting as well. Winter Schnee, for example. Or Roman Torchwick. I don't know what they'll be like but a little searching could do me well.

Along the way I might like to establish a reputation in the criminal underworld. It might serve me well to become a contact for Cinder when canon begins. I don't have any strong feelings for Cinder even with her association with her mother, who killed Summer.

I really want to hate Cinder but with the knowledge from Ashaya , having birther Cinder for Salem, I don't hold Cinder's evil against her so long as she doesn't affect my life. I might be able to change her a little bit too. TO be a slightly less shitty person. Or scare her from harming Ruby at least.

"I'd like to be around auntie Raven. She's nice." Ruby said with a smile.

"I'll leave a note for Tai. I don't think he'll be mad or anything. That we're going travelling. I'll also rune a mirror to act as a scroll if he ever needs me." Ruby smiled brightly and ran to her room. I followed her up.

"While you're with auntie I'm going to go travel a bit. I'll stay away from the adventuring. I just have some people to meet." Ruby blinked owlishly at me.

"Can you take breaks to visit us?" I rolled my eyes. Obviously. Rubby huffed and went back to putting things onto her room that she wanted to take. I don't see why she wanted to pack when I could pack her entire room but it doesn't hurt to indulge her a little I suppose.

Ruby finally got all the clothes she wanted to bring onto her bed and seemed to realize that she didn't have a suitcase. I flashed mage sight and retrieved one from Tai's room that was probably once Summer's.

Ruby seemed to recognize it and her smile turned a little sadder but she used it anyways. I gave her a quick hug and left the room to Raven through a portal. She was eating an early dinner alone in her tent right now. Tea and a steak.

"Do you mind if Ruby stays with you during some of the summer? I have some things to do and you know that the house isn't really… hospitable. Raven scowled at me.

"A little sudden of you. And no. Summer is when the tribe raids more than usual. Commerce picks up in summer." I thought about that for a moment and peeked back through the portal to Ruby's room.

"Ruby Raven has to actually do her job now."

"I heard that." Raven called through the portal. I tossed a snow ball at her with my ice affinity and she cursed me out. Ruby giggled.

"Anyways, your auntie is going to be raiding. That means killing. Killing, extorting, and all the things we both like to pretend don't happen." Ruby put on a solemn face and looked to the portal.

"You can stay here and try to reconnect with Tai or your sister. I don't know what they're doing though." Ruby shook her head.

"I'll try when they try… I still want to go with auntie. It's not fair to only want to know the good parts of her." Ruby looked to me resolutely and Raven emerged from the portal with her teacup. And her sword at her waist. Typical Raven. Ruby blinked.

"Oh! Sorry auntie! Did we interrupt dinner?" Raven almost smiled a little at Ruby's concern.

"It's fine Ruby. I don't mind it." Raven's face grew more serious then.

"Raiding is a serious business Ruby. This isn't politely mocking people from treetops and playing dramatics and flair. This is extorting people for their living. Ruining lives. Are you certain you'll be alright even being a part of this?"

Ruby looked troubled but nodded. "You're my auntie. I'll get over it… but I'm going to mope. I'm just telling you now." Raven really did smile this time. A rare sight.

"Promise you won't yell about the injustice of it or that we can rise above our place in life and I'll let you stay."

"I promise I won't yell at you for raiding or killing or extorting people. Just be angry at you but I'll really try to get over it." Raven nodded.

"Come along then." Ruby ran around and grabbed a few more things. Toiletries, her scroll that I had gotten her, and some other things like a charger, mobile battery, and some pocket change.

"Bye Abyss! Don't stay away too long okay?" Ruby said as she stood at the edge of the portal. I chuckled lowly.

"Well I'm sure I can talk to you plenty when we go to Signal's high school division together. I'll visit the tryouts next year." Ruby beamed and backed off through the portal. I shut it and smiled. Now who to visit first… perhaps Ren and Nora first. Then Pyrrha if she's in the championships yet. Do they have championships for kids? Hm. They have championships for preliminary students I know…

Well, there's no way to know until I start. And if I don't meet anybody I'll be fine. But where the hell is Ansel?

[|||| == ||||]

" _Ember… what is it you want?"_

" _My lady, you recall my request, yes?"_

" _To travel. Of course. Cinder is doing the same now, fulfilling my orders."_

" _Yes, my lady. I have several personal people to meet with this summer. Do you believe I may meet with them?"_

" _Have you finished your duties?"_

" _Yes my lady."_

" _I see… Yes. I will give you a list of tasks. One task, however, is more important than the others. You see, there is a boy. Abyss Mavros. Find out everything about him and his association with the wizard. Befriend him if you can. Then either kill or convert him to our cause. He is young still. You should be capable of this."_

" _Yes my lady… do you believe him to be like me?"_

" _Reincarnated, you mean? I do not know."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]

 **AN: Things are heating up. You're going to see some things go down soon. So very soon. Also, I hope you like my interpretation of Signal. Having it be just four years of combat and then beacon seems a little lax. Three years of knowledge beforehand seems much more reasonable. Memorizing grimm, making weapons, and the like. Of course it doesn't get really seriously out of a normal person's league until the high school division of Signal so Abyss can still join at his age level, which is late twelve by the way. Keeping track of the kid's ages is kind of hard. I should just be vague all the time.**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: There isn't a time skip this time. The sort of scene shifts are absent as well. Also, I wrote the whole chapter with Abyss going to Kuroyuri and then I realized… Kuroyuri was destroyed you absolute idiot. Then I deleted practically the whole chapter. FML.**

[||||= **LEVEL 14** = ||||]

 _9 years 3 months in Remnant_

 _4 years 10 months after Summer's death_

I quickly scrawled a note for Tai and left him Ruby's scroll number if he needed to call for her. I don't have a scroll of my own either. I'll visit Vale and pick one up. If I'm going on this mission to make friends with the future beacon team I'm going to want to keep in contact.

Going to Vale was easy. I just flew and magicked it up. Wind, motion, and space weakening made me go at nearly a blur. It really was fun. But I had to slow down and put up an illusion at Vale. Then I just strolled in and picked up a scroll at the store and put down a deposit for a plan to use the dustnet. It was easy really. I put down enough for the next five years, knowing that that was when the tower went down.

I set up my scroll with a few apps such as a map function, some games if I ever got bored, an alarm, and whatever else I felt I might need. With my scroll all set up I made a portal, traded numbers with Ruby and Raven, who didn't expect to see me so soon, and did a little research.

As it turns out Pyrrha isn't famous yet. You have to be fourteen to take part in a tournament. I'll talk to her in two years at the Mistral regional tournament, which is in late July.

The white fang haven't really shifted fully from peace to violence yet but their propaganda machines were in full swing everywhere but Menagerie, where they maintained a more peaceful front.

As for my schedule for my meeting of the cast members… I have no idea where Ren or Nora are. Kuroyuri is way destroyed already. I don't need to visit Ruby or Yang since… well I already know them.

Jaune is easy to track down. It would be good to visit him as well. Inspiring him to not be a dweeb when beacon comes along could help me out quite a bit. And him too… could I even inspire him? Well I could give him aura at least. That ought to kick his ass into shape. A little beating basic swordsmanship into him should work as well.

Yeah I can do that. Pass myself off as a huntsman on a… journey to help others? Better that I call myself a mercenary. I could never pull the benevolent huntsman thing off.

Blake might still be in Menagerie. Or maybe she's already shacked up with Adam in the white fang. I can infiltrate a base of theirs and look for her location easily enough if she's already gone away.

I might visit Weiss in Atlas or maybe not depending on whether I could easily meet her. I won't stress about it. Winter might be easy enough to see along with Ironwood. The dick way of going about it would be to commit a crime big enough to get me noticed from the general and Winter and have Ozpin forced to bail me out. I don't know if I care to do that… I'll leave meeting Ironwood for now.

If Weiss is already performing concerts I could steal a backstage pass easily enough and say hi to her. I don't think the effort is worth the pain of it though. Why bother? She turns out alright in the show. Lonely, bitchy, arrogant, and generally terrible at first but beacon doesn't take that BS and she'll get set straight.

Pyrrha I can meet at the tournaments when I enter Signal high next year. We might be able to become friends if we slap each other around a little bit. It would be fun… but I am at an almost professional level physically and I only need to train in the blade and polearm… hm. Well it'll be fun to meet her if not challenging at all. Next year then.

Roman is the only other person I'd like to meet. I can set up a criminal empire with him leading it under my watch. It'll be my night job. Ruby can deal with school herself. I kind of spoil her on that. Some independence could do her well too.

I marked down the locations of important characters on a handy sort of bookmark location function on the major city of Menagerie, called Kuo Kuana, Mistral city, Ansel, which was a moderately sized town in Vale, and Atlas city.

I also marked down some sites of interest for future exploring. My run-in with the icy forest had taught me that there were sites fraught with magic in the world and I intend to find them. I want to know more about magic and the sites are where I can learn and potentially find relics of ages long past. There were a few ancient ruins swarming with grimm that I can break into to search for magical artifacts to loot for myself.

And with all that settled I made my way towards my first meeting with Jaune Arc.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Excuse me?"_

" _Hm?"_

" _I'm looking to get to Ansel soon. Without the CCT service I can't truly know. Do you know how long it takes by horse to get there?"_

" _Ansel? What would you be wanting in a tiny town like that?"_

" _None of your business."_

" _Fine. And it's none of my responsibility to help ya either."_

" _... How much?"_

" _What?"_

" _How much lien for you to tell me?"_

" _... Look, kid. I'm not telling you because you're being suspicious and rude. I'm not helping you."_

" _... Fine."_

" _What are you- No!"_

" _Talk. Now."_

" _I-it's two days at a slow pace! One if you ride harder! Please don't hurt me!"_

" _Better. Now quit begging and mind your own business next time you nosy prick."_

" _I-I-... I hope to never see you again you crazy bitch!"_

" _... bitch? Crazy perhaps but I wasn't really going to burn him… it was just a little fire in his face… yup. Tooootally sane… Now I wonder if this Abyss guy is from earth?... Did Ash ever become a pokemon master? I can finally sleep at night knowing stuff like this. Where was that journal of mine? Got to add that one to the list."_

 _*Neigh!*_

" _Shut up Aether or I'll burn your nuts and berries to cinders."_

 _*whinney…*_

[|||| == ||||]

Ansel wasn't exactly a small town but I wouldn't consider it large. It was about seventy or a hundred buildings in size with no wall and a few retired huntsmen.

Ansel was more of a meeting point for the locals than a town actually. All around Ansel, sometimes miles out, were manors filled with families and flowing fields of golden wheat. It was idyllic…

And boring. Very very boring.

Ansel was nice, don't get me wrong. Peaceful farmers, retired huntsmen just enjoying their lives, and the others plying their trade for the locals in Ansel.

In the town there was plenty of commerce but not that many residences. I assume most of the citizens of Ansel live in the manors or farms a ways out of the town.

Right now there were some few farmers planting crops in hulking machines all over the land outside Ansel. I suppose It's planting season then. I wonder what they're planting… Well it doesn't matter.

I landed down the side of the road in a tree under invisibility. I reclined and relaxed myself.

It was… Really nice here. It smelled like wheat and really fresh air even compared to Patch. I could faintly hear the him of machines in the distance too.

It was easy to fall into meditation and see through mage sight. All around me the world opened up to view and so I did.

In Ansel there really wasn't anything interesting. Well, there was an inn with a benevolent old lady reading a romance novel at the front desk. I suppose I'll stay the night there.

Straight west of Ansel out of the town a quarter mile was the Arc family manor. It was… Nice.

The manor was made of brick painted over white. Three stories tall and with a large foundation for rooms.

Outside of the manor was an old stable that looked to have been converted to a garage with a spare horse pen. There was also a well and a large garden shed eight by the house as well.

I looked a little closer in the manor and found six girls. In order of oldest to youngest there was Olive, Violet, Coral, Verdant, Azure, and Lavender, with Jaune being a Then there was Jaune himself.

He wasn't a very interesting person at any glance. His hair was more golden wheat than the brilliant gold in the show. He wasn't muscled or anything either. He looked like an average twelve year old coming into an early puberty and nothing more.

Of his seven sisters Coral, Verdant, and Azure are huntresses (Azure was in training at Beacon but on break) as well as the eldest sister, Crimson, who I only knew of because of the admiration for her from several of the sisters from observe. I read through their biographies and learned that they knew of magic and wanted to protect their brother for… Some reason.

Olive and Violet are civilians as well but they're strong. Huntress strong… Confusing…

Currently Jaune was getting his ass handed to him. Hard. It seemed to be training apparently. Coral was the one currently dishing it out with two wooden sabres. Observe said they could combine to form a glaive.

Off to the side Olive, Verdant, and Azure sat off to the side of their little dirt sparring ring engaging a past time of theirs.

A little higher than them well hidden in the trees was little Lavender, who peered out of a gap in the tree branches. Observe called her sneaky. No wonder. She's well hidden for a child.

I flew over there in invisibility and settled down on a branch a little above Lavender to hear what everybody was saying.

"-more of a twist than a jerk." Coral said with an exaggerated twist in her torso as she slowly struck.

"But the jerk is stronger, right?"

"That's only for a dagger. It would break a sword or, more likely, loosen your grip."

"Oh."

"Again." Jaune mimicked the movement as best he could. His core twisted, building tension, and then he swung, using the tension to strike harder.

Unfortunately, though, his stance was wrong. His feet were too close together, his back too straight, and his arms too far from his chest. There was no way-

"Good." Coral said. I'm sorry, what? That is not good in the slightest. There are so many problems with his guard that a child could beat him.

"Now on to an overhead strike. This is more in your hips than your core since, you know, you can't coil your core vertically. That twist is for horizontal strikes. Here's how it's done…"

I ignored this absolute heresy of swordsmanship and looked for Jaune's father and mother. It wasn't hard. His mother was in the kitchen and his father in Ansel doing chores.

 **Vert Arc**

 **Title: Arc patriarch**

 **Level – 40**

 **HP – 273/273**

 **AP – 1280/1280**

 **MP - Locked**

 **STR - 19 (+30%)= 24.7**

 **VIT - 21 (+30%)= 27.3**

 **DEX - 9 (+30%)= 11.7**

 **INT - 24 (+0%)= 24**

 **WIS - 32 (+0%) =32**

 **LUK - 95 (+0%)= 95**

 **Affinities: Locked**

 **Perks: None**

 **Bio: Vert is married into the old bloodline of the Arc clan. He knows of magic and the war between the queen of Grimm and the old wizard and wants no part in it.**

 **Vert is well aware of how his wife's bloodline is valued by either the Grimm queen or the wizard. He desperately hopes that his children can live their lives in blissful happiness and never be drawn into the games of the wizard.**

 **Due to his son's potential power, however, he told his daughters of the wizard and the queen. All seven of them vowed to try their hardest to keep their brother from a life fraught with tragedy. He leaves his son's fate to his loving siblings. Currently they plan on discouraging him from the path of a huntsman by training him incorrectly, bribing the test givers of signal, and leaving him in the dark about aura in the hopes that ignorance lets him live in peace.**

… Oh. So Jaune has some sort of power that Ozpin wants then…

Well fine then! This is a good bit more complex than I thought. I'm certainly not helping them keep Jaune in the dark though. He's too stubborn to give up on his dreams. Besides… He'll be a good huntsman.

Now how to start this…

"Now would our silent observer please show yourself?" Coral said loudly with a pointed look into the tree.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Sir?"_

" _Hm?"_

" _I'm looking for the Arc residence. It's around here?"_

" _A quarter mile east."_

" _Thank you sir."_

" _A'course."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Now would our silent observer please show yourself?"

I didn't even think to act. I snapped into spatial negation and moved to flight based on motion magic rather than my wings.

Good on me for my reflexes on that too. As soon as I put my spells up a hailstorm of blades flew towards the treetops.

A loud 'Eep!' came out as Lavender hopped out of the tree. Nobody payed attention to her except Jaune, who ran to her and swept her up in his arms.

A tense moment of silence rang throughout the clearing. Argentum Arc, the matriarch of the family, seemed to be the one who slung the storm of blades at me given aura being a little drained. Just a little bit.

I, for one of the few times in my life, didn't know what to do. So it's time to do what I always do. Improvise and hope things work out.

They clearly knew I was somewhere in the tree. I had Coral, a high signal level student, two high beacon or professional level huntresses, and Argent, who I haven't observed yet.

 **Argent Arc**

 **Title: Steel storm; Paladin of family**

 **Level – 311**

 **HP – 19,740**

 **AP – 10,442/11,000**

 **MP - Locked**

 **STR - 374 (+500%)= 2244**

 **VIT - 529 (+500%)= 3174**

 **DEX - 245 (+500%)= 1470**

 **INT - 128 (+0%)= 128**

 **WIS - 275 (+0%) =275**

 **LUK - 4 (+0%)= 4**

 **Semblance: Rain of blades - create and control blades to your desire. Requires an iron mental discipline in exchange for low aura cost.**

 **Perks: None**

 **Bio: Argent Arc spent her life running from Salem. When she fell in love with Vert she settled down and had children, hoping for nothing more than a normal life.**

 **When she finally relented and told her daughters of her son's 'gift' she trained them relentlessly behind Jaune's back in the hope that they might grow strong enough to make their own fate rather than rely on those like the wizard.**

 **She hates anything that disturbs the peace of her family. Right now that includes you…**

That's… Not good. She's no Ozpin but she could match Summer. But Summer had her eyes and magic… This skews the level difference a little.

I set a wind whisper across the whole clearing and dimmed the lighting with light. More for dramatic effect with the light than any real purpose but I can so did. Then I spoke through the whisper.

"It will not last. No matter his choice of a side it is coming. He must be trained in his power or killed."

Rage sparked in the eyes of every sister and especially the mother.

"And who are you but a coward to dare tell me how to treat my family?" she hissed.

"An honest coward." I said plainly. "while you lie to the one closest to your heart. Call me Villan."

You could almost hear the teeth gritting in Argentum's mouth.

"Who do you serve, Villan?" she spat venomous. Around the clearing Jaune was trying vainly to keep Lavender quiet. She cried into his chest and he just hugged her. The rest of the sisters were tense as a bowstring but had no target to attack.

"You should know how misleading that question can be…"

"Talk."

I sighed. "Myself. My… Sister. My best friend's dying wish. My hope for a brighter future. A peaceful one. Not this desperate fallacy you've constructed."

Argentum forced herself to relax a little and looked piercing around the clearing.

"Come and face me fairly. Leave my children out of this."

As if. She was a human. I was a wizard. There's just a clear difference in power here.

I slammed down air pressure in the area around Argentum and she yelled in surprise. It wasn't enough to permanently harm her but the blood coming out of her ears didn't assure her daughters.

"Mom!" Olive nearly rushed forwards but Argentum raised a hand and stood upwards.

I was actually impressed. She was stubborn that's for sure. I lifted the air pressure slowly to not cause any harm to her and she groaned and continued scanning the clearing.

"... Fuck you." she growled.

In response I tried something I had only tried a few times. Dimensional slash. I never truly understood the move until some time ago when I acquired the skill book from Ozpin. It had taken more INT, WIS, and some time to truly grasp it though.

To put it simply the dimensional slash skill takes a two dimensional plane of reality and uses it as a blade to sever objects in 3d reality.

The end result is a blade that cuts through anything regardless of aura. It would take an incredible amount of mana or an extreme affinity for space to cast though. Luckily for me my space affinity is near ninety and I have mana to spare.

I have a feeling the slash was more theoretical than physical in the book but I can't say for certain.

I slashed at Argentum and she immediately fell to the ground trying to avoid the slash of doom. Sadly for her though I had thrown the blade too quickly and cut her shoulder. Her aura shattered and her shoulder was cut deep.

A scream pierced the air from several of the sisters.

"Stop!" yelled Argentum. The sisters immediately stopped their sounds.

"What do you want from us?" Argentum asked quietly.

"Train him. That's it." Argentum was quiet. Still?! She's broken and defeated but she still wants to go it her way?

"I'm guessing you figured out I won't kill you." I groaned. Argentum smirked just a little bit as she grasped her bloodied shoulder on her knees.

"Fine. I suppose We're doing this the hard way." I stabbed another dimensional slash (it was more like a blade) through her shoulder joint, cleanly cutting it. I then did the same for her left knee. Argentum crumpled and couldn't use her arms. Still she grinned, thinking me defeated.

"Jaune Arc." I said clearly. "you should cry, young man, but you'll probably rejoice. You get to be a hero."

Jaune grabbed Olive, who happened to be closest to him, and shoved Lavender into her arms. He then readied his wooden blade shakily. As if that would do anything.

"You might be a bit overwhelmed right now but later this will all make sense."

Jaune turned around several times. Little did he know I was standing right in front of him.

"The world doesn't need a hero. There are plenty willing to do the deeds of good. Save the girl. Win the admiration of the kingdom."

I took out the auras of the other Arc sisters one by one but Lavender's. She was innocent of everything much like the sisters. I have no need to hurt an immature child.

"Those aren't heroes. Those are dreamers. Ideals. Heroes are the people that would do anything, take any punishment, and give up everything to help others. You're a hero."

I released my spatial presence negation spell. I didn't hide my appearance. I don't really care what they think about me later. Jaune tried to strike me but I just batted his wooden sword away with all the care of a fly buzzing around.

"A hero gives up everything they have for others."

I kicked Jaune's shin lightly for me but it threw him entirely off his feet and he fell to the ground on his shoulder, where it made an ugly cracking sound. Lavender whimpered as she hugged her sister's chest. Everyone was watching me.

"That's why I'm a villain. I would burn the world to ashes to keep the few people I care about safe. I lost everything once. I'm not losing anyone again until they're old and ready to die."

With surgical precision I projected mana to bind Jaune down like a patient as I stood over him. My tattoo gun came out from my inventory fresh with golden ink.

"Realize that you're part of the everyone else. But you want to be a hero. Misguided as it is you're not going to give up, right?"

Jaune looked at me and behind that fear I could see a fire in his eyes. That I would dare to harm his family like some sort of psychopath. He hated me… But that he still cared said enough. He was a hero through and through.

"Yeah… You're a hero by nature. Skill doesn't change that. Strength doesn't change that. You would be a hero regardless of what happens today…"

I whispered to my electrical affinity and it obeyed. The major nerves became temporarily dysfunctional so Jaune couldn't feel. Since he didn't have aura he was pretty much powerless to me messing with his body directly. He panicked a little but my bindings held easily.

"You should cry but I know you'll rejoice, Jaune. You get to be strong. You get to be the hero. You get to save princesses, kill dragons, and perhaps get the girl…"

I formed a knife from hard light and began to slice to the bone.

"But first you need to be strong. I'll grant you this and you will be a hero and save me so that I can live in peace. I'll try to save you from yourself in the process…"

I put my tattoo gun to the bone and began my work. He was a warrior through and through. Strength, vitality, some Dexterity, reflexes, speed, and a system… That will be his mark.

"I'm so sorry." and with that I made Jaune into a hero.

[|||| =+= ||||]

I stretched my soul out to Jaune and inserted a little bit of my own into his, unlocking his aura without any ritual of any sort. His mother had stopped screaming at me a while ago. His sisters were the same.

I had let Jaune pass out and the sisters free after a while. They seemed to understand that they couldn't save their brother from me.

I had healed his mother too. She seemed to be in a lot of pain so I fixed her with a quick heal spell.

And now finally we came to the end. Jaune's aura awakening was a small thing. It was a pure thing. Absolute white. I smiled. I like to hope that it means that he's still the same person he'll always be.

I admit that I lost myself when I swatted Jaune's family. I just… I never claimed to be a good person. Ever. This is the first thing I have ever done that's truly evil.

This kid has his fate decided. Not by genetics he can't control or some odd twist of fate but by me.

His family is traumatized for certain. Jaune will remember me as a monster for the rest of his life. But that doesn't matter.

Jaune will be strong. He'll be a hero. He'll have his family behind him every step of the way. He knows everything now. Magic. His fancy bloodline. Salem. Ozpin. Perhaps silver eyes. Certainly the maiden's.

Yes… Things will be better this way.

For just a moment I leaned back and admired the works. Jaune's back was more like a shield shape with a spiderweb on the edges. How ironic. The shield that is.

I turned him over, where the spider web design is continued, and touched his sternum and pulsed my mana. The designs faded and he looked normal again. Except for one detail.

On Jaune's hand was a tattoo of a black pit with red eyed silhouettes peering out of it. A man wearing a black hooded robe lined with silver sat by the edge and looked back at them.

Under the emblem was the word 'Marked' under it in black and silver lettering. The emblem wasn't just good looking. It was a rune with decorations to appear as an emblem. It held a teleportation marker and an empathetic rune to alert me to when Jaune was in extreme danger (by his judgment).

I got a sword out of my inventory. One of my earlier mechashifts. I wanted to recreate Crocea mors but with… more. I added a channel that dust runs through to add an element to the blade and a crap ton of lightening and hardening runes to the shield portion. There were also some more runes on the blade to make it silent when it goes through the air. Like my still air spell but on a sword.

There were more runes around doing a few things like keeping the blade sharp and one to stick it to a man's grip until he releases his hand. Jaune's hand now. Nothing great but it was a good sword.

I scribed into the side 'Blanc lumiere'. I wasn't very good at French but I'm pretty sure that means white light. It would serve Jaune well. Better than Crocea mors at any rate.

I had some better weapons but I was never one for planning weapons out to be super complex.

Crocea mors was one I had needed some help for actually. I phoned Raven and she helped me out. She knew a thing or two from being Summer's partner.

Anyways, it was a good blade and Jaune's new one. I dropped it on his chest and walked away.

This, of course, signaled to his family that they could see him. I made a portal and stepped through to Vale. I don't want to visit Weiss anymore. It just doesn't seem worth it now.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Oh… Oh no oh dust what happened?!"_

" _Vert! Jaune… Jaune knows. A man came by. He called himself the Villain."_

" _The… the what?!"_

" _It's a callsign. He didn't leave us with his real name."_

" _What happened to my boy?!"_

" _He… He beat me in a fight. I was completely subdued. He beat the girls and spoke to Jaune. Then he carved into him and… He did something."_

" _S-something?... What else…"_

" _I don't know. The only thing left is this sword and… This."_

" _Marked… that's not… Oh."_

" _... I don't know what to do…"_

" _Did you check his pulse? Did he ever really hurt anybody"_

" _You are… No. It doesn't matter. He cut my limbs and broke all of our auras but he healed us after."_

" _Magic?!"_

" _Powerful magic… He told me to train Jaune. That we couldn't lie to him."_

" _Well that's utter"_

" _VERT! Look around! He didn't beat all of us! He annihilated us! I don't know who or what he was but we can't fight people like him… We have to teach Jaune to stand by himself now."_

" _... Alright."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I made my portal all the way to Vale. I needed a break. Only a day of my… Travelling; and I need to rest a little.

I made my way to an inn to stay the night and half heartedly paid up and went to my room. I nearly collapsed on the bed while my parallels made a protective barrier through runes.

A minute later and I was asleep. It was, thankfully, dreamless.

I rolled over and stared at the ceiling then to the clock at the end table. Ten o'clock? I really needed rest. I had flown across Remnant and made what could be called a masterwork rune matrix while improvising…

I didn't even get out of bed. It was nice and comfortable and just fluffy enough. I retrieved my scroll from my inventory and turned the brightness down. Then I searched for Roman Torchwick and found a half dozen news articles.

'Roman Torchwick; Flamboyant thief or ruthless underworld boss?'

'A new torch in town - Roman Torchwick'

'Vale crime weekly: Vale's newest celebrity thief'

A little reading and I found a few of his recent exploits. Torchwick was nowhere near the apex of the criminal underworld. He was a flashy criminal with a former huntsman record.

The man had a bounty on his head of a measly eighty thousand lien. If I needed lien I would rob a bank or three. Or criminals if I was less desperate.

Finding Roman wasn't too hard. A hard light tack board with a map of Vale on it and the sites of hir robberies put most of them in the middle/western part of Vale. Not the docks but not really the center either. An industrial district infringing on commercial.

Easy enough. I use mage sight to find a goon, interrogate him, and I've found him… perhaps I should collect some examples of other gang bosses in the area as well. To show I'm competent.

Yes that would do. Eliminate his competition, let him grow, and keep him terrified of me while helping him to rule the underworld. With me puppet ING him, of course.

I'm not sure if Raven would want to manage the underworld. I trust her to not stab me in the back without a damn good reason, of which there are none, and she gains a far better source of income than merchants in Anima. She lives in near poverty, I know. Her camp isn't exactly nice.

I'll dominate the underworld first and then either manage through Torchwick myself or hand it to Raven so long as she allows me as an ally. Roman being the public head of the organization, of course.

A quick flight under invisibility to the mid-western district was easy. Finding a goon was a matter of mage sight and observe. It was even easier than in Vacuo with no parallels or eye for detail to make me take in everything at once with no penalties.

I found Dan Frost, a mid-level goon for Torchwick, running errands for his mother. Petty theft, some assault, and some drunken disorderlies.

I caught him in an alley and pulled him into a portal. He would have screamed but some still winds stopped that.

I pointed to a map of Vale. "Show me all the mob bosses on this map and you live. Now."

"P-P-please man! I'm not a bad-" I hit the back of his head with my palm.

"Work and you'll be fine. Go."

Dan quickly jotted down a rough map and listed some addresses. I used my acting skill to seem intimidating. When he leaned back there were a few blank spaces. I pointed to them questioningly.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know." he admitted fearfully. I shrugged and snapped my fingers. A dulled bullet of ice hit him in the back of the base of the neck, knocking him out.

I fished his wallet out and checked the addresses. A parallel flew him over with his groceries.

Looking at the map the list of addresses was pretty useful. More than the map. Dan was smart…

With a smile I made a few basic runes on him to make him stronger and faster. Hardly anything but a few points but noticeable for a goon like him. I think I'll make runes my new form of payment. They're valuable.

With a hum I sent out my parallels to the addresses to do most of my dirty work for me. I personally went to go deal with one Ramsey Brimstone.

Ramsey was in roughly the same area as Torchwick so it goes to reason that they fight a lot.

Finding the address was easy. A little flying and a dash of mage sight led me right to him. An old metalworking factory.

I observed all the people in the factory through mage sight and surprisingly enough they were all… Well not good people, being criminals that prey on the innocent, but murder and major crimes were rare and often accidental or done carefully.

Well I'll just be killing Ramsey then.

I strolled in with a dash of spatial presence negation and invisibility. Within a minute I was standing in front of Ramsey.

Since everything was muffled by still winds I took out a pistol from my inventory.

Ramsey was sitting down at his chair going over reports from his men at the moment. I put a hand on his shoulder, holding him down, and unloaded at point blank range into the back of his head.

It took nine bullets for his aura to give and the tenth went through his head. He slumped down on all his papers, covering them in blood.

I myself took out a red towel from my inventory and cleaned myself as I looted his office.

Ramsey wasn't the wealthiest of gang leaders. He had about ten thousand lien in cards sitting in a safe and more in a few dummy accounts judging from an accounting record in the safe.

I put Ramsey's body intoy inventory and went on my merry way.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Excuse me? I'm looking for… oh no… Oh nonononono."_

" _No! Don't touch my boy!"_

" _I-... Okay. Look, I need to know what happened."_

" _Who are you?!"_

" _I'm Ember Fall… can you describe the person who did this?"_

" _... A kid with silver eyes with redish glowing veins running through them."_

" _WHAT?!"_

" _So you know about the silver eyes then. Well he was also a sorcerer. He subdued my whole family with his magics and… Did something with my baby boy."_

" _A spell? A ritual? A summoning?"_

" _He drew on him."_

" _He… Damn it. Runes… He did that… on a child?!"_

" _..."_

" _... I-I'm sorry. I need to go."_

" _Are you going to find him?"_

" _If I can. I just hope I know where he's going next."_

" _When you find him… Kill him slowly. I don't care if you work for Salem herself. Kill him. If you can find out what he did to my baby I'll be beyond grateful."_

" _... It's funny. I was hoping he was a good person before this. I don't think I could have been much more wrong. I'll try."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

 **Roman Torchwick**

 **Title: Aspiring kingpin**

 **Level – 87**

 **HP – 124.2**

 **AP – 2560/2560**

 **MP - Locked**

 **STR - 56 (+130%)= 128.8**

 **VIT - 54 (+130%)= 124.2**

 **DEX - 125 (+130%)= 287.5**

 **INT - 89 (+0%)= 89**

 **WIS - 64 (+0%) = 64**

 **LUK - 47 (+0%)= 47**

 **Semblance: Lady luck's favor - High risk situations have a far better outcome than normal. Stats gain a 50% increase in high risk situations. You instinctively know when a situation is risky or not.**

 **Perks: None**

 **Bio: Roman Torchwick used to be an atlesian huntsman in training. However, he left due to the harsh and orderly lifestyle not suiting him. When he finally realized his semblance gave him an advantage in high risk situations he began a criminal career.**

 **He is still new to being a criminal but is quickly rising due to the inherent risk of the trade and his charismatic nature. Due to the need for leadership in being a kingpin he is considering turning over the gang and going freelance in robberies instead.**

I dropped the four bodies of Torchwick's rival gang leaders in a pile in front of him. He looked up from counting his lien and gaped.

I released negation with an illusion to make me seem more professional. Older, with more huntsman-like clothes in black. A black bandana and good clothes were all I really cared about.

"Roman Torchwick." I talked through wind whisper with a voice more befitting my character.

"Y-..." Roman collected himself. "Yes that's me."

"I have an offer for you." I said. I gestured to the dead gang leaders.

"I can do more of this. Easily. You can rise to the top but you will serve me. I don't care for a cut of the lien or anything like that. I want control over the underworld and I want you to be my more public face to the criminal elements of Vale."

Roman eyed the bodies consideringly.

"If you prefer I can simply kill you and move on to bigger fish." I materialized an air blade at his neck and several major arteries to prove my point.

Roman stiffened. "Point taken. I accept then."

I nodded and walked up to him. He looked at me fearfully but I handed him a slip of paper with my scroll number.

"Don't be an idiot. You know there are far bigger men in the world than you. That makes you valuable. Don't become useless."

Roman looked to me warily. "What should I call you… Boss?"

I softly smiled underneath my bandana. "Call me Villain."

Roman nodded and I walked out the door. Not that anybody would see me of course. Except Roman. Before I left I heard him mutter:

"Holy shit. Is that Ramsey Brimstone? What have I gotten into…"

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	15. Chapter 15

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 15** = ||||]

 _9 years 5 months in Remnant_

 _5 years after Summer's death_

Roman tried not to be too needy a business partner. Probably because he was scared of me since I occasionally brought the corpses to his office.

I gave a few tests of his capabilities to show more that our relationship wasn't one-sided than out of any need or desire to use the information he had.

He had recruited rapidly, taking all the men he could into his gang. He then made sure they were as loyal as gang members could be and then sent them to control the territory he had acquired through my purges.

This had spooked plenty of gangs of course but they couldn't do anything with me intercepting them before they went in.

By now Roman had all the territory he could want and needed some time to solidify his position rather than expand. He was too thinned out to properly care for his territory. He needed more men and more organization. Letting the other gangs settle down would help too.

I myself had finally hit three hundred WIS and INT as well as a few benchmarks with my physical skills.

 ***Ding!* By reaching 150 VIT a new skill has been acquired! - Hardy**

" _ **A weathered man can last quite some time without bodily needs."**_

 _ **-Marzu the nomad**_

 **-You need 50% less food, water, and sleep.**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 250 DEX a new skill has been acquired! - Instinctual**

" _ **Sometimes you just know when something is coming for you. I blame some sort of sixth sense."**_

 _ **-Rikea Faust - first generation huntress**_

 **-You sense the presence of danger and react accordingly rather than the knowledge of being in danger triggering a reflex coming towards you.**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 300 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Dominant nature**

" **There are many affinities in my soul. But in my heart there is only fire."**

 _ **-Gaki the inferno**_

 **-Your highest base (not externally modified) affinity grows 3x as fast**

 **-Your highest 3 affinities have an additional x2 modifier**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 300 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Steel will**

" **Mind magic. Magic that changes the will of others to your bidding. It takes away free will. Identity… Disgusting."**

 _ **-Illia of the ironwilled**_

 **-Mind magic cannot effect you**

 **-You retain clear thought at all times**

 ***Ding!* Through massive air and electrical affinities as well as an apparent water affinity you earned a title:**

 **The Storm**

 **-Reduces mana costs of wind, water, and electrical magic by 20%**

 **-Increases air and electrical affinities by 50% (After modifiers)**

 **-Increases mana capacity and regen by 25%**

 **-can be upgraded by acquiring additional facets of a true storm.**

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: The Storm; Passenger**

 **Level – 198**

 **HP – 9,129 (+22.8/min)**

 **AP – 58,280 (+2914/min)**

 **MP - 101,232 (+5061.6/min)**

 **STR - 194 (+425%)= 1018.5**

 **VIT - 179 (+410%)= 912.9**

 **DEX - 268 (+455%)= 1487.4**

 **INT - 304 (+270%)= 1124.8**

 **WIS - 310 (+370%) = 1457**

 **LUK - 62 (+0%)= 62**

 **POINTS - 735**

 **Affinities:**

 **(4x as potent due to skills)**

 **(Top 3 are 3x as potent due to dominant nature)**

 **Air: 278**

 **Electricity: 179**

 **Purity: 144**

 **Light: 131**

 **Heat: 104**

 **Space: 99**

 **Water: 97**

 **Motion: 69**

 **Nature: 64**

 **Life: 58**

 **Ice: 41**

Steel will was a little like gamers mind, or how I imagine gamers mind would feel, but I was clearly biased by my emotions. I just wasn't blinded by them. Every thought was based on my emotions and desires but I could tell when I was thinking with my emotions or logic.

Dominant nature was… interesting. Externally modified affinities is probably something like what Ozpin was doing, which after reading the primer he gave me I think might be caused by a sort of bond… but I can't say for certain. In meditation I could feel all my affinities, as always but they were a bit different now from when I first looked into them. It was the first thing I did when I got the insight skill at fifty wisdom.

My air affinity had become a strong part of me. It was like a shepherd of the other elements. The dominant nature skill taking place it seems. It and my large electricity affinity had even given me a title!

It was fast in a way but more in that it was everywhere at once. You could feel it cutting into you though. Like blades. To me it wasn't harmful at all, being my element, but I shiver to what it might do to a different person.

Electricity was like how I imagined Oobleck. Jittery and dashing around. It tried to be everywhere at once. It was violent by accident with how much energy it had. It worked well with air. Air couldn't be hurt easily and was about half as energetic as it.

Purity was serene. There was no way about it. But it was also blinding. It tended to take center stage and push other elements out of the way.

Light was as high energy as ever. It felt more piercing now. Different than the buzz it had before it was an almost booming hum. Like standing near a generator.

Hear was multifaceted. It was hot and cold at the same time. One area of it was a tundra devoid of heat and the spot right next in it a blazing heat that melts flesh to putty. It responded to me, though. If I wanted a temperature it gave it freely so long as the total sum of it's energy didn't change.

Space was a creeping character in the background of everything. It watched everything and changed my soul just by being. I could feel a faint liking towards me though it still did nothing. I don't think it ever will.

Water was still unless I acted on it. Like a still lake but the moment I touched on it it took my actions more seriously than it ought. I gave it a tap and it took a shove you could say. It was cheerful though. Unless I looked closer. There was a darkness in water. I left it well alone.

Motion was random in a predictable way. Like heat it had differing parts. Some fast and some slow. At first look it seemed to be tearing itself apart but in actuality it was bouncing in itself. Weird.

Nature was motherly. It took in water, electricity, life, and air and bound a part of them together. They didn't seem to mind.

More interestingly were the smaller parts of nature. I could barely see them but there was earth, metal, wood, sand, crystal, and a hundred other affinities of mine that were too small to use tangled up in it. It was beyond a compound element. It was like a chimera.

Moving on was life. It was like order and chaos merged into one. The edge of the coin of order and chaos I would call it. Controlled chaos.

Finally was ice. It's the only element I can rightly call lazy. It actively resisted change. It hated change. More than anything else it wanted to hibernate. Do nothing and relax.

It liked me though. It was happy to lend me it's power but unlike air or electricity, that would act on their own, ice would never act on it's own without mana. Like space wouldn't bend without the catalyst of mana ice wouldn't budge without mana because it was sleepy and lazy.

I can't truly say I dislike any of my elements. They were like pets. Happy to see me and help me whenever they were able.

Ruby was family. Raven was family. My affinities were my friends through and through. When I need help I know they'll be there for me. If I was losing an element I wouldn't dare to just leave it. Even if I did somehow lose an affinity I would get right back to meditating to get it back.

Sometimes when I'm alone I wonder… My affinities can act without mana if they're strong enough. I've known this for a long time… But are they acting on my subconscious will?

Or their own?

[|||| == ||||]

" _I'm looking for a man by the name of the Villain."_

" _I don't know anybody by that name."_

" _Bullshit."_

" _I. Don't. Know."_

" _... Fine. Then give me the latest news."_

" _Lien."_

" _Tch. Here."_

" _Hmph. Torchwick's got himself a spotlight. He's been taking gangs over for the past few months and solidifying himself in repetition. But nobody can protest because he has somebody backing him. Somebody big. Really big."_

" _Who?"_

" _If I knew that, girlie, I'd be the richest information broker in Vale."_

[|||| == ||||]

I didn't bother to say hi to Ruby. I hugged her and she yelped in surprise. Raven snickered.

"Abyss!" Ruby cried. She broke free and turned around before hugging me. It had only been two weeks since I came back around here.

"Oh! Abyss I found it!" Ruby looked to me with stars in her eyes.

Before my eyes she turned to a storm of rose petals - red and black, I noted - and dashed around Raven's tent. She almost knocked a lamp over but I stopped that with some strong and controlled winds.

"Your semblance?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Ruby nodded with a huge grin on her face. I laughed and rubbed her head. With that settled I took a good look at Ruby. She had changed her look. She had a small braid on the front left of her face with some tribal beads in it for one thing. She had also grown her hair out.

More interestingly, though, she had proper attire for a bandit. Furs and leather woven into a thin armor that keeps the cold out while giving some protection. There was a necklace of bones carved to look like beowolf teeth hanging from her neck as well and some more teeth in a wristband. She also kept a dagger hanging in a hidden sheathe sewn into her leggings. She did know a little about how to use a dagger I suppose but it's probably more for skinning than fighting.

"Good job. I still don't know what my semblance is. You've finally got something I don't."

Ruby shook her head. "You can teleport and make tornadoes-" Raven looked to me for a denial of that but found nothing. She tried to hide a jealous look but failed miserably. "-and all I can do is dash around as a bunch of rose petals!"

"That's not true." I said in a lecture voice. Ruby instantly paid me her full attention.

"Your semblance is something like a mix of several of my abilities including what might be my most powerful spell.

"You can turn immaterial. You can't be hurt at all when you turn to roses unless you're caught in an explosion or something. That's similar to my spatial negation spell. You're immune to damage for a moment if you time it right.

"There's your speed. Of course you're not as fast as Qrow or me if we try a little but you're not by any means slow. Speed is what most huntsmen use mainly in combat. Your being faster than them gets rid of that advantage. I think the speed comes from a variation of your mother's semblance but her rose petals were a pure white. Yours are red and black. I'll leave it up to you to think on what that could mean.

"Finally there's the biggest advantage. Your semblance can be activated at a moments notice. Spells don't work like that. I have to go through a whole process to make a spell. Raven cheats so she just does magic."

I gave Raven a glare and she hid her former jealousy under a smug face, which was really just her normal face.

"What do you mean? Don't you just think and the spell happens?" Ruby asked in confusion.

I shook my head. "First you have to convert the mana to an element. Then you have to draw out how much mana you want to use. Then release where you safely sever the mana you formed into a spell.

"Of course there are a whole bunch of in-between steps like sometimes you have to form the mana a second time outside your body or channel it through an object and then you form the spell inside that object… Anyways, magic is hard."

"I think 'tornado' and let go of my control of my maiden soul and then the stuff happens." Raven said for comparison. I know she's not even lying. I taught her, after all.

"I just think 'I want to be there' and I'm there." Ruby said helpfully. I grinned.

"Well that's because you have poor control over your semblance." I said evilly. Ruby looked at me with that oh so familiar 'oh shit' expression. It's like when you ask your parents for something to do and they say to clean your room.

Raven decided to put her own two cents in. "I used to make portals by accident. Ruby does the same now." There's the hook.

"Well not anymore. If you stayed still but became rose petals you could dodge any attack." I said. There's the bait.

"I-... Um…" Ruby looked uncertain. On one hand, power. On the other hand… Training. We need more bait it seems. What would a twelve year old want?

"I suppose I'll have to take time off of my new job to help you train. I could make cookies at the same time if you do well."

"DEAL!" Ruby shouted. Then she realized what I said.

"YOU GOT A JOB?!" Ruby shouted louder. Raven's eyes asked the same question. I nodded.

"I'm taking over Vale's criminal underworld with Roman Torchwick, a kingpin. We've taken over about half of Vale's criminal enterprises by now."

I looked towards Raven and changed my expression to a more serious one. She did the same. "And on that note, Raven. I need you to manage my empire through Roman. Roman's a rat. A resourceful rat but a rat nonetheless. I can't keep an eye on him and keep training Ruby and keeping myself in Signal at the same time even with all my power."

Raven looked considerate of that for a moment. "Why would I do that? My tribe has a tradition of raiding, you realize." I nodded at that.

"Each and every single one of your tribesmen will get a shower, which they need. Badly." Raven winced at that.

"There's also the wealth, nicer living conditions, you won't need to kill as many people if you play your cards right, your tribe can actually find girlfriends and boyfriends aside from the other tribesmen," A few tribesman pretending to not listen to my offer looked towards me hungrily. It was that bad?

Raven frowned and nodded grudgingly. "Fair points all… but what about Ozpin? The risk in the lifestyle? The expenses of living in the city?"

I smiled. "I put Roman on it. He got blackmail on a landlord of an apartment complex. A whole floor with forty eight different rooms belongs to you. Privacy, utilities, and everything in the city you might want along with a stable job in the budding criminal empire. Your tribe even stays a tribe considering you'll all be living together."

Raven looked at me appraisingly. "Let me get this right… you want my tribe to run your criminal empire?" I shook my head.

"I don't much care for your tribe." A few frowns turned my way but I wasn't wrong. I was family of Raven but not family of the tribe.

"I want YOU to manage Roman from behind the scenes and report to me. You have leadership skills so you can manage him and any who you need to reveal yourself to. Ozpin wouldn't know of you. Even if he does find out what's he going to do? You're a maiden. He can't touch you. Besides, what you'll be doing will actually be good for him even if mainly you benefit. He'll turn a blind eye. I can pull a favor if he tries to pull something. He owes me for showing him Ruby has silver eyes."

I waited a moment. Raven looked tempted. Extremely tempted. A better quality of life by at least a hundredfold from living in dirty poverty in the wilds of Mistral? And she kept her safety and anonymity while gaining more power. But she was a stickler for traditions.

"I see you're still not entirely convinced. Fine. I have one more reason you should move." I turned to face the tribe, who were unabashedly listening in now. "See these?" I took off my illusion system from my runic matrix. My runic symbols appeared and the tribe looked curiously.

"These are runes. They channel magic for different purposes. Spells in written form. These runes on me offer a variety of things. All I'll tell is that they offer me immensely enhanced physicality. I'm stronger, faster, and I have a healing factor along with a few other far more powerful things. I can do so much more if you desire it. You could be as strong as huntsmen without the work. I can't say I would approve of not working any more but I'm willing to do it on all of you should you wish it."

The tribesmen weren't stupid. They knew I was probably telling the truth but they wanted proof. "Prove it." An older woman said sternly. "Then I'm in. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain." I nodded.

A simple rock from the ground sufficed. I quickly scribed a small rune to absorb aura and store it along with use it as a shield, as aura does on people. I funneled my aura into it and made a dagger of ice. I handed the two to the woman.

"Stab the rock." I instructed. She raised an eyebrow but held the rock in her palm and raised the dagger. She then harshly stabbed down. A crimson force field erected and repelled the dagger and some huntsmen cred out in shock.

Nodding approvingly the woman handed the dagger to a man next to her and drew her own. A quick stab proved that yes indeed the aura held. 

"You can do this to us?" The woman asked. I shook my head.

"I can do so much more. I can make your aura huge. Give you a surge of strength to rival Raven or myself for just a moment. Allow you to teleport. More."

Raven seemed willing to go through with it now but she still held a question. "Why have Ozpin or Salem never tried this?" I snorted.

"They never tried. I don't think Salem would reveal this type of power to any of her servants and Ozpin either never wanted to stand out much so he can control humanity or he just never tried. He and Salem are old and so stuck in old ways. They see runes work on so much but they only ever use them to make anti-teleportation necklaces from what I see. They might not even use them for that. They could have just had a few of those lying around."

Raven nodded. "Fine. I agree. We'll leave tomorrow."

I grinned. "Of course."

Ruby reminded us that she was still there. "So… can I have the cool tattoos too? And can we go home now?" I rolled my eyes.

"You'll get yours when you go to beacon. I have yours already planned out as a graduation gift. And yes." And at that a portal of mine opened up.

I called out to the tribesmen one last time. "I'll see you all tomorrow. Write down what it is you want most on a paper so I can make a matrix for you. You too Raven." Raven looked surprised I would rune her too but nodded anyways. And at that I left and the portal closed.

[|||| == ||||]

" _So… these runes. You believe him? That we can become so powerful so quickly?"_

" _... Yeah. Yeah I believe him but I think he was bluffing a little about being as strong as a huntsman. Huntsmen have skill. We'll just get strength. Like a gun but where we have crap aim or the boss when she first got his powers."_

" _But when she mastered her powers…"_

" _Yeah. Ten times as strong."_

" _And the kid taught her."_

" _... yeah. He's strong. Stronger than the boss. He could have forced us to work for him easily. Why didn't he?"_

" _Because he's smart. He's not keeping us close to keep an eye on him. He has a criminal empire with him and one untrustworthy man watching it. He can't trust him."_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _I-... oh, he was saying earlier in their conversation that he has a guy named Roman Torchwick watching his empire for him but that he doesn't trust him and wants Raven to watch him as a job. That's why we would get all that power."_

" _I.. don't see."_

" _Keep your allies close and your enemies closer. What people don't say is to keep your face to your enemies and your back to your allies. He can't keep his face to Torchwick so he might stab him in the back, being untrustworthy. Raven, though… he can trust Raven. You know that he, Ruby, and her are family. Not bandit family or a community family but like a brother to Abyss and the tyke's like a niece. So Raven watches his back and he gives her strength and a better life."_

" _I see. So like what we do with Raven but she gives us her strength and we keep her a base."_

" _Pretty much."_

" _... Do you think we could make him an honorary member? Of the family."_

" _I don't know. Let's ask."_

[|||| == ||||]

I had just made dinner when something different happened. Ruby had mostly eaten cookies and talked about the good things that happened. Her semblance, which she got when she almost spilled a glass of wine (which I was alright with. If it was just a sip to see what it tasted like it was fine. Ruby wasn't developing any habits at twelve years old) and she used it by accident.

There was also learning how to mend clothes from the older woman named Carlaya and sparring with the bandits. She sometimes won against them, which I was proud about. They were experienced and hardened bandits. And she, a twelve year old not even in high Signal yet, beat some of them. Then Yang walked through the door and looked wide-eyed at Ruby.

Yang looked to Ruby and almost seemed to say something but stopped and went up to her room silently. Ruby sighed and went back to scraping the bottom of the bowl of her soup.

"Well that was… odd." I said.

"Maybe it was the clothes?" Ruby suggested. I shrugged. She was still wearing leather and fur. We had only been home for a few hours so Ruby hadn't taken her clothes off. They were hot for Vale but Ruby really liked the feeling of the fur on her skin so I let her wear then with a temperature enchantment on them. She obviously couldn't wear them out of the house though. Her hair was fine though. A braid wasn't unusual. Yang might have been surprised by the sudden change in fashion from T-shirts to tribal wear.

Now, though, it was time for a topic I had been avoiding. "So… did you learn about banditry?" I asked. Ruby winced.

"Yeah…" She said sullenly. I sighed and put my hand on her consolingly.

"That bad, huh?"

"Yes!" She cried out. And here it all comes.

"How could they just grow numb to it all?! I know they have their own reasons but they don't have to take everything! They don't have to act like they're proud of how well a raid went! I took part in a few but at least I wasn't proud of how I did on it! Auntie Raven was just… she was proud of her clan but that's obviously fine! They're like her family! They are her family but they're just not like you or me are to her but at least she wasn't proud of ruining lives!"

Ruby panted a little and hugged me tiredly. "I know people have to do bad things to get by but why do they have to be proud of it?" I rubbed her back.

"It's alright to be proud of their work. They worked hard on something. Did they act proud of how anybody screamed or just how scared people were? Or how desperate they were?"

"They were… mostly proud of how good they were at being bandits. At how scary they were to this one guy or bragging about some loot they got or a piece of small praise Raven gave them."

"That's okay." I said. "Huntsmen brag about killing this one nasty grimm. Farmers brag over raising the largest hog that they slaughtered. Salesmen brag about pulling one over this one poor fellow. Banditry is no different if they're bragging like that. If they were bragging about the tears a kid spilled over them or the nicest woman they forcefully slept with then they would be terrible people. As they are they're just people in a bad line of profession.

"There are plenty of terrible people who wear kind faces and you might think them the nicest people in the world. Raven's bandits, at least, are honest even though they're dishonorable people."

Ruby sniffed. "Okay."

I released from the hug and Ruby reluctantly did too. "They're so nice when they're not robbing and hurting people but then they look like feral wolves." Ruby paused. "Oh and by the way I saw some feral wolves once. It was awesome. We caught one and I learned how to skin stuff."

I smiled and walked over to the couch, where I laid down. Ruby followed over to the recliner where she laid across the armrests. "Oh really? I don't actually know how that works. Can you tell me about it?" Ruby smiled brilliantly and her silver eyes seemed to sparkle in the light.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Dad?"_

" _Yeah, sunshine?"_

" _... Where's Ruby?"_

" _... um… here."_

" _A… hm… a trip? He doesn't say where."_

" _Yeah. He didn't."_

" _... how did we come to this?"_

" _Well… We left her. Then there was only Abyss."_

" _But… she just left? Without any notice? Anything at all?"_

" _We brought this on ourselves, Yang."_

" _How can you be so nonchalant about this?! I know I'm not a good sister but I at least want to know where she is."_

" _Sunshine, Ruby is happy with Abyss. If she was in trouble I would be there in a heartbeat but she doesn't need help. She's perfectly happy where she is. Us butting into her life would bring nothing but tears and angry words. We both know this."_

" _Yeah but…"_

" _Sunshine… I want her back too. But we didn't mess up a little. We didn't mess up a lot. We left her on her own and only Abyss helped her. We lost something that day and it's been years since we've even had a conversation. At this point we have to accept that we lost something and hope that one day she needs us and we can be there to help her."_

" _... fine. I… can't we at least try?"_

" _I did. When I was at home once Qrow came over. He tried to bring me in for a dinner but all I could pay attention to was how right it was. For them. I was an intruder. A blight on their peace and happiness. Ruby has a life of her own now, Sunshine. She has Qrow and Abyss and she loves them both so much. I heard her say something about an auntie once. I don't know who that would be but that just proves my point Yang. She's a world away from us. It would be like you going to the least popular kid in Signal and trying to be friends with him but worse because you and him would have bad blood between you two."_

" _... Okay. Okay I… It feels like we lost her too dad."_

" _We did Sunshine. And there's nobody to blame but ourselves. We just have to move on and hope that one day we can come back to her."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Super strength?" I looked to the tribe member and held my tongue. "Temporary like a burst or normal strength like a smaller permanent boost." The man appeared caught off guard by the question.

"Um… both?" I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"I can do both then. Fine." taking my hand away I was silent for a minute while I sketched the runes on a sheet of paper. Well, my version of a sketch. I suck at drawing so I had to use some creative interpretation. I stared calculatingly at the sheet.

"I can probably add one more thing. Your last want is… Invisibility? Too big. Hypnosis? No I can't do that either. Oh? Telekinesis? Well aren't you ambitious? I can't do that for fine tuning but I can fit in a system to let you blast a wave of air at things. Blow people back and watch them fly. Or knock projectiles out of the air. Useful if I do say so myself but it'll be costly to use."

"You can?! Hell yeah! Absolutely!" The man looked excited now. Hyped, really. I nodded.

"Go out and talk to the others. We'll have a second session in an hour to talk about what else you might want to replace anything with later. The man looked happy to comply and nearly skipped out of the makeshift office.

I leaned back and kicked my legs up onto the desk. The bandits were pretty happy to take anything. They weren't the kind to look a gift horse in the mouth. I also couldn't add much for them. The bandits didn't have mana in their bodies and unless they wanted to be running back to Raven or me every five minutes to refill their runes to use powers they had to use more space on their bodies.

Each tribal tattoo used about half their body from the waist down and a little bit more at their lower back to absorb and store mana. Even with all my work in that specific runic system they would only absorb twenty mana per minute with a storage of about six thousand mana. If they wanted to have more storage or more regeneration they could ask me and I could do more or less of one or the other but twenty and six K was the average and most popular choice.

Making a runic system to transform people into a makeshift wizard wasn't easy. It took a few revisions. There was a subsystem for controlling the mana through a mental command, one for storing the mana, one for absorbing ambient mana, and a few others. Like the illusion system to hide or show the runes. I heard talk of keeping the illusion system off at the base because it actually took some mana regen to use. Not as much as mine but nothing to sniff at either for people like them with a tiny amount of mana.

To make just one spell took a system to convert the mana to an element, form the spell, and release it in a way that won't kill the recipient. Like a flamethrower had to be super hot but not burn the person using the flamethrower with it's heat. I could only add a few per person.

I wasn't going to do a deep tattoo per every person. That is to say a tattoo that goes beyond the skin. This was skin level only. A deeper tattoo was way more complex. It was three dimensional, for one thing so I needed to make the matrix click in three dimensions like some sort of terrible rubix cube. It was horribly, terribly complex and personalized.

I would only do one for Raven because that's what family does for each other. The bandits would have to settle. I didn't want them to die but handing them that much power of a deep tattoo would take more effort, give them a concerning amount of power, and if one of them went rogue Salem or Ozpin might learn of three dimensional rune making, which they might already know but I'm not taking my chances.

Besides, the bandits were mass production. Not special to me like Jaune or Ruby or Raven. Well, Jaune was a… special case. I winced at the memory. I should check up on him discreetly. Make sure mama Arc is keeping up training or running and hiding again but from me this time.

Raven tried to be sneaky and make a portal behind me silently, a trick she had picked up from me and applied to her semblance. It was touching that I had a bond with her when she first used the portal to steal my dinner and raid Tai's fridge for beer.

"Done already?" She asked with her mouth close to my ear. I didn't change my breathing pattern at all.

"Yeah. Your people aren't too needy. Well, not as much as I dreaded they would be. I guess people don't ask for better when you say you can make them super soldiers." Raven wasn't surprised that I wasn't surprised and moved across the table to the chairs. She kicked her legs up and laid them on the desk like I did.

"Thanks, by the way. For not forcing me or my tribe to do your bidding."

"Angry people make poor servants."

Raven made a small stone from mana and threw it at me with magic. I caught it with motion magic and tossed it back at her. She diverted it off to the side with air magic, not really caring to play a childish game.

"What did they all ask for?" She asked. I smiled.

"Invisibility, teleportation, and lightning bolts, though they're actually pure electricity, were the most common. The flamethrowers are fine but EVERYBODY wants them or at least puts the idea forth before I suggest something better. Lightning bolts are less common for those with the brain to be a little different. I gave up after the third person to ask about teleportation and made an announcement to everybody that if they wanted teleportation they would have to only be able to use it once every week or so and they would need to practice it a ton. That shut them up." Raven snorted.

"My tribe get a chance to pick a superpower. It's like getting three semblances and a good looking tattoo. Everyone saw how your tattoos made you look all swirly and fierce."

"They just look like that. I wasn't aiming for a look when I made my matrix."

"Is that what you call it?"

"A runic matrix is the term. You uneducated savages call it a tattoo. Plebeians." Raven lazily threw another rock and I didn't bother to defend against it. It bounced off my sub-dermal armor and I hardly felt it.

"So." Raven took her legs off the desk and leaned back in her chair. "Do you have any ideas for me?" I laughed and got to a sitting position.

"Alright. So you'll be getting a more advanced tattoo than the others and far more efficient as well. More advanced because while I'm alright giving your thugs power as part of your employment I'm not giving my secrets to them. The less I spread my specialties the less people can learn about them." Raven nodded to this.

"They also get far less efficiency because they have to collect and store mana in a large tattoo from their waist downwards. And no, I'm not touching privates. I'm not tattooing a guy's genitals Raven." She laughed at me and didn't seem to care either way.

"So my mana from my maidenhood will help me then? To fuel the matrix?"

"Partially. Some will come from outside but plenty of runes will be fueled from what you naturally emit as a maiden." Raven narrowed her eyes.

"Can this emission be used to track me?"

"Of course it can." I said simply. "So I made a matrix to collect it and put that leaking mana back into your body. You don't need to bother controlling your mana since any mana that leaks away will be brought back into you." Raven looked at me blankly.

"You mean all those mana exercises you made me do were for nothing because a bit of ink can fix all my problems?"

"It's more complex than just ink in a fancy pattern and no. Too much mana actually can leak through the matrix. In addition, mana control is still very much needed to form your spells in the first place. You can just afford to lose some of the excess. Also, I wasn't just going to give you a matrix right away and you sure as hell weren't going to allow me to sedate you to give you a tattoo."

Raven frowned a little. "I need to be sedated to get the tattoo?"

"Not your tribesmen but you will be for the fancy tattoo. You're not allowed to be awake when I do my work." Raven grudgingly nodded agreement. I smiled at her.

"You'll be fine. Besides me being here I runed the whole building to be safer. A defense system against people with ill intent and a container for aura. You can flare your mana and aura in here as much as you like and nobody can sense a thing."

Raven nodded with some relief and took a moment to put the idea of being sedated out of mind.

"So… your plans?" I smirked gleefully. She let a small smile onto her face at my smile. It meant good things for her, after all.

"Let me tell you about the dust system. You're going to love it."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Ember?"_

" _Sis?! What are you doing here?!"_

" _I'm looking for information on the recent assault on the Arc family manor. The mistress asked it of me. And you?"_

" _I looked for that. I found a name. Or, well, a title. Villain."_

" _How did you find that? I've searched all of our contacts in Vale and a few in other kingdoms."_

" _I asked the Arc matriarch."_

" _Of course. Silly me. Why didn't I think of that."_

" _Hehe. No need for jealousy, Cindy. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with simple solutions one day!"_

" _If only I was gifted with your intellect. Going up to a paranoid potential enemy and asking them a highly sensitive topic without acquiring a sudden case of death."_

" _I know. I'm also banned from their manor but you win some you lose some."_

" _As if the ban has any real meaning. Have you found any leads with the name?"_

" _Nope! None whatsoever. This and Fellian's shop are the last two places to check before I've marked every contact off my list."_

" _Fellian doesn't know anything."_

" _Oh good. Now I can get back to wandering the countryside seducing young boys."_

" _You're so lonely you're talking to Aether again aren't you?"_

" _..."_

" _As I thought."_

" _Well… he's good conversation at least."_

" _You and that horse are perfect for each other, I swear."_

" _Ugh. Okay, you got me. Well I' looked for my target, Abyss Mavros, but I didn't find anything in any of the info brokers. The only thing that happened was the Arc incident and the rise of a new kingpin in Vale called Roman. Mind if I travel back to the mistress with you?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Great!"_

" _I know you couldn't seduce a rock so I'll keep the old men away from you. That's all you're going to catch anyways."_

" _Dammit I'm growing! Not flat!"_

" _The good genes all went to me. Mistress said so."_

" _Bullshit!"_

" _Fine. But she feels that way."_

" _... Maybe."_

" _You could always aim for Tyrian or Watts. They're both old and creepy. I'm sure you could seduce them. Maybe Even Hazel."_

" _Fine! You win! I submit to your big sister teasing techniques! Please spare me Cinder!"_

" _Hmph. As you ought. Stay away from creepy old men and young boys. You're twelve."_

" _Yes Cinder Onee-Sama-Chan."_

" _I have a migraine already. This must be a record for you."_

" _I'm making up for lost time. We have a long ways to go."_

[|||| == ||||]

After two days of work I was finally done with all the bandits and their runic matrixes except Raven's. She was last.

Ruby and the bandits had completely changed the apartment to be WAY nicer than it was before. One of them knew a thing or two about buildings and architecture and remodeled some of the floor to be nicer than it was. Less structural flaws. Raven used her powers on concrete and I used some runes on a few things to be stronger or more efficient. Like the runes at the elevator that show the floor as a normal floor with the boring grey walls as on the other floors.

In actuality the walls were re-painted a nice warm brown. The concrete that was the floor was covered in a loose array of rugs and carpets stretching down the corridor both ways. It made a nice flooring.

A few rooms became rec-rooms of a sort. Communal space. A kitchen, a lunch room, a storeroom of sorts, and even a bar. It was nice that the close community of the bandits will stay together despite not being alone anymore.

Everyone had gotten furniture, clothes, and whatever they might need for their rooms. Roughly two or three to a room. There were sixty eight bandits in total that shared about forty rooms. Raven had one to herself of course. There were a few rooms that were private in case somebody wanted to bring a woman (or man) back to sleep with.

I had pitched in a little more than the runes, which were easy to do compared to a bodily runic complex. I just made an avatar and put a parallel on it. I had made these little lamps out of glass globes. They glowed softly at night and a bit brighter during the day with natural sunlight.

Ruby had inspired everyone and generally just been cute. She had also put her foot down with me that this was where we were staying this year and that Tai could stick it. I caved after a while but I refused to let her out of her morning runs. I made a teleportation array to her room that I hid under her bed under the carpet that floored her room. She would teleport and appear on her bed for a shower and run and then jog to Signal as always. I also bargained more spars with Raven and the other tribe members. Ruby had easily gone along with this. She needed to be more sociable anyways and she had integrated into the tribe flawlessly.

The tribe members practically praised the ground I stepped on. It had long been out there that I was a bit stronger than Raven, which was true in some ways. I was stronger than her in magic but physically or skillswise I was way below her still. I was better than many in my technique and she smiled, truly smiled, when I said I found my own style, but I was still only second year beacon level without the experience and skill of a professional huntsman. Magic was just a fantastic equalizer.

They also loved me because of the runic matrixes. Raven had honestly told them that theirs weren't as good as mine or theirs though she left out that hers was better anyways. I think they knew, though. They didn't seem to mind.

Plenty of people had gone for something like fireballs, wind blasts, or lightning bolts because they were small for me to make and useful. A few had gotten the ability to fly despite how expensive it was. One man had sacrificed himself for the greater good and gotten invisibility and flying and only focused on regeneration to just be a scout. Smart man, really.

I had abstained a few things. Dimensional cut wasn't offered because it was a nuclear option. It cuts through aura and everything else and was used for nothing but killing unless you were responsible and had very good mana control. I had actually scared myself at the power of it when I hurt Argentum Arc so badly. There was also disaster and mana sight on that blacklist of mine.

Finally it was time for Raven't turn and I have to say that I rocked it. It was fantastic, though cutting her open was a little disturbing. I kept all my parallels on her to keep her alive and well during the operation and everything but it still felt odd to be doing surgery on the naked woman who was like an aunt to me. I got it done though.

Raven had some… really good systems. Like REALLY good systems. The dust, net, and cloaking system were mandatory as were the physical enhancements but I left the toughening runes out for aura capacity increasing ones.

For one thing, Raven's cloaking system was different than mine or anyone else's. Hers had the additional feature of invisibility. It was harder to do than it sounds. She had tattoos off and then invisibility in the same system. It was like a lightswitch with three different settings. It was surprisingly hard to pull off but she thought it was well worth it. She absolutely loved the thing.

Second was the muffle system. It was basically my unofficial muffle spell of stilling the winds around her feet. Raven had never gotten a hang of the technique with her powers no matter how hard she practiced. So I threw her a bone. It was a tiny system but it meant a big difference. It's also eerie to fight a woman who doesn't make sound. Her sword strikes, for example, aren't heard. For a fighter it's off putting to have to rely on only your instincts and sight. Hearing was as important in a fight as seeing.

Third was the heal system. It was like regeneration that can be used to various intensities in comparison to my constant healing factor.

Fourth was one I had absolutely insisted on. Mage armor. If you don't recall, mage armor is the sort of replacement for aura out of mana that I never use. I don't need to. Raven, though, has average huntress aura. Summer, Ozpin, and I have huge auras due to our perks but Raven only has her maidenhood, which boosts her mana. We have another solution in place for that in the last system but this was enough to give her a little more of a safety net.

Finally was the system Raven had directly asked for besides the dust system. The inventory system. It was almost exactly as I call it. Almost. You see, It wasn't Raven's inventory she was accessing. It was actually a section of my own inventory. I had isolated a tiny portion of my soul space, about a tenth of it, which was still over two thousand three hundred cubic meters… that's a little over a cubic mile so unless Raven wanted to store a junkyard worth of stuff she'll be fine. I would take her in for therapy if she felt that she needed that much space though.

It was sort of like my remote avatar spell but only the link to my inventory and in runic form, which was hard to do surprisingly. I got it down though. It was just rather hard to do.

I tried to teach her the inventory spell herself but Raven isn't very talented at magic. She has to rely on her affinities more than anything since she's so much less about the technical details than me. She's more of the 'feel it out' sort of mage.

This reliance on affinities caused a rather unexpected problem. Her maiden affinities just absolutely dwarf her space affinity. She has a hard time accessing the affinity because of this. So she used my own. We can also trade things we need with each other. I still say that she should have learned to use her own inventory but she preferred this way more than learning the spell herself.

Raven did have one huge advantage though. I stored a runic matrix on a sheet of metal in our shared inventory that has just one function. It transfers aura or mana and flawlessly integrates it with the other's aura. This lets us trade our aura and mana from any distance. I had long since maxxed out the aura transferring skill by giving Ruby more aura to fight with in our spars or to help fuel Summer's aura in the few times we actually fought so it was easy to get used to the new way to trade aura. To my sadness we won't be able to swap affinities (Raven had such good affinities, being a maiden) but this was for her. Not me.

With all that Raven was a happy camper. I observed her and smiled. She really was strong in her own way.

 **Raven Branwen**

 **Titles: Bandit queen; Renegade**

 **Level – 354**

 **HP – 13,208**

 **AP – 12,800**

 **MP - 128,000**

 **STR - 285 (+510%)= 1738.5**

 **VIT - 208 (+535%)= 1320.8**

 **DEX - 420 (+515%)= 2583**

 **INT - 453 (+0%)= 453**

 **WIS - 320 (+0%)= 320**

 **LUK - 84 (+0%)= 84**

 **Semblance: Portal (Empathetic) - Using your emotive link to another you may create a portal to their location regardless of distance. Links: Qrow Branwen - disdain; Taiyang Xiao-Long - disgust; Yang Xiao-Long - contempt; Ozpin Meridian - Hatred; Glynda Goodwitch - Disgust; Vernal Greene - Responsibility; Ruby Rose - Affection (Familial); Abyss Mavros - Respect;**

 **Affinities:**

 **Ice: 1099**

 **Wind: 1088**

 **Electricity: 1056**

 **Earth: 1049**

 **Fire: 1021**

 **Nature: 1011**

 **Water: 1005**

 **Space: 81**

 **Shadow: 25**

 **Perks:**

 **Maiden of Spring - You are a maiden. One of the heirs of the legendary women blessed with powers by the wizard. Whether this power is a blessing, a burden, or a tool is decided by you and you alone. No matter your decision you are worthy.**

 **-1000% to MP capacity and regeneration.**

 **-Mana and aura are unlocked.**

 **-Nature, fire, water, ice, wind, lightning, and earth affinities are increased by 1500.**

 **-Luck increased by 100 in spring. No limits on your total affinities.**

 **Bodily runic matrix (3 layered) - A master of runes has inscribed upon your body a matrix of three parts. The effects are:**

 **-+35% VIT and +10% more STR from reinforced bones and shock resistant organs.**

 **-+15% DEX from runed joints**

 **-Dust system may be used to enhance spells with dust.**

 **-No excess mana or aura emitted through techniques via net system. Excess is absorbed.**

 **-Illusionary cloak may be donned for 150 MP per minute. Passively hides the runic matrix unless toggled off. Invisibility available for 200MP.**

 **\- Healing factor (1MP per 3HP)**

 **-Mage armor available. Passively uses mana as a shield after depletion of aura.**

 **-Air may be stilled around your body (you are capable of breathing) to negate sound from you.**

 **-Inventory space available for use. Under supervision by Abyss Mavros.**

 **Wizard's gift - An archwizard has granted unto you the ability to turn into your spirit animal through an ancient ritual.**

 **-You are capable of turning into a raven. No MP requirements.**

 **Bio: Raven Branwen was born into the Branwen tribe and trained in the art of combat from a young age. Her life took a turn when she was sent into beacon academy to train to combat huntsmen and huntresses to better equip her tribe against their one weakness.**

 **Ozpin Meridian attempted to turn Raven's team into agents of his after their graduation and succeeded on two counts of Summer Rose and Qrow Branwen, Raven's brother.**

 **To Raven's irritation she became pregnant by accident to her teammate Taiyang Xiao-Long. She doesn't regret having a child but she does regret having one with Taiyang, who she looks down on due to his perceived weak will.**

 **Shortly after birthing her daughter Raven left to rejoin her tribe. Upon finding that she was the strongest she took the mantle of tribe leader and combats huntsmen by herself to keep her tribe intact.**

 **After the death of her best friend, Summer Rose, she killed the spring maiden, Bondi Trys, and took on the power of the spring maiden.**

 **She recently reconnected with her best friend's daughter, Ruby Rose, through you. She feels that Ruby is something like a close niece to her and you her current best friend.**

 **With the recent deal of her tribe becoming stronger through runes she believes her and her tribe's situation will grow stronger as they integrate with Vale's criminal underworld. She is willing to do everything in her power to make sure her tribe never loses it's edge as killers and survivors as well as their sense of community.**

 **She is incredibly skilled with a blade granted by a lifetime of training and practice and heavily physically conditioned to the level of some of the best huntresses in the world.**

I carried Raven through the halls from my makeshift operating table quickly and put her in her bed. The sedative would remain for now. It was nighttime too so she'll probably sleep… I should do the same. Ruby's first day is tomorrow.

[|||| == ||||]

" _It's not that simple Ozpin."_

" _We have to have trust in him, Glynda. Otherwise he won't have trust in us."_

" _He could be doing anything! He has a silver eyed warrior that he's all but raised, his magic growing more powerful by the day, his affinities already dwarf yours, he made a BODY for himself for dust's sake! We can't control him!"_

" _He is the first wizard in hundreds of years. The first powerful wizard in thousands. Do you realize what we can do here? He's a genius with magic beyond anything I've ever seen. Whatever he did to his soul was complex so that I cannot fathom it. What he did was to the level of the archmages of old."_

" _It doesn't matter if he's powerful! Salem is powerful and yet she opposes you! What if he does the same? If he's dying he can just make a new body to oppose you if you ever anger him! He's as big a threat as Salem but instead of reclining a continent away he's right here in our face!"_

" _But what is he's not an enemy? What if we brought him to our side and used him against Salem? We have a real chance with him, Glynda. Other than him we have only two hopes. One untrustworthy and one desperate beyond all measure."_

" _And this one is the equivalent to letting a SS class huntsman have free reign to do his own will, be it to rob, kill, steal, or anything he cares to do at all."_

" _He's not anywhere near SS rank, Glynda. With his magic he's S rank. I can use a failsafe if he decides to rebel or simply crush him myself."_

" _... Fine."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: No timeskip here. If it isn't already obvious, the dates don't indicate a time skip unless I state it. With that said I'm stopping the time markers. Signal is starting now and the time will be moving at a crawl now. If you're looking for ages just look for canon time, where Ayss will be seventeen physically and Ruby fifteen and backtrack.**

[||||= **LEVEL 16** = ||||]

I got up blearily and with faint aches in my body. Oh the joys of having a body. I rolled out of the bed and shook the sleep off of me. I had gotten a good eight hours. Far more than anything I ever need with my vitality and the hardy skill. I tested myself once and found that I only needed two or three hours. That doesn't mean I can't slip off into dreamland sometimes though. And waking up was as groggy an experience as always.

I stepped into the shower and turned on the water. A minute of just letting the water run over me and I was as awake as I could get. I sent a parallel and an avatar to wake up Ruby. She was used to summer, as a dash of mage sight revealed. Get used to six AM wakeups again, you little sucker.

It was with a frown that I remembered that we were living in the Branwen's… base? Apartments? Well, whatever they called it now. The bandits get up bright and early after living in the wilds for so long. Not to mention that my sun lamps make them get up around now too. That means I'll definitely have to cook for everybody under fear of being held hostage for my food… well that's alright I guess. It was five forty now. That gives me more than twenty minutes to make everything for Ruby and the rest.

I finished up with the shower quickly and dressed myself from my inventory before making my way to the kitchen. It was an an apartment that had two stoves instead of one and the bedroom converted to a pantry and a few refrigerators moved into it at the wall. The bandits were surprisingly good at interior decorating. I blame it on enthusiasm for their new digs.

I dealt all my parallels to make a variety of things. Cinnamon rolls, croissants filled with jams and a few with chocolate, eggs and bacon, some breakfast burritos, pancakes, and waffles. I moved all of this into the lunch hall or whatever they call it. The eating room.

The lunch hall was actually two rooms but we tore down the walls and a bathroom in the way. Raven used earth magic to make some concrete pillars to keep the roof up and I runed everything to be structurally sound.

We put down a long table and bench along with a shorter dinner table for Raven and any important guests (that means me and Ruby) that may arrive. On one side of the wall was a really long table that I would put breakfast on.

We didn't have any plates so I made them out of ice with no air in them. They looked like glass. I then put a simple runic matrix on them to stop them from absorbing heat. They would feel room temperature forever since they're not exchanging heat with anything. They were basically glass plates but made from ice in reality.

As I loaded up the plates and enchanted everything to be warm for longer Raven finally got up. She looked a little out of sorts until she sniffed the air, which was when she immediately woke up. The delicious food cooking and the power of coffee compels her I suppose. She hopped into the shower and I turned my attention from her.

Ruby got up not long after Raven did. She got up easier since she hadn't just gotten out of surgery. She immediately got into the shower too.

After ten minutes I had finished most of the food with my parallels. Only the third batch of bacon, the croissants, and the whip cream (my parallel ran to a market and bought a bunch of stuff earlier before teleporting back. Mage sight and teleporting made shopping far easier) that needed more vanilla.

Raven was the first to arrive. It was funny to watch her move though. She wasn't used to all the extra strength so she looked jerky and twitchy. I looked at her amusedly and she ignored me as she sat down. She didn't get up to look at the dishes but instead used her air affinity to start making a plate of her choice and float it over to her. I assume she'll get used to her new strength later.

After a few bandits forewent their shower and went straight to breakfast Ruby arrived. She tore through the cinnamon rolls and a few croissants. To stop her from raiding the two fruit bowls for all of their strawberries I called her over and handed her a bowl of strawberries. She managed to get something similar to a thank you out before running to her auntie with her plate and bowl.

As Ruby started eating Raven carefully took her first bite and froze. I made sure to look at her amusedly. She had never tried my cooking before. Her widened eyes showed this. After just a moment she began tearing into the food. She was especially partial towards the croissants filled with chocolate. Well that's fine. Being a huntress burns plenty of calories.

Similar scenes happened for every bandit that took their first bite. I can't say for sure but I think that the more joyous atmosphere was unusual judging from the looks on the arriving bandit's faces.

I finished up my work in the kitchen and grabbed my plate leaving my parallels to clean up. Good thing they didn't have emotions or I'd have a mutiny on my hands with how I treat them.

Arriving to the table with Raven and Ruby Raven had composed herself more decently though she was still clearly enjoying the food greatly.

"How are you so good at cooking?" She asked me, taking a break to drink a little of her water. Wait, water for breakfast? Huh. Her choice I suppose.

"I learned a lot from Summer. I refined my skills by cooking for Ruby."

"His cookies are incredible." Ruby said through a mouthful of strawberries. Raven smiled nostalgically.

"We rented Summer out to cook a few times. She was always good at it. Qrow burns water, I poison it, and Tai gives up and cooks canned food. Summer was practically a celebrity being that she was the only good cook in the school that was approachable. The other two people good at cooking stayed private among their friends."

I smiled. "I'll be popular at Beacon then." Raven stiffened a little.

"What do you mean?"

"I never told you? Well when I first came to Vale after Summer caught me she had to bring me to Ozpin. We struck a deal. I agreed to help Summer with missions by augmenting her soul and releasing her potential as a mage and going to beacon in two years and in exchange he gave me spell books on magic like the one I gave you, kept me close to Summer to defend me and teach me, and gain power from Summer's soul. Though I don't know if he knows that I was absorbing her affinities at the time. He tried to tie me down with an apprenticeship to him but being his pawn was part of that deal."

"You're going two years ahead of Ruby?" She asked. Ruby swallowed and chimed in for that.

"I'm getting to Beacon two years early. I'm strong enough that if I keep up my current pace I'll actually be stronger than most first year students."

Raven quirked an eyebrow. "Why would… silver eyes. Of course he would make an exception." I nodded.

"Oh, by the way Ruby." Ruby blinked towards me with a pancake drooping as it hung slightly out of her mouth. "There are going to be some extremely strong students at beacon in three years. Not just you and me. And no, I'm not telling how I know."

Ruby gulped down her pancake. "Okay! That's fine since I'll get the runes and grow stronger." I smiled and nodded. A good attitude to have. I won't tell her that she'll have a guy with runes equal to what I'll give her. Jaune's sword is runed to hell and back too… I'll give Ruby an edge with a few accessories and clothes runed to give her an edge.

"Do you think you can take the first day on your own?" I asked. Ruby looked a little nervous.

"Um… I'd rather not. Can we do that later in the year?"

"It's just the first day. If anything I should be the nervous one since I have my first day of Signal today. Not even low Signal but real Signal. Oh, and I'll introduce you to Roman when I get back, Raven." Raven nodded easily at this.

"Ah, that's true I suppose." Ruby frowned. "But I don't like it."

"You'll have to get used to it. I'm getting busier with work and finally having to join a school. You'll be spending more time with the tribe and training with Qrow when he's around than me."

"I don't like it." She mumbled.

"I don't like it either but I just have to do this stuff. I'll be spending plenty of time with you but I won't be sticking to you like I have been."

Raven threw Ruby a bone. "I can help train with you if you have more free time. All I have to do now is keep an eye on Roman anyways. Even then I'm not his babysitter. I'll have enough free time to keep your company and manage my tribe."

"Oh. Well I'll probably be fine then." Ruby brightened up a little.

[|||| == ||||]

" _I… I don't know what to do, Junior. He just… I've gone farther, made more money, and gotten more recognition in the past four months than I have in the past year before all this. He pops up, throws four dead enemies of mine in my face, and the next thing I know I work for him. What can I even do?"_

" _Well it's simple. Work for him."_

" _Yeah. It seems like that would be the best option but this guy killed four high class gangsters just to make a point! This is more than I wanted to be in. I was about to ditch the gang and go independant, find a sidekick, and manage myself. Now I'm in this… THIS!"_

" _Well that's just too bad."_

" _You're not helping."_

" _I am. You're just not listening. Look, this Villain wants you to expand your gang to all of Vale and he's carrying you to the top. Stop thinking 'Oh he's looking to stab me in the back' and look good and hard at this. It is bad but that he came to you means that in one way or another he needs you. Sure, you were forced but it isn't that bad. He needs you and now you need him or you'll be annihilated."_

" _Pretty much."_

" _Well has he ever demanded a lot?"_

" _No. Just an apartment floor and some small stuff. All the information on this gang boss or that one guy right here."_

" _So you've got a guy that wants you to work for him, doesn't ask for much, and gives you all of Vale as your playpen so long as you work for it a bit. Why are you complaining?"_

" _He's above my league."_

" _Then that means one of two things. First is that everybody in your league just became your bitch with him at your back or that he's dragging you to new heights. Have you fought anybody out of your league?"_

" _No…"_

" _Have you ever been forced into something you don't want to do?"_

" _A few times he pushes me ahead of schedule and gives me some extra help."_

" _That's fine if he's putting in a little extra. See, you're getting more than you ever did before and you have serious backing. Quit worrying and being so paranoid. Keep an eye on everything and everyone but remember that there is such a thing as allies."_

[|||| == ||||]

Signal was actually comprised of two campuses. One for mid-signal and one for high signal. The school didn't waste time, though. Everyone was mailed schedules of their classes and told to get to their first classes on the first day. The school times went from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon for mid signal and eight to five in the afternoon for high signal.

I myself had two one hour classes, a two hour class, lunch, and two four hour classes before dismissal. The first two hour long classes were math and history and ending off with the two hour long elective, in which I chose one of the less popular electives. Subtlety.

Subtlety was a sort of espionage/information gathering/stealth takedown class. I was good at being stealthy but I wasn't the best unless I was using my invisibility and muffle skill. I was actually excited for it.

After an hour long lunch I had the real classes. First of the two classes was hunter studies. It covered everything from dust handling to weapon smithing to making mission reports. It wasn't going to be fun at all but it would be useful.

Finally at the end of the day was combat class. There's not much to say about that. We fight. That's it.

At signal we didn't have english or literature or any sort of language classes at all. The reason for that is pretty simple. Remnant only had one language. English. I mean, sure, there were other languages but Remnant wasn't large enough to have more than one main language. There were other languages, called old languages, like german, french, and oriental languages but they weren't really used by anyone except to maintain culture. A hunter had little need for them anyways when he or she could just use his or her scroll to translate. There are apps for that stuff.

The only thing I disapproved about was that there was no science classes. Sciences opened your eyes to new opportunities and ideas and helped you to understand the world.

Ruby looked at me weirdly when I complained about that and said "But we can cut grimm open or blow them up with dust or a hundred other things. The only reason science is so useful to you is because of your spells."

Ruby did not have a nice sparring session after that. Nobody just disses science like that.

Anyways, my opinion is irrelevant in the whole scheme of things. My time at signal would be fine in all likelihood. Jaune is being schooled by his mother and sisters and the rest of the cast can just do their thing. This isn't a show. I'm not going to act excited over their existence or go hunting them out unless I need them for something. I needed Jaune to ensure that he covers Ruby as I work for a brighter future for myself. I need Roman so I can control Cinder when the time comes. I'm not going to go looking to meet others.

First period was simple… and boring. I hate math. It was almost exactly like normal classes. Not that I expected anything else. I had been in classes with Ruby after all. I assigned a parallel to it and played video games in my soul space until the period ended.

Next was history and geography. It wasn't especially exciting. Old battles and some map skills. I had a textbook in my soul space that I had a parallel tear through a few times a while ago. I knew the content already. Not as well as the teacher but plenty well.

Finally was what I think would be my favorite class. Subtlety. Deciding to be a little cocky I used mage sight and saw the teacher. A woman with black hair in a ponytail was hiding in the rafters of the room playing a scroll game. Oh, militia. A strategy game about fighting grimm with townspeople as you hold out for a huntsman. I ducked into the bathroom and silently teleported behind her.

It was fine that I could teleport around. I had registered space manipulation as my semblance and included under a technicality that I could teleport, sense around a location of space around me, and warp space a little. It hadn't raised too many eyebrows. It was powerful, sure, but nothing incredible. The Schnee semblance could do like four things and more like a hundred with dust. My semblance is powerful and useful. Not crazily good but just really useful.

I scrolled through my observe's information on my teacher as I waited for her to start the class. Probably with a dramatic entrance.

Her name was Bella Opaque. She was training to be a trapeze artist like her parents before she decided to become a huntress. She was a terrible combatant but she was an absolute master at dodging and being stealthy as well as running away. She took on a counter terrorism position within the elite ranks of huntsmen. For a while she played that game but retired early at the age of thirty seven to teach kids at signal. She actually has a crush on Qrow too along with a willingness to stay in the dark with his more spec-op sides. She's just a bit discouraged by the age gap and his lack of shown interest.

She's fun-loving, funny, and she loves her job to death though she dislikes being professional. She's had a lot of bad luck at dating though. Poor girl. She seems like an awesome person to be friends with. I could probably be friends with her with how much she dislikes being professional.

Bella likes to use a crossbow and the sort of wrist blades like from assassin's creed. She also knows how to use a knife and any kind of firearm if she has to. Her semblance isn't named but it's like the notice me not spell from Harry potter. She just isn't noticed.

I'm unaffected since I have my new steel will skill that makes me immune to mental manipulations. It's only weakness was that it worked in an area. Somebody far away could see her just fine but somebody close to her would have a hard time seeing her even if she was right in their face.

After the bell rang to signal passing period as over Bella waited a minute for the kids to settle down and murmur in confusion that there wasn't a teacher. Then she dropped down behind them where nobody saw her. It wasn't hard since there were only four other students in the room. As I said, not a popular class.

"Why are you all looking so confused?" She asked. Everybody looked towards her and the typical reaction was surprise that she was there. She looked at them like all of the kids were weird and walked to the front of the classroom.

"Okay. You weirdos suck at being perceptive so let's just get to it. Attendance! Um…

Janice Beige."

"Here."

"Jamie Mirrow."

"Here!" A lean kid with really golden hair and eyes said jubilantly. "Just call me Cesium, my middle name. There's like eight different Jamies this year."

"Got it. Kerrigan Granite."

"Here." A large, muscular, stocky kid with a sort of military air said in a deep voice.

"Ocean Ilsiati-... Ilianasta… um…."

"Here. And it's Ilstianatum. Just say Ocean." A girl with dark blue eyes and a pale complexion spoke softly.

"Nice name, kid. And Abyss Mavros."

I called down from my place in the rafters. "Here!"

"GAH!" Bella jumped into the air and drew her crossbow at me reflexively. Uh-oh. I swiped my hand through the air and caught the bolt.

"Here." I dropped the bolt back down to her and she looked at me like I was the weird one.

"What are you doing up there?!"

"I was behind you when you were playing militia up here. Killing off the farmer was a bad move. You should have moved the blacksmith to reinforce the dust miner." Bella glared at me a little.

"Shut up and get to your seat." She grumbled. I smirked and fell down to the ground, whereupon I sat down and reclined in my seat.

"And finally… Aero Overton."

"I'm feeling kind of overshadowed here." A younger looking kid with light blue eyes and pale grey hair grumbled.

"That's because Abyss here just stole the spotlight." Bella said obviously. "Now! I hope you all know what Subtlety and info is about or you'll definitely be an utter failure in this class! After all, if you can't gather information from the damned pamphlet you sure can't gather it from your classmates." Ocean giggled a little and the rest of us cracked a little smile. I liked her already.

"SubI, and that's what most people call the class by the way, is about being sneaky and gathering information mostly but it's also about being able to shut up and keep a secret, setting ambushes, stealing stuff, and that sort of thing. All the spy stuff that movies romanticize"

"SubI is also a little different than other classes. We actually get a directive from the school to do things. That said, SubI takes place throughout the whole day. If you're at signal, away from it, or in the bathroom you're responsible for subI material. We keep secrets. If you want to go blab to your friends about what you're doing in subI after the period ends you're not going to make it here."

"When I say you're always responsible for being in subI I mean that we won't be using a whiteboard to see what spies do and making conclusions based on evidence. Just like how in weapons class they make actual weapons in subI we do actual spy work."

"Sometimes you'll have to make real sacrifices for the class. You'll have to skip school one day, fake an injury or even actually injure yourself to get a cover story, lie to your friends or family, or something like that. That said, we won't force you to get rid of friends, backstab people you know, or hurt anybody else. This is school. We're spies in training. Not spies."

"So with you all knowing all that I want to make it clear that you're allowed to leave this class for a different elective. You can go make weapons, learn field medicine, grimm anatomy, or any of that stuff. Go for it. subI isn't an incredible class or anything. Making a kickass weapon is as important as picking a pocket sometimes. So… anybody want to leave?"

Bella looked seriously around the room. Immediately Aero Overton stood up and left. "Sorry." He said honestly. "I don't want to get into something that needs me to do that sort of stuff." Bella nodded understandingly.

"Sure. But you can't talk about what you already know, alright? Otherwise I have to sabotage your grade." Aero paled a little and nodded. That paling removed any suspicion of him being a plant to weaken resolve.

The rest of us, Cesium, Ocean, Kerrigan, and me, all looked at each other. Kerrigan looked stoic with the faintest glimmer of excitement in his steely eyes. Cesium looked a little uncertain. That jubilance he had was a small bit diminished. Ocean had a small smile on her face. It was a little creepy honestly. I myself looked calm with a serene smile on my face. I looked absolutely trustworthy, my acting skill told me. It was pretty high at sixty one from all my time acting as Ruby for those few years so I trusted it.

Bella looked around us for a moment with a smile on her face. "Good. Now, you all are officially on subI. That means if you defect, and yes you can defect by leaving the class, you're screwed. Me and whatever others I can scrounge up will be coming to silence you either through your reputation, grades, or anything really. So don't. However, cheating is allowed. That means if you pull a fast one on me then that's totally fair. Just don't think it'll be easy."

"I should clarify that you'll be taking subI all four years or you'll be targeted. It's not terribly hard to pass this class but you should take it seriously. I can just sabotage you on my own if I think you're not trying." Nobody looked especially enthusiastic to test her patience.

I suppose magic could solve that problem of not passing but I wasn't here to study magic. I'm here to get better at stealth and subtlety. Besides, this actually sounds useful. I'll play along with it without breaking the system.

"So! First day is all about knowledge! That means knowing about spies. How many of you think being a spy is about sneaking around and stuff?" Cesium and Ocean raised their hands.

"Well you're wrong." Neither of them looked surprised by this. "A spy can be just about anyone. Those guys that sneak around are spies, sure, but a better term would be operator. That nitty gritty sneaky stuff is called wetwork. Something I excel in. A spy, though, can be the most social and approachable guy in the school. They hear everything and report it to superiors. There's also the guys that listen around in the background. That's how information gathering works."

"Being charismatic or being sneaky are pretty much necessities for being a spy. You've got to fool people. That's what spies do. But just like being a huntsman it's more complicated than that. But you can figure all that out yourselves."

"Today we're testing you safely but tomorrow we jump right into it with wetwork. Sneaky stuff. Then wednesday we have information gathering. Thursday we have some more safe learning stuff where I'll teach how to stealthily take people out and properly pick pockets. And friday you all have some free time to go and do your monthly assignments or whatever you want to do really."

"First, though, we have to get something down. Organization. Every month you will receive an objective. To learn all you can about a person, place, or thing and compile a report or abduct somebody or something like that. The person who gives out these objectives is called the spymaster. It's normally me but if I see talent I assign the role to somebody. And that somebody this year is going to be Abyss!" Everybody looked towards me. I smiled calmly at them while cursing Bella in my head.

Privately, though, I took motion magic as a sort of telekinesis and took a pen and paper in the classroom adjacent to us and cut it into four parts. I then wrote different objectives down on each of them. If I was being spymaster I would have to actually try. No magic my ass.

Cesium's was to convince someone in weapon making to smuggle out an access card from the forgery and deliver it to the subI room without anybody else knowing. I emphasized that he was to leave no trails leading to him. He seemed like the type to be charismatic and honest. He could do this with some small manipulations.

Kerrigan was to learn everything he could about Cesium and Ocean that he could except me. Then he was to drop the letter at a dead drop in a park five blocks from signal without being detected.

Ocean had the same objective as Kerrigan but with information on him and Cesium and at a different dead drop at the park. They were spying on each other, basically. I also made sure to clarify that nobody but her was to learn of her objective. Especially in this class.

To each of them I offered a small reward if they did a little extra. I would gift them with a tool I made, specifically. I didn't say this but I already had ideas. I knew from observe that Cesium's family was poor despite his well groomed appearance. I could probably elevate his father's position through Roman. Ocean could use a set of real lockpicking equipment. And if Kerrigan were to receive an A on his next few tests despite doing poorly in reality who could really say he had failed them?

While I was making these Bella was talking. It was a little difficult to write with telekinesis while listening but I managed by assigning a parallel to write my words. "First objectives are due tomorrow . Hop to it, Abyss. For the rest of you, though, you have some spare time. Get it done by September. Not this August." I nodded an acknowledgement with what would become my usual calm unflappability.

"Now, we're doing basic skills today. Persuasion, persuasion of the naughty sort like blackmail and bribery, stealth, and pickpocketing. Though Abyss might already have stealth down…"

The rest of the class was less exciting than the introduction of it. We found that Cesium was fantastic at being charismatic. He could talk somebody in a circle and make them think they walked in a square. He would be a great politician. He was a good person too.

Kerrigan was intimidating and, while not particularly stealthy or charismatic, he was willing to think outside the box. When instructed to talk Cesium into giving him a rubber ball we used for various purposes he stole it off of him and replaced it with another rubber ball he palmed earlier.

Ocean had a talent for fading into the background and being the sneakiest person in class. Even better than me in some regards. She was the only person to have unlocked her semblance, which was to make an opponent dizzy and nauseous or faintly itchy or something. Faking sensations that they think they feel. I was immune due to steel will but if she used her semblance lightly a person wouldn't notice their pocket being picked as they scratched their arm. And if somebody were to have a nagging feeling that Ocean was hiding over there they tended to trust this instinct.

I showed myself as a sort of jack of all trades. With my persuasion skill of forty nine I could convince a person of most things almost as well as Cesium. But that didn't matter since my other skills always offered a way around that.

I wasn't as sneaky as Ocean but I could be silent to a disturbing degree with air manipulation, which I used because of it's subtlety. I was terrible at picking pockets, which I gained as a skill at level one, but that didn't matter because I was an extraordinarily fast and strong bastard. What did it matter if you noticed me if I could knock you out after all?

It was a consensus that I was the best in the class and rivaled Bella in some situations. Like when I took the initiative.

During the class I had used an avatar under spatial presence negation to slip the orders into people's pockets. It wasn't hard. I just waited until Ocean used her semblance on them and slipped the slips into their pockets too deeply to be pickpocketed.

"Alright. That's all we have for today." Bella said at the end of it all. "Abyss, you got objectives for everybody?" I nodded happily.

"They're in your pockets." Everybody's eyes widened but Cesium's. Good on him for controlling his facial expression. Bella really shouldn't be so surprised.

Everybody read over their objectives before nodding or smiling widely my way. Cesium looked downright gleeful at my hint of a reward. Does he like surprises? Or does he like tricking people? Either way it doesn't matter. Kerrigan looked thoughtful. "Class dismissed." Bella said with a wide grin. She looked to me with something interesting. Respect.

"This is looking to be the most entertaining class I've ever seen." She grinned. "Remember. No talking about subI's secrets. Oh, and Abyss, other than objectives if you're deceived it can get messy for you. Since you're so talented I'll leave it to you to simply not be deceived."

I laughed. Really outright laughed. "What makes you think I'm not working on it already?" Bella looked darkly gleeful at that. I think I'm going to love this class.

[|||| == ||||]

" _He's the best student I've ever had. I made up a position, spymaster, and he's going to be doing advanced work."_

" _Bella that's genius."_

" _Thank you."_

" _What student is this?"_

" _Abyss Mavros."_

" _PFFT! AHAHAHAHA!"_

" _Gross! Spit your alcohol somewhere else you drunk!"_

" _YOU! OH! Oh! Oh that's good! Abyss is- hehe- he's a family friend. He's an up and coming Ozpin in the works but maybe even better judging from how he's going. The kid is beyond anything I've ever seen."_

" _I know he's incredible. He snuck up on me, planted orders in the kid's pockets without me even seeing him, nearly perfected an atmosphere of being able to trust him, which kind or reminds me of my old CO come to think of it, and I looked into him and you know what I found? Nothing! Nothing at all!"_

" _Bella trust me. That kid is smarter than any I've ever seen. I called Ruby a genius and I stand by that but Abyss is something else entirely. You won't find anything. I'll give you a tip though. His semblance, what did he put down?"_

" _Spatial manipulation. Warping it, teleporting, and seeing through portals along with a few tricks. Versatile but now quite the strongest."_

" _He can create a portal to anywhere in Remnant he desires to go."_

" _..."_

" _Yeah. That's the tip of the iceberg of the stuff I can tell you. But I'm not going to kiss and tell. You can have your fun researching him and doing your thing. More fun that way."_

" _Dust this is going to be fun."_

[|||| == ||||]

Compared to subI huntsman studies was downright boring. We focused on introductions and knowing what huntsman studies was. It was a little underwhelming.

Finally was combat class. We were under the tutelage or Qrow this year though Taiyang subs in for him pretty often. His classes are home ec and the fourth period right after lunch so he can stay for an extra class for Qrow. This should be interesting with Qrow around.

Qrow looked a little less drunk than usual. He was ready to teach at least. I can't say he looked very professional though. Not that he ever did.

"Alright, kiddies. I'm Qrow Branwen. This is combat class. Last year you all got your weapons and the absolute basics of fighting. This year you're actually fighting. Go to your lockers and grab your weapons. This will determine your combat ranking out of ten for future fights." I took a sheathed shortsword, a telescoping halberd, and some light armor I planned to use out of inventory and onto my body without anybody noticing already sheathed or magnetically attached. What I did notice, however, was the teacher's section.

The teacher's section was an elevated opera platform to look down to the students from. Bella and Tai were sitting there. Bella, however, was mostly focused on me. She missed it when I put my shortsword on so she looked a little bewildered when I looked different all of a sudden. A knowing look appeared, however, when she seemed to remember my semblance.

I waited relaxing for a few minutes as people armored up for ten minutes and checked their weapons. Finally we began the matches.

I didn't go first, of course. I'm pretty sure Qrow is saving me for himself at the end. We haven't ever sparred before.

The matches were pretty boring for me to watch. The moves were simple and predictable. They were all thirteen after all. Yang was disappointingly the same. She was stronger and faster than everyone else by a wide margin though. She hadn't unlocked her semblance yet either. She did way better than anyone else though. She scored a nine out of ten in the scale.

The score was the average rounded down from the spectating instructor's scores. Bella sometimes didn't pay attention and just copied whatever Qrow called. Qrow normally didn't pay attention and just called whatever Tai called. Sometimes he spiced it up a little and went one lower or higher. Once he even went two lower without paying attention! The madman.

The fights that were actually interesting were few. Kerrigan was actually a really good fighter. He was a Yang level combatant that used an axe that mechashifted to a war scythe. Not the huge scythe that Ruby used but the one that you hold in one hand. There were a few random people that were good too. Then Yang was one of the best in the class like Kerrigan and a random guy named Blush Cynner.

Finally it came my turn to fight at the very end with twenty more minutes left to go. "And finally! This is the one all three of us instructors have waited for!" That had everybody's attention. Bella was nearly vibrating in her seat. Tai looked curious. Qrow was reveling in the tension.

"Abyss Mavros! The two of us are fighting!" Some yelling broke out at that. Qrow waited a few seconds before calming them down. "Shut up kiddos! This is important!" A little laughing and people quieted down.

I myself walked to the front of the room. I was wearing all black in my long shirt and pants with greaves, a light chestplate, arm guards, and fingerless gloves with an armor plate sewn onto the back of the hand. For a little fashion to stand out I had a short dark red bandana on.

Every plate was colored dark grey with extensive rune work on them in red. It matched my eyes and hair, what can I say? I have style.

All the runes were designed to make the armor lighter and stronger. I had no need to go all out so it was more for protection than anything like a fireball. If I needed that I had the handy mechanism on my wrist for that.

On my left wrist was a weapon that was like an extremely thin ember celia, which Yang had by the way, under my long sleeves just barely peeking out. It was a dustcaster. With some aura control I could trigger it to release dust.

In actuality it was just a replacement for my dust system. I would hurl spells and use the dustcaster to enhance them with dust. I preferred to use the dust system since I had it for this exact purpose but if I wanted to avoid questions like why I could throw lightning I had to use it as an excuse.

Everybody looked at me appraisingly as I walked down the stairs of the bleachers to the arena. A simple thing that wasn't as fancy as beacon's as I remember it from the show but it worked. It was good enough.

I stood maybe eight feet from Qrow and waited for a signal. Qrow gave one. He attacked me.

In a blur he came at me full throttle. I immediately casted spatial resistance on him and he slowed down a fair bit. Using a lot of air manipulation to give him air resistance as well helped slow him down more. Even with both of these at full throttle to the extent that I was still hiding my magic he was fast. Faster than me.

I moved straight to dustcasting and casted a shock bolt at him with lightning dust helping the spell. Qrow predicted where the bolt would go and blocked it with his blade. Some of the charge travelled down into his hands. He grunted as the shock lowered his aura by three percent.

I casted a gust of extreme winds with magic and a fireball with dust. The result was an extremely hot fireball that glowed a pale blue. Qrow threw himself away from the fireball and straight towards me. The fireball licked the edge of his left shoe at least. It brought another few percent from his aura.

I rolled my eyes and made a portal in front of the fireball and shot it out of another portal right in front of Qrow. He yelled in surprise as he was burned. The fireball had died out a little from distance but it was still plenty hot. About seven percent of his aura was gone from that hit.

"Enough dustcasting! We get it! You're great at it!" Qrow yelled. I glared at him a little but drew my sword and readied myself. When Qrow came out at me I dodged handedly and slashed at him. He spun with his sword striking out and I leaned out of the strike.

For a few more seconds we traded attacks, feints, and Qrow parrying my blade. It was irritating that he didn't have any openings.

Finally a blow slipped past my guard and hit me hard in the side. I grunted and stumbled away. That took more than twenty percent of my aura away but of course Qrow didn't stop there. He ran towards me…

And his semblance struck. He tripped on a little pothole from a previous match and went into a roll. Of course I struch then. He changed to a kneeling block and caught my blade with his thicker one and used his momentum to kick at my knee.

I hopped up onto his blade and used it like a springboard to fly into the air. Qrow spun once more and changed his blade to a scythe along the way. I panicked a little as his scythe came towards me. It was long enough that he could grab me by my pants leg and slam me to the ground. From there the match would be pretty much over. But there was an easy solution.

Using a warp, my fake semblance, the space in between him and me became twice what it actually was as it stretched. Qrow looked surprised and I dustcasted once more. This time I shot a terribly fast and sharp blade of air at him. He ducked under it and it only cut his shirt. Just barely dodged damnit.

With a small smirk I rapidly closed the warp and turned it in the opposite. Qrow and I were nearly touching we were so close. The compression of the air in the warp getting compressed so quickly made a small sonic boom and I flew away as did Qrow. However, where I flew to the air Qrow slammed into the ground ass first. Not too hard but a few points of aura were lost. He was also a little dazed.

I took advantage of this and shot another burst of electriciry at him. Qrow raised his scythe to block but then realized that a scythe wasn't especially good for blocking. The electricity ran into the haft and Qrow dropped it like a hot potato. I took the liberty of blinking in front of him and slashing as hard as I could.

Qrow was no slouch, though. He bent over backwards and pivoted on one foot faster than I could react to. He lashed out with a foot towards me and hit. However, his semblance must have been working overtime. Because he landed.

Right in my marbles… with his full strength and pointed dress shoes.

I can say unabashedly that I immediately fell to my knees and onto my side. I blurrily saw Qrow making an 'oh shit' expression and standing up awkwardly while I tried to ignore the horrible pain.

Laughter, awe, and pity came from the peanut gallery in equal measures. Taiyang was wincing and holding his legs close together. Bella was turned away with wide eyes and a hand over her mouth.

"I, um… sorry kid." Qrow said uncomfortably.

"Pointed dress shoes." I groaned. He looked down at his shoes and his expression went from 'oh shit' to 'I might be fired'.

"Um… sorry. The semblance just… it gets me sometimes."

Bella collected herself enough to call her grade for me past all the ruckus. "Ten!"

Taiyang responded as well with a look of pity towards me. "10."

Qrow sighed. "You deserve an eleven for your sacrifice but I can only give a ten. And a sip of my drink if you want it."

I groaned.

"Your choice."

[|||| == ||||]

" _But Tai they're calling me Qrow the nutcracker now!"_

" _And who's fault is that?"_

" _Fine. I just hope Raven never hears of this."_

" _Knowing your luck she was probably there in person."_

" _Knowing my luck they probably recorded it and posted it to the dustnet."_

" _They did."_

" _Goddamnit."_

" _Look on the bright side. They're not calling you Qrow the drunkard anymore. Just Qrow the nutcracker."_

" _They'll be calling me a drunkard again with all the booze I'm going to be drinking."_

[|||| == ||||]

"How was school?" Raven asked as I made my portal back to my new home. Ruby was busy sparring with a few of her bandit friends. Vernal, who had a soft spot for her, was among them I believe. She and I never talk. We both like it that way.

"I sparred with Qrow and his semblance had a hay-day. They're calling him the nutcracker now." Raven laughed outright at that.

"Oh! That's great. I think I'll send him a letter of disapproval. Maybe applaud his cruelty towards children a little. That would be fun. He actually had a few screw-ups like that before but they mostly involved him being kicked. He fondled Tai once." I shook my head with a grin and put on my illusion for Roman.

"Well you're ready to see Roman?" She nodded and grabbed her sword and put her mask on swiftly and I held out my hand. She accepted it and I teleported us instantly to the marker I had on the roof of the building. Couldn't let Roman know about my powers after all.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	17. Chapter 17

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 17** = ||||]

Raven and I popped into existence on the rooftop of Roman's hideout. I use some mage sight to find a safe place to blink into and find Roman in the bathroom washing his hands. Nobody else was there so we blinked in front of the bathroom.

"He's in there." I said with a wave of my hand. Roman was drying his hands at the moment. Raven looked to the door curiously.

"An odd way to meet the man I'll be supervising." She mumbled. I shrugged.

A moment later Roman walked outside and froze as he came face to chest with Raven. His eyes darted to her sword at her side next and finally to her mask. AS he was unarmed he did the smart thing.

He shut the door and locked it.

Raven openly laughed and I sighed and walked to the door and knocked. "Roman come out. She's with me."

Roman slowly opened the door but kept a close eye on Raven. "That's Raven Branwen." He said. "You know Raven Branwen." He shook his head and looked to me in some slight fear. "You are FRIENDS with Raven Branwen."

"Yes." Raven said. "Now you'll be seeing me a lot more often from now on." Roman looked warily to her.

"In my nightmares, afterlife, or person?" Raven chuckled.

"Person. Unless you misbehave, in which case it will be the afterlife."

"She's going to be the one working with you from now on. She will be doing what I've been doing from now on. I've moved on my interests to other matters. Don't piss her off. She has permission to deal with you as she sees fit. Except for killing you, which she has to ask me for."

Roman looked to Raven fearfully and collected himself. He held out his hand. "I hope we work well together." He said. Raven took the small gesture and shook his hand.

"We should. Don't disappoint." Roman nodded.

"Well that's all nice." I said after their moment of bonding. "Now, let's get down to business." And with that I walked towards Roman's office. It was something like a planning room and management room. Keeping a gang was hard work.

"Here we are." I said as I opened the door. I walked in followed by Roman and Raven. Roman went around his desk and sat down and Raven and I stayed standing. I gave her a look. _"You're his boss, sure, but you work under me now."_ was what it said. I could tell that Raven frowned under her mask but she relented and sat down. She then reached behind her head and clicked a latch, taking the mask off. Roman glanced at her face but looked away when she glanced back.

I softened my gaze and turned to a wall with a map of Vale. A territory map, specifically. Roman's gang controlled roughly half of Vale's territory bar a few locations.

Junior's place, the club, was allowed to keep it's hideout for itself. The red axe gang, they were called. Since Junior was more of an information broker than anything else he was allowed to stay and keep his gang so long as any information he got was available at a low price for Roman. He agreed easily.

There were also a few more independant criminals. La Rouge, for example, a fancy pants robber of dust and jewelry (and women according to him) was allowed to operate so long as he got his manpower from Roman. He was fine with it so long as he got to keep his livelihood.

There was also another small time information broker, four smugglers, a drug dealer, and a little guild of renegade huntsmen. They were all useful in their own ways. I didn't like the drug dealer but people were going to get their product from somewhere and the guy kept people to the tamer stuff and didn't sell to kids. He also got Roman his cigars. That definitely played a role in why Roman spoke up when I moved to remove him.

To my surprise the police weren't a huge problem for us. In fact, a few privately supported us. Roman's gang wasn't brutal or vicious. They didn't rape, steal more than they needed as a whole, and any of the really bad criminals didn't last long with me around. There was a reason there was only one drug dealer in our half of Vale.

"So." I began. "With all the digging in Roman and his men have done we have a solid position in this half. Our half from the docks to the city center plazas. Our only problem right now is… these guys." I laid my finger on the part of the map colored a yellow in comparison to Roman's gang's darker red.

"The redguards, and yes we see the irony there." Raven clearly did too and she snickered at it. "They're called that because they play middleman to deals all over. Stopping blood from running. Now, they really hate us because we've dropped a lot of blood from their clients. In addition we've killed a fair few of their mercenaries."

"Getting rid of them isn't really a huge problem for me but that's not the point. This is an easy job with their size and reduced numbers. I sneak in, cut off the head of the snake and choke some people out as I do and Roman's gang drop in and take the territory. We've done this plenty of times and we'll do this plenty more."

"This is today?" Raven asked.

"Villain likes to do this stuff quick. You get used to it." Roman said from his desk.

"It's happening now." I said simply. "It'll take a while to clear the whole territory so Roman gathers his men and sweeps up the mess. The police are bribed, of course."

"Efficient." Raven muttered. "And how is this all organized? It's a lot of territory to manage."

"I keep a cadre of underbosses from my ranks to keep things nice and tidy." Roman explained. "I get reports and do some surprise visits every once and a while to make sure they're not up to anything. I also get free information from the bars and such as to who's been naughty or nice. They're usually nice."

"You two can work out the details of what you're doing later. Right now is the fun part. Well, for me and Raven." I walked over to the door and looked to Raven. She got up with a grunt and put on her mask.

"Leaving so soon?" She asked.

"This is just a meet-up. I'm not going to sit here while you talk minutiae." I said bluntly. She nodded and walked outside with me. I took a sharp left into a portal and Raven shut the door and followed.

I crouched down and pointed to a large hardware store. Raven followed suit. "In the back there's a stairwell to the basement. They've obviously upped security a bit with our little gang crusade going on but it's obviously not enough. Cloak and muffle."

Raven engaged those parts of the runic matrix and I hopped down and strolled to the store. I slipped into the store while a customer entered and waited for Raven to do the same when another customer came by.

I walked towards the back and opened the door to the back rooms. Raven and I walked in and we continued down the steps. Everyone up here just worked the store and was unarmed.

I walked through the complex knocking out everyone I cared to as I walked. It was just extremely easy to do with some air magic. It was routine, really. Raven followed in silence watching as the gangsters fell unconscious around me. I didn't want Raven killing everyone in her purges so I didn't do so to set an example. Also, the red guards were typically the better part of the criminal underbelly. We'll turn them to cops anyways. Part of our bribery.

Finally we came to the boss, who was sitting in his chair drinking alcohol. I took my sword from my inventory and walked next to him. With a clean, strong stroke and some magic I cut straight through his aura and beheaded him. He died drunk and blissful. Good for him.

Raven looked with a slight hint of pity at the boss' head but squashed it. I cleaned the blood off my sword with a rag from my inventory.

"No need for killing. They all go to the cops or are assimilated into Roman's gang if possible. The boss, though, is a sort of symbol of power. A change in leadership. It's just how the game is played. No need to like it. Comfort yourself that these are criminals. Not good people by any means." Raven nodded.

"And now what?" I smiled grimly.

"We go to a few outposts we have marked and wipe them of gangsters and call Roman and the boys in to clean up."

We were done in a few hours. It wasn't hard really. Invisibility and complete and utter silence in an area make it so. It was just another job for me, really. I've done it a hundred times. Well more like fifty or seventy but it's the same point.

"That was… different than I was used to." Raven says consideringly. I nod.

"It's a long and nearly boring process coupled with watching Roman work. Not fun stuff but it's easy and more than worthwhile."

"Do we ever see gunfights? Crying people begging? Anything like that?"

"No. They're knocked out without knowing what happened." Raven frowned at that.

"So strange. I'm used to begging and people pleading to not ruin their lives. This is almost nicer." I nod again.

"Now for the boring part. I'll drop you in Roman's office and you can wait for him to get back. It shouldn't be more than a few hours. Then you can discuss getting your tribe jobs in the little empire and whatever reforms you want to make. I'll admit to being poor at management. I usually pretend I know what I'm doing and let Roman do what he wants unless I see him doing something obviously stupid, which is rare. Part of why you're here."

"I see. I'll be back around ten. Leave some leftovers for me. I'll be back by midnight and I'll work out the rest with him tomorrow."

I smiled and opened a portal to the roof. "Bye Raven." She nodded to me and walked off through the portal. I took a look over the city and stood up. Then I teleported to my room in the apartment. Time to make dinner now. It's… seven o'clock. Yeah, dinnertime should be around seven thirty. I'll get started now. What to make… don't we have some fish in the fridge? Halibut and salmon. I can work with that. I just need some spices. Thyme maybe.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _So how was school, Ruby?"_

" _It was great! Or, well, the same as before. But that's way better than I was expecting!"_

" _What were you expecting?"_

" _That I would terribly mess something up without Abyss to stop me and I would fail horribly and everybody would laugh at me."_

" _As if. He told me that he barely helps you at all in school."_

" _Well he staves off boredom like a pro."_

" _Spoiled."_

" _And loving it! But I'm working hard at least. If I do that it's being rewarded for hard work."_

" _That's… true I suppose."_

" _Oh! And I'm loving my elective, weapon studies, but everyone else is really far behind me. The teacher and I pretty much have a conversation the whole period and the rest of the class reads a book or something."_

" _Eh. That's fine. If they want to fall behind let 'em. Have you come up with an idea for a weapon yet?"_

" _Yeah! A sniper scythe with a shortsword form to store it in a sheath. I figure I can use my semblance and the recoil to move super quickly. I'll need advice from Abyss though. He can do things like a diamond edge or some fancy metalworking or rune stuff that I never think of. But I don't understand runes so that's pretty understandable. I also need to design a backup weapon. I'm pretty sure I can use the sheath as a scythe handle and actual sniper rifle and the blade as the scythe blade and sword. I just have some kinks to work out. Like where the sword goes when I want to use it as a rifle."_

" _You'll get it. If you want another opinion I'm all ears. Raven would help out a little too if you asked."_

" _Thanks Vernal!"_

" _Of course. Now, it's ass kicking time. Come at me."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The days passed quickly. I learned a lot in subI and everything else was just kind of background. I learned the material but math and history were already known by me, huntsman studies was easy for everybody, and the only person to fight in combat class worth my time was Qrow, who had to help the other students rather than fight me. Qrow just let me do whatever most days so long as I kicked a few behinds. People learned quickly that they had no chance against me. Kind of depressing for them but they got over it.

It was friday of next week that something interesting happened.

I stared at a plastic card in the subI classroom through mage sight. On top of them was a note saying _"Done and done. By the way, Melody is a contact of mine now. She's willing to do some dirty stuff for a few favors. Spreading rumors this time. And now she's yours too."_

I smiled deviously as I sent an avatar to collect the steel. He's more competent than I thought, and I had high standards. His bonus objective was to get a contact in weapons making that he can acquire more from if there's a next time.

Without hesitation I went off the path to signal and took out my scroll. I sent a message to Roman that one Magna Mirrow, Cesium's dad, was to receive a sizable promotion in his job at the library where he worked. I got an affirmative almost immediately.

I waited out the first two classes and walked my way to subI. My history class was all the way on the other side of the building sadly. As soon as I walked in I saw Cesium already there with Ocean and Kerrigan. He had a huge grin on his face.

"What are you smiling about?" Ocean asked curiously. Kerrigan had the same look as she did on his face.

"My dad messaged me that he received a huge promotion at his job." He casted me a grateful look and Ocean and Kerrigan caught it but said nothing. They knew what it meant, after all.

"Now that you're all here-" Bella dropped from the rafters, as is the norm. "-we have something more interesting to do today. See, there's been a robbery yesterday. An access card to the weapons shop was stolen yesterday. We get to play policeman and see who did it."

Cesium held his smile perfectly and I began writing a note to him in the adjacent room. I hope he kept the part of his job where I said 'leave no trails'. Otherwise I'll have to bail him out. I began scanning the weapons shop with mage sight through a parallel while I wrote the note."Why would anybody want a card like that? Anybody can get into the forgery during lunch." Kerrigan asked.

"That's what we're going to find out!" Bella said excitedly. "And when I say we I mean you! I'm going to find out but I'm not going to tell anybody. I'll keep it for blackmail."

"Alright. So this is a free period or are we splitting up?" I asked.

"Splitting up in groups of two. Cesium, you're with Abyss. Kerrigan, you're obviously with Ocean. Go figure it out before the trail gets cold. You have the whole day. Oh, and of course you're allowed into the other rooms and take a moment of other people's time. You can even take a person out of a class if you need to. Just don't abuse it. Now shoo. I need to figure this out myself."

I opened a portal to the rooftop and beckoned Cesium through. We walked in as Ocean and Kerrigan began quietly conversing.

"You covered your tracks?" I asked. Cesium nodded.

"I wore a mask, concealing clothes, all plain black, changed how I acted and spoke, and even got some fake contacts. I made my eyes blue. Melody doesn't even know my name. All she has is that she'll be contacted if you or I need something."

I nodded with a smile. "And is she safe from any trails?" Cesium made the wobbly 'sort of' sign with his hands.

"Eh, sort of. For one thing she was missing from her combat class but she has a reputation as a good girl so nobody will be paying attention to it. They'll dismiss it as her having some sort of situation. There's also the rumors about a girl named Tracy Hawk that she hates circling around dating a guy named Cash Silver, who spends a lot of time with her and really likes her but she doesn't know it. The rumor's gotten widespread but it leads back to me. Not her. I'm only guilty of not liking Tracy or Cash."

I grinned. "You're good at this." From my soul space I took out two sodas. A sort of sprite equivalent of Remnant. Then I chilled them with my heat affinity and handed one to him.

He scoffed as he took his soda and had a sip. "Compared to you? My dad's been working his ass off for a year and a half and gotten nothing because his boss doesn't like him. He was on the verge of being fired. Now he's been promoted and taken that ass' job. You did in a few hours what he couldn't do in a year and a half. Not to mention all that other stuff you've done. Even Bella clearly doesn't know how you do some of the stuff you do."

I waved off his praise. "Don't worry about it. I'm just hoping that Kerrigan and Ocean can get to work on their jobs. Your mentioning of that reward might light a fire under them. Rewards incite work after all."

Cesium grinned and nodded. "I love this class." he took a deep sip of his soda.

I hummed. "I do too. Say, you're pretty good at this whole making contacts thing. How'd you get good at it?" He shrugged.

"Natural talent. Some practiced social skills. Common sense. That all plus my good looks and confidence sort of just make people fall into place. A hint dropped here and there can put the idea in a person's head or have them show you they're not interested in a little subterfuge. It's not easy but it's something I'm good at."

"Hmmm." I sipped from the soda again. "A good skill to have. Friends in places get you far."

He nodded. "It depends on having the right friends and being able to reach those places though."

"I'm glad I have a long reach." I said with a grin. He looked to me and something must have clicked as his eyes widened.

"And friends in some high places." I looked amusedly towards him as pieces fell into place. Yes I do have a few very well placed friends. I like to think I'm a good friend to have because of that. It seems Cesium realized this too. I think I just found a second in command. One that knows not to ask about what I use my access cards for.

"Want to see what Ocean and Kerrigan are doing?" Cesium grinned and laid back. I did the same. I then opened a portal that was shrouded by an illusion on their side. It's good to be a wizard.

Kerrigan and Ocean never did figure it out. Kerrigan had a few friends that pointed him around and he made a few new friends but nothing was really found but dead ends and the fact that some poor girl named Tracy cheated on her boyfriend with a guy named Chad. that was pretty much the only piece of gossip around.

Ocean did some wetwork and stole the camera recordings. Melody had worn a face mask though and was too far away to be heard. Ocean connected that the guy getting the card had access to the subI room but he could have just bribed a janitor or something. It was a dead end for her but it farther than what Kerrigan got.

Cesium and I walked into the room looking similarly. Well, Cesium had an irritated look on his face. I looked just slightly less serene than usual.

Bella looked neutral. I couldn't tell if she found something or not. "Nothing?" she asked. All of us shook our heads.

"No leads at all? A cold trail?" Nods this time.

"Well then… Great job Cesium!" Bella pulled out a party popper and brought a kazoo to her mouth. She got confetti over Cesium, who looked nervous.

"I've got to say, that was some good work! Melody was absolutely convinced that you were a third party bringing the card to somebody else. The contacts threw me off too! I had to pull out some old software from my operator days and match your height in the recording to the one in your records. That wasn't enough though. So I had to practically interrogate the poor girl. I put the pieces together from some stuff you did."

Kerrigan looked towards Cesium with a twitching eye. Ocean looked towards him with pursed lips and a hard look in her eye.

"Calm down kids!" Bella said with a laugh. She turned towards me. "Was Cesium's monthly assignment to get an access card to the forgery?" I nodded.

"Smart cookie! You guys did that all well! And I mean well! Normally there's a paper trail or something and everyone learns paranoia is a spy's greatest trait but you already seemed to separate yourselves from the crime so much that all the leads were cold."

Cesium had a nervous smile on his face. "So… are we going to get punished?" Bella shook her head harshly, slapping herself with her pony tail in the process.

"Not at all!" She blew some hairs from her pony tail out of her mouth. "You made me go big leagues with that software. If I have to do that I pretty much give up all rights to put anyone in trouble." She leveled a look towards Kerrigan and Ocean. "That means you guys too. Don't hold it against Cesium or Abyss. Cesium was just doing his job well and Abyss just wanted his paws on an access card. But I wonder…" She turned to me.

"Why do you want an access card when you can teleport? Or is it a semblance thing?" I grinned.

"My sister is working on a hard project for her weapons designing class. I'm not going to wait hand and foot on her so I got this-" I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out the card from my inventory for everyone to see. "-for her to use. However, it's crowded at lunchtime and my sister might get knocked over or lost in the bustle. So she'll work after school when it's quiet."

Bella nodded cheerily. "Cool! I don't mind if you use the assignments for your own need as long as they aren't stupid but I think you already kind of got that." I nodded. Nobody's going to have to go to extremes for me.

"Good job you all! Oh, wait, did you two try hard?" Bella looked to Kerrigan and Ocean. I spoke up first though.

"Ocean did some well executed wetwork getting the tapes. Kerrigan has a surprisingly large web of contacts that he reached out to. Sadly, though, he didn't find any solid traces of Cesium's involvement."

"Solid leads? What do you mean?" Kerrigan asked. He didn't even question how I knew this all. Ocean didn't look phased.

"Those rumors about Tracy cheating with Cash were spread by me. They were the payment to Melody in the first place. It only looked like I had a grudge against Tracy if you followed that back to me though." Kerrigan nodded and I could see some newfound respect for Cesium in his eyes.

"I think we all had a great day today!" Bella said cheerily. "Really! That was some good work all around. Now go to lunch. We've got about ten minutes still but there's really nothing left to do. I'm going to take a nap until I have to meet with the junior class. Now shoo."

Two days later I looked through mage sight and saw two folders in two different parks. I sent avatars to both of them and flipped through them.

Ocean was a rich sort of girl but had some social issues growing up. Isolation, some bullying, and the like. There was a list of her schools and even a grade report a few times from her mother's social media included. A list of her friends and people she frequented was included but pretty small.

It was noted gravely that at nine years old she was found with a dead child molester. She apparently tore his throat out with her teeth and unlocked her aura through the trauma. She got therapy for it but that leaves a mark. Kerrigan specifically cited that in her therapist's reports that Ocean successfully moved on and recommended that we not bring it up. He also pointed it out that Ocean was actually fourteen despite her smaller frame since she held back a year for therapy.

There was a list of skills too from her skill with the sling and flail as a huntress to her passion for chemistry and a noted talent and curiosity at making poisons. It was all very professionally done and crisp. Nothing much that I didn't already know though.

Kerrigan was far more interesting. He was from the Granite crime family. In fact he was the second to the head of the family. Second oldest child of five after an older brother. The family traded information and sometimes goods on a largish scale. On rare occasions drugs. I didn't know that actually. I'm glad I do now though. That just avoided a lot of potential problems. Observe just said his family was involved in crime and based a little bit north of the city center. Territory right by where Roman's empire would be taking next.

Kerrigan's social contact were extensive. He knew just about everybody in our grade one way or another. He also ran a side business in middle school for test answers for a short time before ducking out when a few people went poking around for more than dishonorable intentions.

He knew how to use an axe well enough to challenge Yang Xiao-Long and probably win, had a suit of armor that he didn't use in spars since didn't need to repair it, and enjoyed working out, keeping ties with his friends and contacts, and being around his family.

Finally was Cesium. He was a diamond in the rough type. His family is dirt poor. His father's a librarian and his mother is an unemployed housewife. He worked his way to signal through blood, sweat, and tears. His mother was a drunkard but apparently moved past that for some reason. It coincided with Cesium rising in education and finding god tidings for his family. His family was homeless before Cesium managed to secure a library job for his father through some way.

He worked his way as all A's through the terrible schools in his ghetto of Patch. He rose and decided to become a huntsman for non-descript reasons. In his application it was left blank but he was accepted anyways on the recommendation of Qrow Branwen. How interesting!

It was gleefully found by Ocean that Cesium has actually been in the information business for a while. Blackmailing, bribing, and persuading his way to the peak of what he can do.

Sadly enough, though, Cesium never really got any lifelong friends. He moved beyond his place for his family, earning him some enemies and a varied reputation in his neighborhood. Some admired him and some were jealous or angry at him. A mixed bag.

You know.. It would be a shame if a financial screw up accidentally gave Cesium an apartment… Not a nice one but I know there's an apartment next to mine that Roman pretty much owns.

If he were to later find himself in ownership of an apartment in my very own apartment building, on the same floor even, it would be like a strike of fate.

We might even be friends for life… Just saying. It could happen. Just like it just happened to be that Ocean found a professional lockpicking set AND a chemistry set.

I also found the Granite family to be not worth taking under Roman's empire. I had Roman make a somewhat generous set of terms for them to operate in his territory and said to thank their son Kerrigan for his generosity. Then their territory was taken by Roman's criminal empire very neatly.

Kerrigan managed to connect me to Roman and that I had favors to pull from him. I think he respected me a lot now.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Kerrigan!"_

" _Yes?"_

" _What did you do?!"_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _Check your dust net mailbox!"_

" _... what the… Roman said… wait…"_

" _What the hell did you do to get this?! This makes the new regime actually a good thing! How did you do this?!"_

" _... I think I have friends in higher places than I thought."_

" _... Son. I think you have some good friends."_

[|||| == ||||]

For the second month of assignments I assigned a few. To Cesium I wanted him to get a bit ambitious. I wanted him to check up on the status of the criminal underworld in Vale.

I also wanted him to make a contact in it. I straight up told him I'd connect him to two others after he finds one on his own.

I did offer to teleport him there whenever he needed it with a drop point and a pickup point. He seemed eager and took advantage of my offer of transport.

For Kerrigan I had him collect a bio on Qrow Branwen's connection to Cesium. I could just ask Qrow but that's boring and makes me look a little odd. I don't want him asking how I know about that. And with Cesium it's a little personal.

For Ocean I didn't have anything so I asked Raven. She told me to prank Qrow. So that's what I told Ocean to do. She was quite happy with that.

What's that? Other classes than subI? I don't know what you're talking about. You mean my morning soul space sessions? Or were you talking about my afternoon free period?

With all of that done my days settled down for another few weeks. Raven got a little more chummy with Roman. Enough to occasionally joke a little. Roman managed to pick up his signature bowler hat too. He's calling it his calling 'card of fame'.

Ruby found a nice groove of her own too. During her school days she was a bit bored but so was I so deal with it.

She kept working on learning weapons crafting too (I called it weapons drafting as a jab as her never making anything. She kicked me in the shin).

After school she sparred with Qrow when he was around and not too drunk or some bandits when he wasn't. I joined in when I could.

The bandits fell into their variety of new jobs in the Roman empire. Along the way they adapted to Vale little by little and got more kept beards and cleaner clothes.

Around the compound they all wore their tattoos out as a sort of mark of pride. I don't really get it but it's their thing I suppose.

With everything going so well I half expected something to go wrong for a while but then three weeks passed.

Oh, and Qrow got a manicure. His nails are pink for now. He refuses to talk about how and Ocean won't talk but we all know it was her. I got her some stuff for her chemistry sets.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	18. Chapter 18

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 18** = ||||]

Everything had been well in school. I had started on a new plan with Roman. I had realized that forever fall was a very… interesting location and that the sap from it's trees was immensely valuable. A plot had developed from there. If it follows well I might even meet Weiss pretty soon and improve a lot around Remnant. And today I found a gift in my dead drop location for Kerrigan. It was a good day.

I waited until subI to read it though. I didn't get a good time in the morning since I was a little later than usual and I wasn't reading it in math or history class.

When I got to subI though I saw Cesium on his scroll. An odd sight. When I entered he glanced up and stopped making an… Email.

"I found one. A woman named Harlequin." I nodded understandingly. Harlequin managed a bar over in north western Vale.

She was like the second Junior with more accurate information but more expensive costs. The place actual criminals go for information and not huntress es in training when they want a bar fight.

"Good." I said approvingly. "The report?" his face darkened.

"It's… Not great. There's a guy named Roman…" the door opened and Kerrigan walked in and Cesium paused. "I'll tell you later." I quirked an eyebrow but left it be. Well, for now.

THere was relative silence until Ocean got here, whereupon Bella dropped down. "Okay! Today-"

"Actually Bella, mind if I interrupt you here?" I cut in. She looked to me curiously. She clearly seemed to consider ignoring me but she shrugged and took a step back.

"Don't take long. This really is important."

"Cesium. Give your report to everybody this time." Cesium looked at me with some surprise but stood up.

"My monthly assignment was to look into the underworld element in Vale and check up on it's situation. I got some portals to Vale and connected with an information broker named Harlequin." Kerrigan looked sharply to me and Cesium and Ocean looked very interested as to why I did that.

"I provided some information on signal - graduation rates, average test scores, and a little dirt on my history teacher to get a simple update on the situation. As it turns out it is BAD." Kerrigan kept his face neutral and Ocean openly curious.

"There's a gang, the Empire, under a man named Roman Torchwick, that's been tearing through the underworld in the past four-ish months. They were fine before but recently a ton of gangs have been swallowed up as they expanded and solidified their gang. They currently cover half of Vale from the docks and industrial district covering west side to the plaza. And they're not stopping."

"If they keep going they could take up all of Vale. Somebody holding that much power is… concerning. Not just to me but everybody. Atlesian agents are supposedly looking into it since as of now every assault they've done has been so well done that they practically walked in. Recently they've been far more non-lethal than before but that doesn't mean they're a good thing."

A silence took over the room. Bella broke it first. "That's-"

"Entirely incorrect." Kerrigan interrupted. Cesium raised an eyebrow and looked to Kerrigan challengingly.

"Then what is the state of Vale's underworld?" He asked.

"Vale's underworld is being taken over by the empire gang but they're not doing it like some sort of tyrants. Captured gangsters, of which there are many, are handed to the officers in exchange for them turning a blind eye to their activities. The only deaths recently have been the leaders of gangs."

"Not to mention that the man holding that much power doesn't quite hold all that power without restraints. He has a system of under bosses that manage his territories, who then raise their own captains to handle operations."

"But most of all, the empire isn't a bad thing. Crime rates have reduced in severity. They're more organized now crime-wise but they aren't stupid. They know that if they drastically increase crime they're going to be beat on by the police and even the huntsmen if they really screw up. In fact, the empire has cut down severely on the drugs that enter Vale. Druggies have reduced in numbers by quite a lot. There's a few but serious drugs like cocaine are only available at east side now."

"This has a variety of effects. Housing prices on west side and parts of the plaza actually increased due to the crime being organized, for example. The only people that cause real trouble are the typical hoodlum that claim to be some hot garbage playing at being bad boys."

A short silence followed this while I grinned and watched this all unfold. "And how do you know all of this?" Cesium asked.

I put in my part here. "Remember when I said I'd introduce you to two info brokers? Well meet Kerrigan Granite. Second son of Cruche Granite, head of the Granite family of big-time information brokering. He'll be your new information guy since Harlequin is unreliable. Junior's reputation as a more softcore underworld broker is pretty undeserved. He knows what's happening and who's moving in Vale but Harlequin is more for finding a person, getting in touch with a guy, or something like that."

Cesium was speechless. Then Bella clapped. "Great! That lasted far less long than I thought it would. Kerrigan's anonymity I mean."

"I knew before we met." I said.

"I learned on my first assignment, to learn more about him and Cesium." Ocean said.

"And obviously I knew. I did background checks on all of you guys. But then I got some red tape around Abyss." Bella glared at me halfheartedly and I smiled at her.

"Wait, I was the only one that didn't know?"

"Of course!"

"Yup."

"I was keeping it quiet."

"Don't worry about it Cesium." I said to soothe his pride a little bit. "You made a contact, got Kerrigan as an info broker, and I'll be introducing you all to a big fish around new years." Some interest was shown at that but Bella started on her lesson first.

"Good on you all spreading a web of deceit and information trading. Reminds me of my early days. Anyways, we're training to sense and hide our auras today."

"You can do that?!" Ocean asked in surprise. Bella nodded.

"It's super useful for not being snuck up on! I mean, Abyss already hides his aura - _hyper competent asshole_ \- but you all need to learn."

"Isn't this a skill reserved for spec op units and the like?" Kerrigan asked.

"Yeah but there's nothing against you learning it. Anyone can do it with a bit or work. Normally people don't because to learn it you have to have somebody flare their aura. REALLY strongly in front of you and you get a grasp on that sense and keep it."

"Flaring your aura that strongly, of course, attracts grimm. So you can't learn it in cities and it's dangerous in the wilds to do it so there are special facilities for it to defend against grimm. We're going to abuse Abyss to go somewhere isolated he's been and train there."

"This is abuse of authority." I grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah! Now make the whoosh thing and the portal poofs here. By the way can you sense aura?"

I focused on a portal to Vacuo's desert. Literally the middle of nowhere. "Yeah. I on now how and do so pretty often. It's how I saw you in the rafters. You were being lazy."

"Damn. Well I've never met a signal student who can sense aura before so I'll just take you more seriously next time."

"Fine by me." and at that I got the portal open. Immediately a maelstrom of sand flew out and I closed the portal.

"Sorry. I didn't in know there was a sandstorm there. I'll take a different area." I opened a portal to a steep cliff I had found once and everyone focused on getting the sand out of their eyes.

"Well if that wasn't just a massive 'Screw you' from Vacuo then I don't know what is." Bella said. I opened the next portal and poked my head out. There were some Grimm around but I made a slew of light arrows and headshot every grin around.

"Okay. It's safe." I stepped through the portal and embraced the warm desert sun.

"Wheeee!" Bella said. She looked around and was instantly far less happy. The sun was scorching everything from the sky and everything was terrible. Well, that's probably what she thought.

"Ah, can we visit an island paradise instead?"

"Sure. How about Patch?"

"No really. The desert sucks."

"... Fine." I walked angrily to the portal and Bella hopped through behind me.

"What happened?" Ocean asked.

"We're going to an island. Not a crappy desert!" Bella cheered.

I had visited a tropical island once with Summer. It was a beautiful place on the far eastern coast of Vacuo.

We went there and back within two days tracking down an extremely rare grimm called a dusk nomad since the grimm is huge and constantly travels from east to west or not at all.

It's suggested that it performs photosynthesis but the nomad is scary and big so nobody knows.

I walked through the portal and looked through mage sight for a little lagoon Summer and I had found. I had some beach clothes in my inventory.

I watched as Bella was way more gleeful this time. She laughed and looked around the little clearing where we landed.

Celsius looked towards me jealously - probably because of my semblance. When Ocean arrived she noticed this and whispered in his ear _"We can abuse his semblance for fun and profit."_

"I heard that." I said with a sharp point to my ears.

"Oh yeah. I forget you have those sometimes." Celsius said. I smiled a little.

"It's because nobody is dumb enough to try to pick on me."

"I made some threats of blackmail and sabotage to your math teacher," Bella called from where she was climbing a tree, "who I call beacky because of her long beak-like nose. She's a racist."

"Thank you." I said honestly. Really subterfuge and information gathering is the perfect class for me. I get so much fun here.

"Don't worry about it! I met some super nice faunus in my time as an operator. Even dated one once. Then I was exposed and it turned out he hated humans with a mad passion and we never talked again - but yeah, faunus are cool!"

So this is that bad dating history observe mentioned. Wow that is bad.

Kerrigan walked in and I got to addressing everybody.

"Everyone!" they all turned their attention to me. " there's a lagoon a mile roughly going downhill. We'll get there soon and do the aura sensing stuff in the water."

"Can't you teleport us?" asked Bella.

"Of course I can." I said obviously. Bella took a moment to process that and leaped from her tree but too late.

I appeared at the lagoon and started making a large circle of runes around it with my parallels. It took about ten minutes but nobody could sense our aura flares inside the ring now. Writing the runes underwater was a pain.

I finished finally and got around to setting some things up. I took a table from my inventory and put it on the sand. I then lauded out two pairs of swim trunks, two bikinis, and two girl's swimsuits. The kind that hide everything. I also put down a few towels.

With all that down I glanced with mage sight at the class, which was jogging steadily down the hill towards the lagoon. They couldn't see me but in the last fifteen minutes they had come pretty far.

Unfortunately Cesium and Bella had their scrolls. I blinked under spatial negation at them and reached my ghost-like hand into their pockets, stealing their scrolls. Kerrigan also had a list of things to do that I stole.

I blinked the objects inside the towels at the lagoon and made a portal under an illusion in front of the group.

Bella ran right into it and the rest of the group couldn't react in time to dodge it going downhill as they were. I blinked to the lagoon and saw Bella falling into the lagoon with a shriek. Ocean, Kerrigan, and Cesium followed.

I closely watched them to see if they couldn't swim and found that they all could. They were angry, though. Or Bella was at least.

"Screw you, Abyss!"

Cesium patted his pockets quickly. "My scroll! Wait… It's gone! M-... You stole it didn't you."

I nodded. "Bella too. The water and salt will dry out of it on the shore. I got some swimming clothing and towels. We've got an hour and a half left in class before we have to get back. So who's up for Marco polo with aura sensing?"

Bella quickly forgave me and the others did too. They all found some bushes and changed before making their way back to the lagoon. Both girls wore their bikinis rather than the other swimsuit. Ocean had also materialized a band to tie her hair from some unknown location. Wherever girls get those things.

Bella proved her habit of jumping right into things constantly by jumping right in. Cesium took his time a little more wading in a bit. Kerrigan could wade in deeply with his muscles. Ocean glided in almost. I teleported to the deep water.

"Okay! You three close your eyes! Abyss and I are going to flare out auras and You'll have to find us. It's more of a feeling you have to dig in to find. Everyone uses it instinctively but it's like hearing. You can refine it. Now close! Don't peek!"

Cesium, Ocean, and Kerrigan closed their eyes and Bella and I shared a look. We then simultaneously flared our auras as we swam to our left. Mine a deep crimson and Bella's a dark midnight blue. I had to turn off my net system too.

Ocean let a slight gasp out and nearly opened her eyes. She scrunched her face and swum towards me and Bella. Kerrigan clocked his head and clearly felt something but didn't quite get a location. Cesium didn't feel a thing.

"Polo?" Cesium said. I looked to Bella and shrugged. Well he wanted a flare. I was planning one every twenty seconds but sure, playing polo alone in a lagoon is fine.

We moved a little behind the group and to the side and Ocean paused and scrunched her face up but couldn't find us. We flared our auras and she got it down and swum towards us.

Kerrigan seemed to find it a little and began moving towards us uncertainly. He seemed to kind of get it.

I suppressed my aura and swum silently towards Cesium. Our two apprentices didn't notice me leaving.

I was right in front of Cesium's face and I prepared my aura for the biggest flare I could. With actual effort to make my aura project itself I let it go.

"OH HOLY SHIT-BRBRLBLR!" Cesium tried to swim backwards from the sudden burst of a new sense but fell backwards into the water. Ocean jerked towards me and opened her eyes to look between us confused. Kerrigan didn't jerk in surprise but opened his eyes to see Cesium flailing about.

I laughed at him with Bella and Cesium calmed down and surfaced, pushing his long golden hair out of his eyes.

"That was awesome! It was so powerful! Like a tidal wave broke on my mind!" I chuckled.

"Can you feel this?" I flared my aura moderately and Cesium nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah! Now I found that little sense part of my mind! It's awesome!"

"My awakening was kind of like yours. I was pretty dense to aura but then I had my instructor flare and I jumped half a foot in the air and yelled 'it's so big!'. I was the talk of the camp for a week. It was pretty funny though."

Kerrigan cracked a grin and Ocean giggled while I just shook my head in amusement.

"So… Once more, kids! Eyes closed!"

[|||| == ||||]

" _Dad? What's this call for?"_

" _C! I'm glad you picked up! This is big! I got a promotion! A huge one! Bossman got his head stuck in his ass and got fired! Someone higher up took a peek down and didn't like what he was doing so they've put me in his job! It's great! My pay grade increased by nearly half!"_

" _Wh-what?!"_

" _I know! That's how I reacted!"_

" _B-but… what changed?!"_

" _Kid, someone up above is happy with what we're doing. I've got to break in the boss' chair and do the job he was always supposed to be doing now. Do great in school as you always done."_

" _I-... Yeah."_

" _*Beeeeep*"_

" _... someone up above, huh?... I think I know someone who knows some people up above… things are finally going my way."_

[|||| == ||||]

A report sat in front of me. Qrow Branwen and Cesium… I really didn't expect this all to be the case.

As it turns out Raven's defection was a big issue. It wasn't a secret that she had but it was a secret as to where she went. A cover up. Cesium wanted into signal so he applied and was accepted. He did his stuff but in the last grade of the year he missed quite a few classes for some reason.

Now SOMEHOW Cesium found out about Qrow's blood ties to the bandit clan and his sister being the leader of the tribe. He went right up to Qrow and said along the lines of 'get rid of these absences and I won't tell everyone that your sister is a murderous bandit.'

Qrow having a bandit of a sister wouldn't make him tossed into prison or anything but teaching children? When your sister is a murderous raider? No. He would be fired.

Cesium didn't actually know it but I think that Qrow's sister being a bandit might cause a stir among the info brokers and contacts he knows. Not a huge one but which is worse? Being possibly fired and closing a few doors when you're in the middle of fighting humanity's greatest enemy or letting one smart cookie with some serious moxie have some slack?

Being that Cesium is in signal the answer is rather obvious.

I leaned back into the couch and pivoted to rest my feet on the armrests. I had felt like having a couch would be nice. It has been nice. Very nice.

I'm going to stop investigating Cesium. I've grown tired of reaching down the rabbit hole that is his life. He's clearly not a terrible person. I'm by far a worse one anyways. I just have one thing to look for myself.

I opened a two way wind whisper to Raven, who was cleaning her dust blades in her room. "Hey Raven? Do you know a kid named Jamie Cesium Mirrow?"

"Oh?... yes I remember him. Something about him?"

"Did you say that you were born into a bandit camp by any chance?"

"Heh. He said he wanted to blackmail my brother so I gave him that little piece of dirt on him. We just met when I was going to take a tribesman of mine, Swan Blanco, from a seedy bar. We were moving and I had to hunt him down through the ghettos of patch. Don't ask how he got there. I met that Cesium kid, dropped that little tidbit of blackmail on Qrow, and he pointed me towards the nearest bar."

"You really like messing with your brother too much."

"It's an older sister thing."

"Aren't you twins?"

"I was first. I'm also taller."

"Hm. Fine then. I'll use some embarrassing stories about him that Sum told me."

"Good."

With that done I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. So he ran into Raven, asked her for blackmail on her brother, and she pretty much said 'screw it' and told him that tiny piece of information just for the lolz. On the other hand, she did it to get to a bar. Qrow would forgive her straight off the bat.

Damnit Raven.

[|||| == ||||]

" _I can't be the only one that wants another monthly assignment."_

" _They're well planned and rewarding. Of course I want more."_

" _Don't you two wonder what it is Abyss is working for? How he gets this stuff? I asked Harlequin and she said she had nothing on him. She said she can dig for information but it's a bit costly."_

" _I'll pay. My family doesn't mind if I use some money of their every once and a while. If it's for information gathering they would be ecstatic. I do most of my networking in Vale and personally so they'll easily shell out a few hundred lien."_

" _I just need two fifty. It might cost more if it's complicated but I've got the Mavros family name. It isn't hard to scan through the databanks of the government population databanks."_

" _Sure. I can do that easily. I don't use my allowance. I stockpile it so I've got plenty stored away."_

" _Thanks Kerrigan."_

" _Of course."_

" _If either of you need any wetwork I'm up for it."_

" _I don't think we will but I'll remember that for next time."_

" _How long will Harlequin take?"_

" _A month roughly. Before December's assignments."_

" _Tell us when you get the documents. Wait, this isn't treason, right?"_

" _It is. I'll take the dive for it. I'm the one reaching out to Harlequin after all."_

" _Be careful. Abyss doesn't seem like a sensitive person but digging into his past might be a bit touchy for him."_

" _Of course."_

[|||| == ||||]

It was a month and a week after the aura sensing class that something new happened. It hadn't been terribly difficult to realize that the subI class was up to something. It was the day to assign new monthly objectives. I had this one and then one more, where I'll introduce everyone to my 'big fish' as they call him.

Last month's assignments had been less important than before but not something to sniff at. A few times we reserve a room for something or want to do something with a facility of signal's and have some sort of issue with the other classes and we have to fight for it. We lost the rights to the swimming pool because athletics needed it more, and being larger they got it. It was raining at that tropical island so we couldn't use that. Since we were the smallest class at beacon that sort of thing could happen a lot. Well not anymore!

Kerrigan got some dirt on the other class leaders. People tended to gather around people in the classes. They're just better at what they do than the others and help others out and gain some authority. Yang, for example, was the leader for combat class. When you needed help she was there. There was also Ignatium in math or Tyll in history. Cesium got some dirt on all of them.

It kind of bothered me that Yang was already experimenting with guys. I wonder if Ruby will be an early bloomer like Yang is… well Yang is thirteen and not stupid. She probably knows what she's doing.

Ocean had to steal objects to have evidence on the leaders so she worked with Cesium a little. Cesium found out the stuff and Ocean found evidence.

Cesium made more solid connections with the school and kept what he had. If we wanted to blackmail people if something ever came up we should be able to spread it like wildfire. It wasn't really hard for him but it was necessary.

I didn't give out any rewards since the assignments were so easy. Nobody really minded but they were a little disappointed. I gave good rewards. This month will make up for it though. They'll be meeting Roman after all. With him meeting with Raven so often he has more like sixty percent of Vale under his control.

Obviously the contact they'll be meeting is Roman. I'll ask him to charge them hard for his services. I don't want them to run to him for every one of their issues. They're in subI to get competence. Not throw money at my contacts. No, to get his services they'll have to pay in a more dangerous currency than money most.

Favors.

Not very nice of me but I eliminated whole gangs for Roman. I damn well deserved what few favors I asked for.

Somehow even Bella was in on what they're doing. She, at least, is subtle about it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened except when Cesium's scroll rang the edges of her lips twitched. Nothing extreme about it but this is Bella. She's the sneakiest person in signal that I know of.

When class, which was on advanced infiltration into a building, ended I walked out and the others followed me out before circling back around by either walking around Signal or going into a bathroom for a minute.

I looked to what they were doing with mage sight and blinked myself to the subI room again under invisibility and with my net system on. They all looked suspicious as all hell around Cesium's scroll.

I walked under muffle and everything to their side and read the article.

 _-where his parents, Kamina Mavros (Formerly Ictarine; see attached) and Hans Mavros were murdered by the local gang which desired control over the local water pump. Hans Mavros opposed them and, with his large frame and intimidating demeanor, frightened away trespassers. He was killed in his own house with his wife. Strangely enough both the gangsters died. One of a knife wound to the throat, likely by Kamina Mavros, but the other is strange. He was riddled with bullets as though from a large collection of pistols at once. However, there were no bullets in the wounds nor was there any signs of a melee weapon used whatsoever. It is for this reason that the incident was recorded in the first place._

 _During the incident Abyss Mavros disappeared. The pistol used to inflict the wounds was taken as well as what meagre lien and ammunitions was on the gangsters and around the house. From this point onwards the trail goes cold._

That… That could be a slight problem.

"... Oh. Oh dust. I didn't think… I thought it wouldn't be that bad." Cesium said nauseously. He leaned back against a desk.

"How could they do that to a family? To leave a child an orphan over water?" Ocean whispered.

Kerrigan said nothing but went to the nearest desk and sat down.

Bella rubbed her forehead and looked tired. "I hate this part of the job."

Ocean looked up to everyone. "We have to tell him. I won't lie. I looked into the pasts of you two." A wave towards Kerrigan and Celsius occurred. "But this is beyond a past. This is incredibly personal."

Nobody spoke for a moment. "Yeah." Bella said. "Yeah we do." Kerrigan nodded a little shakily. Cesium nodded slowly.

"Don't worry about it." I said coldly, revealing myself. A small jump occurred in everybody. Even Bella. It seemed to unnerve them to see me without a calm smile or a grin.

"My father was being recruited because he was strong and smart. He refused so that he could keep his job at the pumps. The gang didn't take kindly to that and aimed to make an example of him. They did. I made an example of the gangster."

"I spent some time alone for a while. I didn't want to talk to anyone. Just to be alone and work on some stuff. I travelled and grew up fast. Then a friend found me and we travelled together. I made my way to patch then. Of course I'm skipping everything that might help you even a little by the way."

Everyone looked somewhat disturbed by how I skipped over everything and the ease with which I went through all that. "I suppose you all still want details. Figure them out yourself." and with that I teleported out through a portal back home. I needed some time.

It was after school back home that I sparred with Ruby. "Um, Abyss? Are you okay? You seem a bit… off." I paused to consider it.

"I had a bit of a rougher day at school than usual."

"Something bad happen?"

"My subI class looked into my past and found some things they didn't want to see."

Ruby winced. "Yeah I can see how that would be bad." I grunted as Ruby's scythe came swiping under my feet. I hopped over it and stabbed with my halberd at her. Ruby dodged and used her semblance to appear behind me. I brought the butt of the shaft back and hit Ruby in the stomach. I then hooked the collar of her shirt on the butt and dragged Ruby in an arc to land in front of me.

She landed with a grunt and rolled over back onto her feet. "Okay, so is it end of all things bad or just awkward bad?" I paused for a moment. Ruby took my moment of contemplation to lunge and execute a series of cuts and swipes. I knocked them all away but made no moves to counter.

"I have a plan in place with Roman that gives me an uncle, though in reality I'll just be using a remote clone. It'll interfere with it a tiny bit but it's worse that things might get awkward." Ruby smiled.

"Then you just have to move on and put it behind you! That's what I do when something awkward happens. Everybody wants to move on from that stuff. I'll leave you to the criminal stuff on your own."

I nodded. "When did you get so good at this stuff?" Ruby dashed towards me with her semblance. I planted my halberd in the ground to stop her momentum and she swung her scythe anyways. The blade caught and Ruby swung herself towards me. I probably could have dodged but she had been sneaky so I let her feet slam into my side. I grabbed her leg and swung her into the ground and tossed her away from me.

"First of all, ow. Secondly, that's what you always had me do when I did something awkward in elementary school. I just kept applying that and found that it worked. You just have to do the same thing you had me do."

I let a small smile onto my face. Glad to know she was paying attention to do that sort of stuff herself. Ruby cheerily attacked again and I put me effort into the spar again.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Where's Ruby, dad?"_

" _I don't know."_

" _You're her dad! Why the hell are you just handing her to Abyss?! You don't know where she is, what she's doing, or ANYTHING!"_

" _... Abyss is in high signal. He can live wherever he wants."_

" _What does that have to do with Ruby?!"_

" _... I registered him as her guardian three months after Summer-"_

 _*SLAP*_

" _... I… That's pathetic."_

" _Yang… she's happy. I know I made some mistakes. Some mistakes so huge that everyone around me is just stunned that I'm making them but try to see this from my perspective."_

" _What the hell do you mean?!"_

" _Ruby is my daughter. Summer's daughter. I'd give everything for her happiness and I know you would too. We both have. I'd even give her up for her own happiness at the price of seeing her grow up and so I have. She hardly even the same daughter I knew before anyways… did you know that she goes on morning jogs?"_

" _... No."_

" _She does. Every morning for a while she goes on jogs and I had no idea. That's just a small part of it too. She's branched into her own person. Every parent wants their child to come into their own. Ruby just did it earlier than I ever wanted."_

[|||| == ||||]

"This month's assignment is a bit different than normal." I said to the subI class. "Mostly in that you'll be in this too, Bella." She looked in surprise to me but said nothing. She trusted my opinion enough to let me say what I have to say.

"You'll all be meeting with that contact of mine. The 'big fish' as you've taken to calling him. I already put in your pockets an invitation to meet him." Nobody was surprised by this.

"Go to the meeting place, keep him secret, and help him out for that reward I always give out. Oh, and Cesium, it's a little different than usual. This might require a little bit more effort than usual to use but you'll definitely appreciate it." Cesium smiled a little. He probably knew it was worth it already. An apartment on patch's moderately poorer places wouldn't mean much to most but to him, who lived in the ghetto, it was a pretty big increase from what he was used to.

"I've got a portal ready for you all since this is in Vale. We've got a lesson today, though. Right?" Bella nodded.

"Stealth and reconnaissance." I grinned.

"You'll want that. The stealth part especially. This is more dangerous than what I typically give out but let's be honest. You all are talented at wetwork, networking, and digging. Talking about Ocean, Cesium, and Kerrigan in that order."

"What about me?" Bella asked cheerily, obviously digging for praise.

I sent a puzzled look towards her. "What do you mean? I thought you just sat around signal chatting up Qrow?" A collection of snickers sprung out at that. Bella looked flatly towards me and rolled her eyes.

"I sometimes do stuff. I've got other classes than you guys, you know…" I shrugged.

"Well whatever. Let's just get this over with. You all can work on this over the weekend. Wait, it's friday, right?"

"Thursday but tomorrow's a holiday." Ocean said quietly.

"The next three weeks are christmas break." Kerrigan informed. I blinked at that.

"Break creeped up on me. Strange… well that means you have more time to do subI work."

"What if we have more stuff to do than subI work?" Ocean asked.

"SubI never rests. Always on the job. Remember that from the beginning of the year?"

"I thought I was exaggerating." Bella muttered. "You're way better a spymaster than I thought you would be. I haven't had to help at all."

"Are any of you going on a trip or something?" I asked.

Kerrigan spoke up. "I have to go back to Vale to my family. I live with my aunt most of the time."

"That's fine. This is all happening at Vale anyways. Just find a little time away and coordinate with the others. Don't you all have a group chat or a chatroom?"

"We talk about subI stuff in it." Bella said. I froze for a moment.

"Wait, I'm the only one not in it?" A series of awkward glances away and coughs went off. Bella whistled innocently.

"Just don't try something treacherous." I grumbled. They needed some time away from me I suppose. I can look into it anyways. I know all of their scroll codes anyways.

"Try not to bother me too much. I've got an important project to work on during the break. I need this up before spring."

Cesium looked to me curiously. "What are you working on? Some sort of advanced criminal stuff?" I grinned.

"I've got a little side business to set up. It'll be useful."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Your goons know all of this?"_

" _Yeah. See the slips with the sort of hexagon with different colored corners and let the four people with the cards in. They'll look young but they're to be treated with respect. Bosslady isn't to see them and she knows this."_

" _... Bosslady?"_

" _She's scary and acts like a boss. You're the boss."_

" _Fine. You have all their names down and a task for each of them, right?"_

" _I'm assigning Goldilocks to meet with a few potential recruits of mine. They're running a shit operation and they shouldn't be that hard to recruit. Fishie will be infiltrating a dust depot and stealing their tax reports. I'm pretty sure they're cheating thon them and I want evidence so I can pull some strings with them._

 _Stone will be manning Junior's bar as a bouncer. I'm not really sure about that one though. Will he be fine there?"_

" _He'll work it fine. Junior was missing a man?"_

" _One of the normal bouncers is taking a vacation that day. Seeing family I think. I wasn't really paying attention. Anyways, the last one, Teacher, is taking a bit more of a serious issue. A little guy of mine is taking advantage of the lack of herd drugs in my territory and starting up a little business on the side. He hasn't sold anything but he's massing drugs from a contact in Vacuo, who are still rebuilding from their criminal power vacuum from their little war by the way, and she's to make an example of him and show their contact in the vacuan underworld to stay out of Vale."_

" _Good. And the rewards?"_

" _I have a letter for Goldilocks you gave me, the samples of exotic poisons for Fishie, the letter of referral to a contact of mine in Mistral for Stone; just show the letter and he'll let you buy info from him. Finally I have the letter for teacher you gave me in my desk."_

" _Good work. I cleared out that stretch of trees in forever fall and made sure no grimm can get in for a few days. Send your men to tap that area and get out before thursday. That's when the grimm will likely come wandering back in."_

 _"Sure. Red sap isn't illegal but it sure as hell is valuable as an export. Do you think we could make this a permanent thing?"_

" _It will be though not in the way you expect. For now, though, it's temporary. Hit the trees and leave. Don't kill them. I heard it takes forever to them to grow back."_

" _Yeah, like hundreds of years."_

" _Curious. However, it's irrelevant."_

" _Whatever you say. Is there anything I should do to prepare for that more permanent venture?"_

" _Yes. Buy land on patch. It doesn't matter where."_

" _One bundle of acres in the most boring place in Remnant coming right up. Need them flat or anything?"_

" _Cheap. Terraforming is an easy business for me."_

" _Of course you can change the landscape at will. Let me guess, you've got a friend with a semblance for it?"_

" _My semblance, disaster call, deals with it. You'll see soon. Make sure it's legitimate and iron-clad legally."_

" _I'll expect profits to rain from the skies. Just following a trend."_

" _Remember to refer to me as a friend, don't say my name, and give no physical description. I don't want them knowing I'm your boss yet."_

" _Got it, Mystic. Thanks for trusting me with your name."_

" _It doesn't matter, Mahogany."_

" _Huh?"_

" _Your new name. Or should I say, the name of the co-owner of nature's bounty, Remnant's newest company located on patch. The second being Mystic Mavros, uncle to Abyss Mavros. Oh, and make my nephew the heir to your share of the company."_

[|||| == ||||]

I talked with Roman a little and found out where the land he bought out was. It turned out to be in the middle of patch, where the land was pretty rocky and filled with hardy vegetation. I talked a little with Raven and opened up the idea to her.

With my life affinity I could root the forever fall trees, called crimson blooms, anywhere and mature in a few hours. More, even, with a large scale runic circle to encourage plant growth.

I would make some tornadoes and tear up the land pretty badly, removing all the vegetation. Raven with her earth affinity as a maiden would stroll in and fix it all to a nice flat land with all those plants under the earth as compost. She would also tear the earth to smaller chunks to get rid of the rockiness and make the soil soft enough to really grow things.

I'd plant a bunch of crimson blooms around the new land fit for farming now. But that was just a bunch of cash in Roman's pockets. It was so uncreative and not really worth the effort unless I was really bored. I was more ambitious than that.

I planned to alter plants at the genetic level. Plants with my high soul in small doses could be refined into a pill that, when consumed, would boost a person's aura. Plants with a purity affinity could be called the opposite of crimson blooms and sold as ways to ward off the grimm. They actually would be like the opposite of the blooms since the crimson blooms had a corruption element in them. It's what attracted the grimm.

Obviously there was a flaw with the plan. People would take notice of tornadoes lasting that long tearing up patch's badlands and acting erratically but I think I already have a plan to deal with that.

I really want to look into those ruins soon not only for those artifacts but because they might have magical flora or fauna that I can use for my purposes. I'm planning on looking into the ruins around beacon that are seen at the start of the show since there might be something there as well as in forever fall.

Forever fall is actually pretty small. Like ten miles by twenty miles to put it generously. The real thick forest is actually about three miles long and the rest being sparser trees. That's what brings my attention to it. A corruption affinity in the trees… it's tiny. Where have I heard of that before?

The ice forest in Vacuo, of course. Those trees had an ice affinity for certain. But that forest was pretty small. I'm not going to cite any numbers since I obviously didn't measure but I don't think it was twenty square miles of sparse and thick forest. That's where the desert comes in.

The trees with a weak affinity for ice melted or died off while the ones with a strong affinity stood strong. The trees in forever fall probably have a thicket of trees with a far higher affinity for corruption attracting stronger grimm.

Nobody's ever gone all the way into forever fall. I mean, they've gone in pretty deep and even built a railway through it but that's through the sparser part of the falls with younger trees.

As people ventured into the forest it was noted that the grimm get stronger and stronger. People say that they went within one mile of the center of the forest before they had to turn back from too many lives lost. Not always from the grimm either.

Some huntsmen that ventured in started being afflicted with mental issues. They were reported as seeing shadows. Looking at their skin and thinking that it was turning black like the grimm. Legitimate trauma occurred from the forest that people couldn't explain. Psychologists warded it off as stress or PTSD. They were losing friends to the grimm, after all. It's a valid theory and nobody's going to stand up and yell 'MAGIC' as the reason.

Pretty soon the topic died off and people started to go "Oh, forever fall? Yeah the center of the forest is nothing special. It just has really good sap." and that was considered as fact. Nobody actually wanted to spend the manpower to go in when they had perfectly good sap right there where it's safe to venture. When they built the railway the topic was left untouched and people just leaned back and called the forest conquered.

I scrolled to Ozpin's reaction to all of this, being that this whole business was being done when he first became headmaster and was completely unsurprised by his reaction. Complete disagreement with the whole business. Actively protesting the business, citing that we could be using those hunters to find new dust deposits, defend the people (like they were supposed to, he pointed out), or create new territory for humanity to settle in to get out of the somewhat overcrowded cities.

I think that the forever fall is an excellent place to test out my silver eyes in full. I never tried out that super silver eyes mode, where the affinity is a hundred times greater, flaring them I believe it's called, so I can use the mode to kill some strong grimm and reach the center. Hopefully there's some artifact from ancient times or a spellbook on magic.

If it's corruption magic I don't care. I'll gladly raise a new affinity from scratch if I have fantastic spells to use with it. I can only do so much with my own creativity. Ozpin's spell books were the basics of the magic I learned. I could never have come up with the marker for teleport marker or how to make a portal or ice storm on my own. The textbook itself stated that a single spell could take decades to create since they were so complex. Spells I made were the basics of the spellbooks. Apprentice level works that anybody would be expected to do. That I found them on my own was impressive but they didn't make me a genius or anything.

Anyways, I need to go to forever fall and the icy forest soon. Raven will definitely come with me, being that she uses ice magic and is probably getting stabby. Ruby might be allowed to come to the forest. I don't know how dangerous the wraiths are. Certainly not the forest. It's too dangerous for anybody but me to go there since I've got steel will and my eyes.

Whether there's anything worthwhile at these sites doesn't matter. I'll be exploring them soon enough. I just need to wait for a good time to get to them. Summer or spring break should work fine.

[|||| == ||||]

" _You're… you're Roman Torchwick."_

" _Yup. Now which one are you? I've got Stone, Fishie, Goldilocks, and Teacher. Which one are you?"_

" _Teacher."_

" _Good! You're actually the one I wanted to meet most. My friend spoke highly of you."_

" _Your friend is an ass. I know he had a reach in some high places but to you? He just threw me in the deep end here."_

" _How long have you known him? I've been around him about a year and a half and he tends to toss you to deep water often. It's worth it though."_

" _That it is. And not too long. Normally I'm a spectator rather than actually interacting with him."_

" _Huh. Well, anyways, that assignment of yours is to look into a guy under me that's been naughty and selling drugs. Not weak stuff but the hard stuff straight from Vacuo. Go make an example of him and show his Vacuan contact to stay out of Vale with their drugs. Here. That has everything I've got on him."_

" _Are the other jobs this intense?"_

" _Dust no! He called you a professional. I'm treating you as such. Well without killing. He said you might be a bit averse to that. The others have easy stuff and I give them the rewards he gave me. Well except for Stone. I'm giving him a referral to a contact of mine."_

" _I see. Alright then. It's good to meet you, Roman. I'll be back soon enough. This shouldn't take more than a few days."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	19. Chapter 19

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 19** = ||||]

I set out for the wilds of patch early at seven. Ruby was sleeping and wouldn't wake up until eight, being a weekend. Being an early riser now was so odd from sleeping until noon as a teenager in my past life. Raven was asleep too and wouldn't be up until nine. Maybe eight thirty if she was feeling energetic today.

I didn't make breakfast today, which might make some people cranky for the day but I had steaks marinating for dinner today so they can quiet down. I can't be annoyed at them for getting used to making breakfast and dinner. They all pitched in with chores around the apartment and in their work under Roman. I didn't. I did, however, do all the shopping for food through my avatars and do all the cooking.

Raven asked for a receipt once and checked how much I spent. Five hundred lien isn't a big deal for me but Raven collected that from her bandits and paid me back for getting all that food for her clan. She paid her debts.

Going to the wildlands of patch was easy for me. I just used all my magic in a momentum spell, weaken spatial resistance spell, and some wind magic, got out my wings, and flew. I'm not at the speed of sound but I'm definitely going at a few hundred miles an hour. I didn't have to do anything to keep myself fine at high speeds this time too, which was nice. My DEX skill I got at 200 made me completely unaffected by my high speeds.

Patch wasn't that big. A bit more than two thousand five hundred square miles of land, most of it being craggy, dense, cold, and unfit for farming with a somewhat high concentration of grimm of dangerous and rather exotic varieties like most islands big enough to warrant grimm. It also wasn't tropical like most of Vacuo's islands.

So it couldn't be farmland, it couldn't be a tropical paradise, and it had too many grimm to really move into as a population center. So what to do with it? Make it a training ground for huntsmen! There was all that huntsman business going on but patch was also a retirement home of sorts, contributing to it's sleepiness and relaxed air. The bad land,

Roman decided to put a lot of trust in me and bought about sixty square miles of land to start with. That couldn't have been cheap for him. Well, land in Patch was dirt cheap outside the towns. Literally since there was nothing but dirt outside the land. Not even good dirt for farming.

I appreciated his gesture of good faith so I'll make good on it. I settled down about where the map feature of my scroll said I should stop and made a seat of ice. I runed it to not melt and began to meditate. The bonus to my MP regen was 100% with a fully maxed out level, which wasn't to be sniffed at.

Four of my five parallels made tornadoes while my fifth made sure that the tornadoes stayed long enough to really tear up the land and vegetation. I was regenerating 5864.5 mana per minute (x2 with meditation), all of which was being used to wreck shit up, and my air affinity after my modifiers of dominant affinity and all the other stuff I picked up amounted to 2352 air affinity with 296 nature affinity supporting it. Not that the nature did much. Tornadoes were 90% air, 3% nature, 2% chaos, and 5% a whole bunch of other stuff like destruction, motion, and all that. Well, roughly that number of affinities in the tornadoes.

It was a little ridiculous but I'm not complaining. It just made most air magic REALLY easy to cast. I mean I could make a tornado without trying kind of easy. My tornadoes would tear up all this land in about an hour. Then I'd have to move around and bring Raven over to fix my messes with a nice finish and get rid of the cliffs and stuff that I tossed in pieces all over the place. I'd also have to go around breaking down boulders and such that didn't break down properly before I left an area.

I made sure I didn't kill any poor passerbys trekking through the patch wilderness as I wrecked the landscape of course. I did kill plenty of grimm though. It was really fun to pick them up and throw them around. They made a nice crunchy splat when they ran into stuff. I flared my aura to attract them to me before I started a new tornado up sometimes. I got enough XP from them to finally get myself up to level two hundred eight before too long. With that I could equip a second title! How nice! I equipped my Little wizard title, giving me some more mana regeneration and boosting my air affinity a little.

What was really interesting, though, was that when I made my tornadoes and held them around these suckers showed up. I did a more detailed observe to show their stats since their level was so high. It was different than a human or faunus' since it was a creature.

 **Petty wind elemental (Lv. 387) - An extremely minor elemental born of a high concentration of mana with a wind affinity in this location. As it is born of your mana it is willing to defend you so long as you emit wind aligned mana. It is naturally hostile to other entities besides you and those who emit wind aligned mana. However, you may command them as you wish. They will dispel as wind mana ceases to emit.**

 **Stats**

 **STR: 203**

 **VIT: 424**

 **DEX: 1230**

 **INT: 11**

 **WIS: 35**

 **LUK: 32**

 **AFF: 2000**

I had a suspicion that these guys might show up but I wasn't certain. I am, however, absolutely THRILLED that they're here. That I can command them so long as I emit wind aligned mana is even better. They're kind of scary though with how powerful they are.

Elementals were actually really interesting creatures. Mages of old used to contract them in a way. They supplied them with mana of their affiliation and they took commands from their host. Mages were required to have one of the lowest caliber to be called a mage. To summon them in an element was to be considered a wizard in that type.

Elementals contracted to a contractor since they didn't have to compete for affiliated mana there. They had to play a sort of tug-of-war for mana in the same way atoms in a covalent bond fought over electrons. Going to a contractor meant they could bask in all that sweet mana.

They didn't have a distinctive look other than sort of wispy forms of pale blue discolored wind (Probably because unaffiliated mana was blue for some reason) but they did have a mana and aura signature of their own. They passively collected ambient mana and pulsed with the flow of my mana, making my spells stronger.

To command them I tried a few different things before I got it right. I had to combine aura with my mana and use that with my mana. I tried to imbue a sort of feeling of 'come over here and stay here' into my aura and sent it to one of the petty elementals. It immediately turned the crimson red of my own aura and came to me. It sent a little aura with feeling of it's own and I got the distinct feeling of happiness from it that I was talking to it.

Before I continued talking to it it occured to me that I wasn't including my aura with my tornado. It irritated me that I wasn't doing so before and I leaked my own aura into the mass of tornadoes.

Immediately all the elementals turned my aura's red and pulsed their auras with happiness towards me for increasing the amount of energy in the storm. I pulsed the question of why they were so happy to the elemental closest to me and he sent that they grew in number as the storm increased in size and strength as the density of the affinity increased; the size being related to the amount of mana I was using and the density of the affinity being the intensity of my air affinity in the storm.

I grinned and the elementals felt happy as I was happy.

Wanting to brag a little I calmed the air around me and sent an image of Raven to the elementals with the idea of her being a friend. They sent acknowledgement and I opened a portal to Raven. It was only ten o'clock but she went through with a plate of eggs and overcooked bacon in her mouth. As she stepped through she stopped and her arm went limp.

The elemental closest to me caught her plate for her and she stared at it.

"What the hell?" Was her elegant question to what was going on.

"They're elementals. They appear in places where there's a huge amount of an affinity. With all the air affinity in the air from me they popped up. I can command them with my aura since they instinctively want to defend the source of the air affiliated mana."

Raven stared at them contemplatively. "Can I make some?" I snorted.

"Not even. With some trickery you could probably make one but my air affinity is insane. More than three times yours."

Raven nodded. "I remember that only wizards could make elementals without a ritual. Normal arch-mages could make them in rituals… can't you bind them to you? I believe they're called familiars if you do that, right?"

I nodded. "It was a rite of enlightenment for hopefuls looking to become mages. They trained in an affinity for a few years and went to a location with elementals of an affinity they believed they were strong enough in and signalled them somehow, which is through aura by the way. I figured it out myself, and they offer a place in their soul. I'm pretty sure they mean living their soul space by that. Those that could actually summon them were arch-mages."

Raven nodded. "Do you think I could contract one?" I looked to my petty elemental.

" _Would you be willing to become her familiar for wind?"_ I sent. He (He seemed like a he) thought about it for a moment and signalled that he was willing but skeptical as to why he would leave my awesome area dense with wind affinity for her affinities, which were worse.

I rolled my eyes and sent back that there were no air elementals there so he wouldn't have to compete for air affiliated mana. He immediately sent back extreme excitement.

"He's alright with it. You should talk with him. Push a whole lot of a thought or feeling into your aura and send out a little pulse of that aura to him." Raven didn't ask for how and just tried it. Feel it out, as it is.

She figured it out sort of and sent the feeling of questioning as to whether or not he would like to be contracted to her. He sent back a resounding yes and she sent amusement and a sort of list as to what he would have to do. Some murder and choking people out mostly as well as helping to defend her when the need arises.

He agreed easily but sent that she wouldn't exhaust her mana to less than a tenth of what she had. He would die if she ran out so that was fair enough for Raven. A moment of silence passed.

"How do I actually contract him?" Raven asked. I… don't know.

"Put him in your soul space and let him do his thing." I said acting like I knew what I was doing. Why she asked me I don't know.

Raven sighed. "Could you open it for me?" I nodded and moved towards her. I touched her hand and casted an inventory on her. The petty elemental sent a thank you towards me and Raven and moved to the space. He floated into the inventory space swiftly and I closed it. Raven stood still for a second before she hissed and clutched a hand towards her head.

"Oh dust that's uncomfortable!… It's gone now… oh that feels nice." I looked at her puzzled as she sighed with a tiny smile on her face.

"Can you bring him out now or do I have to open your inventory every time?" I asked. Raven closed her eyes and seemed to be conversing with the petty elemental.

"He can come out. He says that he had to saturate himself in my aura but now that he's done so he can come in and out as he pleases. Oh, and I'm giving him a name now. His name is Hawk now."

I didn't mind the naming thing. That was standard. Elementals were always named for convenience. I was more interested in something else.

 **Wind: 2352 (+100)**

So that's how Ozpin did it! I had never read that air elemental's raised your affinity. It made sense though. I should get my own I suppose. I sent a pulse to one of the petty elementals asking to contract him and got a rousing yes. I planned to replace him with a minor elemental eventually though.

I opened my soul and he flew right in. I felt the immense discomfort that Raven had talked about and winced at it. It only lasted a few seconds and faded quickly to a nice feeling. Like a cool breeze on hot skin.

 ***Ding!* You have contracted a petty wind elemental! +100 to air affinity!**

 ***Ding!* Through contracting an elemental you earned a title: Mage; Little wizard title has been replaced**

 **-Reduces all mana costs by 10%**

 **-Increase all affinities by 20%**

 **-Increase mana by 40%**

 ***Ding!* Through summoning an elemental you earned a title: Arch-mage; Mage title has been replaced**

 **-Reduces all mana costs by 15%**

 **-Increase all affinities by 30%**

 **-Increase mana by 60%**

 ***Ding!* Through summoning an elemental through your own power you earned a title: Wizard; Arch-mage title has been replaced**

 **-Reduces all mana costs by 20%**

 **-Increase all affinities by 40%**

 **-Increase mana by 80%**

I stopped and immediately put on the title. My elemental, who I might as well call something… how about Swift? That sounds good. I can hurl spells and let Swift do the work now. Gods, being a wizard was awesome… but I'm nothing compared to Ozpin. He has that horrible modifier on his affinity usage and he still has affinities that vastly outstrip mine. Gods, what does Cinder have to combat that absurd mana?

It's not really a big issue that I lost the 25% bonus to my aura from the little wizard title but I can use mage armor if it comes down to it. The wizard title is by far better.

Anyways, I have to keep tearing up the world. I turned to Raven. "Want to work on your part of the land since you're here?" She chuckled.

"I'm going to introduce Hawk to Ruby first. See if you can make other elementals I can contract, won't you?"

"Yeah, yeah you freeloader." I muttered. Raven laughed and made a portal back that she stepped into. I sighed and went back to playing god with the landscape. Being a force of pure destruction was boring when you only had a forest to wreck. Well it was about to get a lot more interesting soon. Oh! There's a weird looking grimm! What is that anyways? A turtle with eczema- and it's dead. Damn.

[|||| == ||||]

" _This is Lisa Lavender here with day four of extreme tornadoes in patch. For two days multiple tornadoes have been tearing the wildlands of patch and after stopping for day three they resurged in full! This happened directly after the purchasing of the property on which the tornadoes occurred by one aspiring businessman Mahogany Armello purchased the land."_

" _After asking Mahogany about the tornadoes yesterday he replied that he hired a close friend of his by the name of Mystic with no last name given, to create the tornadoes on the property with the intention to grow crops on the harsh landscape of patch. The huntsman has several offered contract from landscapers to the SDC themselves publicly at prices leaning to up to several million lien a year for mass terraforming to mass grimm extermination depending on the details."_

" _However Mahogany has replied to such statements that Mystic already works for him and has no interest in reaching out to other employers at this time. In response to this Ozpin Meridian has summoned Mystic for a high profile meeting to talk about his previous silence over his semblance. In addition, no paperwork could be found on any huntsman named Mystic with his type of semblance."_

" _Should we be concerned over the extreme destruction this single huntsman can cause? Is he even a huntsman? It will be decided in this meeting coming live on friday in Vale between Mystic and Ozpin."_

" _Next up is the potential economic impact of such terraforming on the kingdoms. Stay tuned everyone."_

[|||| == ||||]

After a week of terraforming I left it to Raven to get to work on the land with her earth affinity. She did some grumbling about it but I'll be fuelling her with my mana from our shared inventory and that transferring stone. She likes the feeling of being powerful and it's not hard.

With all my work terraforming the stretch of land I've been working on looks like a wasteland. Trees torn out and strewn around. Cliffs half destroyed into hills, their rocks torn from the stony walls and pounded on by wind and whatever was caught in it until they crumbled down.

Raven had her work really quite cut out for her but it wasn't all that bad. Most of what she was doing was just manipulation. Breaking up the earth to be smaller and looser to support crops and the trees and burying the trees and strewn plant debris under the earth. It's not that hard for her.

With it being just earth manipulation she could just dump mana into her affinity to move the earth around. It was like playing god mode in a video game. She could wave her hand and stuff happens. She totally enjoyed it. She was also drinking while she worked. It apparently made it more enjoyable.

At the moment I looked as I did when meeting Roman. Like a taller version of myself basically except for a few things. I had a dark purple streak in my hair and wore a smattering of purple on me as well as the black I tended to wear. I kept my eyes the silver with veins of crimson and my skin rather pale as I did. There was also a little change in facial structure. Slightly lower cheekbones and wider eyes with a larger nose. I had good reason for it. Very good reasons indeed.

I made my way to the conference center where Ozpin and the news team was around one in the afternoon, as I was supposed to. It was unpleasant, though. Very unpleasant.

"Mister Mystic! Mister Mystic! Could you please answer a few questions for us?!"

"Sir! Do you intend to use your semblance for the good of Remnant or for profit?!"

"Excuse me sir if we could have just a minute of your time?!"

"Do you support the white fang, sir?!"

The news teams were like vultures. Luckily a team of security muscled them back for me and I could walk into the building somewhat safely. Somewhat. A few of the stick microphone things hit my face. I'm not sure what they're called.

I entered the conference building and instantly a few glares were sent towards me. Or, more specifically, my ears. Observe marked them all as politicians. They didn't matter.

I didn't know where I was supposed to go so I flashed mage sight and saw Ozpin and a collection of other people including Qrow, Glynda, the council that manages Vale, general James Ironwood, Headmaster Lionheart of haven academy, and Headmaster Straw of void academy in a courtroom seemingly prepared for a sort of hearing. Strange. I was under the impression that this was more of a meeting than a hearing. Well, it's not officially a trial but it may as well be. I had considered it as a possibility. Labelling me a threat to the kingdom would be trivial.

In the audience were reporters already filing in and… oh just the people I wanted to meet. Jacques Schnee, Weiss Schnee, and Winter Schnee. This is going to be a thrilling day.

Actually Ozpin is probably looking to recruit me against Salem and the council is looking to get me under their thumb. Another mage sight with observe showed that a minority of the council had that goal. Most of them wanted to push me into taking jobs for Vale or the SDC. They all had an agreement to put me in Ozpin's seat should I prove agreeable. That might be somewhat nice but no. Too much work when I could just politically control Ozpin… is it weird that controlling the four kingdoms through my criminal empire is easier than being a headmaster?

I walked my way over and entered the room with confidence and the same confident and charming smile as when I walked into the building. It was a little more confidence and charm than calm though.

The small chatter that was prevalent ceased as I entered the room. I calmly walked to the front and stood, as there wasn't a chair.

Ozpin looked at me, clearly knowing I was Abyss with an irritated look in his eyes but a calm exterior otherwise. I'm not sure what he was thinking though.

"Mister Mystic, do you have a family name?"

"Of course." I said smoothly. "My full name is Mystic Macabre Mavros. Some people call me M." Ozpin's hand tightened on his cane and the sound of pens scratching down came from the throngs of reporters and businessmen looking to meet with me came from behind me.

"M then. I'm already familiar with your… son?" Excited whispers rang out.

"Nephew. However, with his parent's murder I am his current guardian if not legally though I am seeking that. I didn't expect to cause such a fuss with my work." The whispering quieted down a bit when Ozpin looked at the crowd sternly. I glanced back and saw a gleam of opportunity in the eyes of the businessmen. Weiss and Winter looked interested as well.

"I see. Let's meet privately afterwards to discuss that." I nodded.

"Oh he's still going to beacon. I understand that the agreement between you two was made though not on equal grounds. I do hope, however, that you don't pressure my nephew to make such decisions further." The whispers grew much but kept themselves down since I was still talking. "He's alright attending so long as you don't continue to control him or otherwise encourage him to work under your… guidance."

My last word was barely heard. Loud talking was occurring and furious typing and writing was being done. I heard a small laughter from Jacques and a smirk on his face. Ironwood looked towards Ozpin with a threatening look. Undoubtedly looking to make me a specialist. If I, the uncle, was so powerful and Ozpin had actually recruited my son early of all things… well, my value just increased to literally everyone in Remnant. I think I could walk out now and fake my death and my identity as Abyss Mavros would be worth it's weight in gold a hundred times over. Since I've got signal behind me as a student I think I'll be alright.

"I'll make a note of that." Ozpin said. "However this meeting is about your excess of power. While the use of it in that land in patch is legal as you have the consent of the landowner you yourself are not a registered civilian or huntsman of Vale. Would you please clarify where you are from and why you aren't registered as a citizen?"

"My life story then?" I joked. Nobody laughed. I coughed uncomfortably. "Well then. I was born in Vacuo, you see. The slums. Not like Vale slums but Vacuo slums, where water becomes worth more than a life and children starve in the streets." I allowed my voice to grow more bitter as I talked.

"I quickly got out of there since I had talent. My brother, however, did not have such talent. I received some training and a shortsword from a huntsman. I had unlocked my aura naturally, you see. It interested him and so I received some training. I didn't enter shade, though. I took on work as a rogue huntsman at the age of thirteen." Some exclamations came from the they quieted themselves down.

"Now, see, by this time I was a really good huntsman for my age already. I had unlocked my semblance, which I call disaster call, and made good work with it to kill hordes of grimm. Sandstorms in desert don't really get noticed. I got paid and made a living. I kept up my work with my shortsword of course. Grimm got through and tried to fulfill their case of the munchies."

"I've kept my work up, met some people, and done some stuff - and before you tell me that done stuff and meeting people isn't important I'll just tell you all that you really shouldn't care so much about my singing practices or who I dated in my free time." Some faint chuckles came from that little joke.

"Now flash to me at about age thirty something and I'm running around Mistral just doing my thing. Killing grimm and meeting people, doing stuff, and get this - I get a letter from friend of mine saying she met a kid who happens to have the same last name as me and my absolutely gorgeous visage." The audience seemed to universally scoff at me but I saw a few blushes in there.

"I pop by and lo-and-behold, my nephew Abyss is there! Him and his cute little sister, Ruby Rose that is. She's a bit like a little sister to him. We talk a little and work through some private family stuff and BAM! Family reunited, I get to be a layabout since I acquired quite a bit of profit being that I'm not a citizen so I can't be taxed and I'm damn good at what I do. My nephew's semblance, which I'm sad to say is more useful than mine if not as powerful, lets me teleport around a bit too so I can even wander when it suits me though I don't do that as much anymore."

"And the name of this friend of yours?" Ozpin said while adjusting his glasses. He reached for the glass of water on his little judge table and took a sip.

"Oh it was Mahogany. He's the reason I started on the whole patch thing in the first place. Abyss knows him and he knows me so he put two and two together and called me over."

Ozpin nodded. "I see. Could you elaborate on your semblance?"

"Sure." I nodded. "Though it's called disaster call it actually makes disasters. Well, not that many but I can get more with practice. Sandstorms, tornadoes, storms and hurricanes, blizzards, tsunamis, and a heatwave. I never had a need for anything else. I tried earthquakes once really far out in the wilds but it's too widespread and hard to control so I never use them. I make sure there's nobody around when I use my semblance but it's kind of rough sometimes. Really! I do! I'm not looking to kill any poor fool! Nobody's died, which is kind of a miracle really, but there's been a few broken legs and arms, one guy went into a coma for a few days, and one guy I had to do CPR on when he was doing his girlfriend on the b-" A glare came from Ozpin and I shut up. "Oh. Kiddie language. Right. Anyways, I felt more injured than the guy since I had to lock lips with him but he was fine and we had a drink afterwards."

"I see. Thank you for your time. We will take a half hour recess to discuss this."

"What am I supposed to do with a half hour?!" I complained.

"Mingle." He said with a hint of snark. I sighed heavily and wore a resigned and enduring expression as I marched out of the room.

I was pretty much immediately snatched by Jacques. Did he bribe somebody just to get to me first?

"Hello! I'm Jacques Schnee, CEO of the Schnee dust company. I'm quite interested in hiring you off the bat. I can do quite a lot, you realise. Making this whole court business go away, getting Ozpin off your nephew, drawing up the adoption papers, and a very generous pay. What are your thoughts?" His facial expression was good. He looked benevolent, honest, and entirely devoid of any motives. He even had a twinkle in his eye like some sort of jolly Santa Clause.

"Thank you for your kind offer Mister Schnee." I said with a sort of honesty. Really I do think the guy intended to actually hire me and not toss me into a dust mine but I honestly can't work for him. He'd doubtlessly be a full time employer and I can't do that. I've got to stick with Mahogany *Cough* Roman *Cough* for my plans of culturing magical plants. If I'm hard on cash then sure I'll cause some stuff to happen here but not now.

"I do appreciate the offer, really, but I've a nephew to raise and a job I'm quite happy with. I can probably do some independant jobs for you but not very often." Jacques didn't lose his jolly attitude, mirroring my own.

"Of course! I was hopeful but I understand that time is a resource you can't spare. I've actually got a different one then. A partnership with the business you're backing. Taking it to a more global level. It's to my understanding that you wish to sell only to Vale for the moment, correct?"

I nodded cheerfully. "For now yes but we'll certainly move to a larger scale soon."

Jacques nodded. "But do you know what you'll be cultivating? How to plant them? Where you'll be getting the labor for said venture? How will you deal with the legalities of the company? How to deal with the criminal elements or grimm? You've a good idea and I'm willing to support it but do you know just how to move to such a large scale so soon?"

"Oh Mahogany and I have most of the details down." I said without concern. "The cultivation and planting will be easy with the crop we're going to grow, which is staying private for now. We plan on building a company town to let them live in peace and export the crop back to us. Legalities are being dealt with by Mahogany. Criminal elements are already dealt with. As for labor… well you might not like this part."

Jacques let his mouth twitch a little into a tiny smirk. "Oh?"

I smiled. "The poor faunus. We'll just treat them fairly and offer a settlement of our own. It's not going to be terribly hard to build a town owned by Mahogany's company so we'll invite faunus there and offer them a sort of new life. Plenty will be skeptical at first but with my moment of fame here I'm sure my and Mahogany's company can serve as a sort of symbol of equality or somesuch. It isn't a large goal to do that though."

Jacques nodded thoughtfully. "I see… This talk has proved quite informative. Ah, here." Jacques reached in a pocket in his suit's inner pocket and pulled out a business card.

"My personal scroll number. I'm sure we have plenty more to talk about." I raised an eyebrow but shrugged it off.

"Of course. I'll call you if an opportunity between the two of us arises." Jacques left directly after that. I can't say if my presentation was quite right but I got the point of it to him I think.

My point being that I don't want into the SDC's bed unless there's a damn good reason to do so.

The rest of the day passed in a sort of boring string of questioning from Ozpin and influence from the council. People trying to win me over, a few attempts at blackmail, and generally just boring politics. Jacques apparently left right after meeting with me, thank dust for that.

Finally at the end of the day the court made to a verdict - I mean the meeting ended. Because this wasn't a court case obviously. I was to be granted a Vale citizenship and left to do my thing with a swear to not attempt to murder everybody in Vale, which I agreed to easily. It took a good deal of blackmail from my end and a lot of sitting through pompous businessmen and a few councilmen to get to that. Sadly I didn't get to speak with Ironwood, Lionheart, or anybody important in the occasional recesses from the meeting.

Before I left, however, Ozpin pulled me aside and spoke to me lowly. "Abyss." He said with some menace. "Don't play these games out of the blue. There's enough on my plate and everybody else's that we don't need you stirring the pot." And with that said he left me promptly.

I watched him leave and simply walked off.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Absurd… simply absurd…"_

" _Father?"_

" _Weiss… this Mystic Mavros is capable of turning a useless, poor plot of land to a fertile and flat stretch of land. That and a heatwave allow much for the SDC but of equal interest is his son, Abyss Mavros. Abyss is capable of creating portals to any location he has been before. Any at all. This eliminates travel costs entirely for large exports of dust."_

" _I… I see."_

" _Additionally, this company of his, nature's bounty, is just starting up yet it has reached a large scale so quickly. Mystic's public proclamation of wages sent faunus flocking to patch like flies. He already constructed a town. But of course that's not all obviously."_

" _The crop?"_

" _Exactly. Red sap. A single jar can go for upwards of six hundred lien outside of Vale. The problem is it's scarcity. The fall is too difficult to tap industrially. But Mavros figured out not only how to grow the trees but to make land fertile. Their first harvest is expected in april. But they aren't tapping forever fall. He has several square miles of trees, the laborers to tap it fully, and the land with their trees keeps expanding due to his efforts. And as if that's not all of it there have been hints of more crops."_

" _You… father, if I may be so blunt what are you getting at?"_

" _Nature's bounty isn't an open stock company. It is owned solely by Mister Mahogany, who is reclusive and refuses face to face meetings, and Mister Mavros, who is co-owner of the company. Obviously the company is going to great heights but we aren't in on it. So we'll find another way."_

" _Are you speaking of an arranged marriage, father?"_

" _Not quite. Abyss Mavros is included as the inheritor of both Mahogany's and his uncle's shares in the company. He is the heir to the company in full. An arranged marriage would be beneficial but not to the point that we should actively pursue it. I speak of befriending him and using said friendship to bring our companies into a partnership. If a marriage results from your closeness then all the better."_

" _I… I don't understand, father. How would we achieve this?"_

" _At the moment Abyss Mavros is attending signal academy. You will be following him in his second year. You have expressed desire to become a huntress and have acquired some skill the rapier. You will be the heiress but you will grow closer to Abyss through your studies together. When he inherits the company you will stay friends and our companies will not come to blows."_

" _Father… what prevents us from simply ruining their company?"_

" _Roman Torchwick, for all intents and purposes the ruler of Vale's underworld with his complete conquest of Vale's criminal element coming to a close likely before summer, is backing the company."_

" _... Oh."_

" _Oh indeed. It hasn't been a secret that Roman Torchwick has had some sort of backer. His rise has been far too smooth to be otherwise assisted. I believe this backer to be Mahogany and Mavros."_

" _Father, are you insinuating that nature's bounty, a rising star of a company, has a hunter undoubtedly on par with Ozpin himself at it's head, holds a monopoly over a valuable crop, can use land no other company can, and owns Vale's criminal underworld on top of all of that?"_

" _On the contrary they have something else as well."_

" _Dust almighty…"_

" _The white fang recently sent a public message of support towards the practices of Mystic and nature's bounty. They claim that they will react accordingly with any movements towards the company and have herded faunus towards their expanding company town to assist with the company. I expect that they will attempt a movement towards Abyss Mavros and to gain a say in the workings of the company."_

" _Father… when will all of this be happening?"_

" _The white fang is currently searching for a suitable representative to send. Mystic Mavros is requesting that the company receives one in the summer so he may first deal with the continuing set-up of his company but has publicly stated that so long as the representative is not wanted in the four kingdoms they will shelter them. You will be meeting with not only Abyss Mavros but also a representative of the SDC's enemy. See to it that you acquire some influence with the Mavros heir and avoid agitating the representative of the white fang."_

" _I understand father."_

" _It is imperative that you truly do. Your lessons in etiquette will be cut by a half. The Mavros' don't care extensively for etiquette themselves. Your lessons in your rapier will be doubled in length. Business lessons will be increased as well. You'll have no more musical lessons to make time for these. Do not disappoint me, Weiss. This is a turning point in your life."_

" _I understand father."_

" _Good."_

[|||| == ||||]

I spent most of the break continuing to tear up the land. It actually did wonders for my air affinity and a small bit of good for my nature affinity. I also got started on growing the red blooms. It wasn't too efficient at first. The red blooms could grow with the grow spell, being that they were alive but it was inefficient. I found the problem pretty quickly. They needed a corruption element in the grow spell to grow at their full potential. The grow spell worked but it didn't work as well.

I found through mana sense that the corruption affinity was directly imbued into the tree's body. As the tree grew so too did the corruption affinity. The two were directly related.

I also did a few tests on red sap and found that the allergies in the show? Yeah, that wasn't… well it was an allergy but it was a magical allergy. If you had a purity affinity your body rejected it, being that pure things and corrupt things don't get along. If you had a corruption affinity the sap would probably taste amazing. Sadly I have a purity affinity so I'm allergic. Damnit.

While I was growing the first orchard of red sap trees my parallels were making a huge runic matrix spanning miles. It contained the corruption element inside the circle from getting outside and neutralized it with a purity affinity. I made it so that the circle collects mana from the air to fuel itself. It was so big that it could store plenty of mana in it without trouble. I also made huge circles devoted to collecting and storing mana branching out under the orchards. It's purity element also functioned to repel the grimm.

The whole matrix wasn't a circle, of course. I had the rather ambitious goal of creating plants that were the opposite of the red blooms that created purity mana. There would also be other sorts of mana plants like the ice trees from Vacuo and whatever else I could find.

To fuel the circle for now though I had to give it a purity element occasionally to clash with the corruption affinity the red blooms emit so as not to attract grimm or, if possible, create them. I'm not sure if grimm are corruption elementals or not. Of course, the more dense the affinity the better it will hold as it spreads and the longer it takes to dilute from taking in all that ambient mana. The obvious solution was to flare my eyes and push all that beautiful purity mana into the circle. So when the circle finished I did.

I felt like my soul was burning with a warm fire. Like standing next to a fire as the world was cold. It was a good feeling. My eyes flared out with purity mana like that of a maiden's. It was a good feeling. My other affinities were repressed, however. I couldn't touch them since purity was so consuming. Swift was fine though. He just stayed in the little pocket of air affinity that I couldn't touch.

With a circle set up to make the area around the red blooms safe from grimm and the blooms themselves I had other matters to attend to. The white fang.

The fang sent a few different messages to me and I sent some back. Sienna was a lovely person actually. She admired me in fact. That I could 'beat the humans at their own game' was inspiring to many in the fang. We chatted and she agreed to send a representative so long as I agreed to shelter them. I agreed and added a list of requirements for a representative to be sent around summer since I had school to attend to. I might be able to take time off from that though with all that's going on. I wasn't really learning anything anyways. SubI was the only class worth attending.

Roman himself was getting pretty overworked though. Setting up the company along with taking the criminal underworld was taxing on him. So he hired an assistant. Well, he asked me for one. So I found one for him and he agreed and we hired her. Her name was Neopolitan. I had expected somebody else but Neo did well at her job so I backed off. If she worked there's no reason to complain.

Neo was a really nice girl actually, and she could talk. She just didn't like to. She was a prominent independent contractor that did plenty of things. From assassination to bodyguarding to abductions to information and even torture. Enforcing the criminal empire was new though.

Neo was introduced to Raven of course. Neo was Roman's second with his empire but she knew Raven was in charge through and through. Raven made that very clear through a spar with her.

Neo began enforcing Roman's empire and keeping everything in line and became a somewhat feared face. It used to be that you could screw around and get a strongly worded letter from Roman. Then you screwed around again and you were replaced. Now, though, you screw up and you get to go face to face with Neo, which was generally terrible news for you.

Roman sent out orders that were followed without question with Neo making sure the bosses followed them and Raven kept making sure Roman didn't pull something and knocking out gangs. She also kept working on using earth magic on the land I tore up to expand them for later.

Back to Roman, though. With his criminal empire becoming low maintenance with Neopolitan as his second (The two worked extraordinarily well together and her position was quickly made clear) he could focus on the legal end of his work. Nature's bounty, our company was called.

As we were becoming important fast people wanted a piece of the pie. We didn't sell stock whatsoever but that didn't stop a flood of letters from coming in asking on some sort of deal.

Some of them were fair. I shelled out and bought supplies to tap the trees and the dust to make everything work and enough materials to house a few hundred faunus in the little town we were building to work the trees. We needed people to tap the trees, transport the sap, package the sap, make sure nobody was playing dirty like smuggling or some such, and whoever was needed to keep everything working.

Roman had acquired some incredible management skills from playing as an underworld boss and picked the people for the town and whatever was needed for it himself. I was so happy with him that I got him a few gifts. A coffee machine, a few bags of high quality beans, and I runed some of his equipment. His mugs, for example, held the heat of the liquids in it better now. Roman thanked me with a "Merry christmas, boss. I've got a company to run so I can't really get you a gift but I appreciate the effort." and got back to his work. He was really quite busy.

Anyways, besides the equipment and people I called Jacques and negotiated the delivery of dust to make my little town run and the equipment to make it a decent space. He and I worked out some prices, persuasion leveled up a few times, haggling reached level fifteen from level one where it was at before, and all I had to do was make a few portals as Abyss to transport the dust and some other things to Vale. Jacques would have the things to transport and a warehouse to put it in ready in a week.

Handling everything was… exhausting. If I didn't have my parallels to work out the runic matrix and the creation of new land I think I would have a heart attack from all the stress. I didn't get to do anything with Ruby for the week and she tried her best to be understanding. She could see that I was working hard.

Luckily I had a little trump card of mine. Remote avatar. The avatar spell allowed me to make Abyss Mavros to go and deal with school while I dealt with the real work as Mystic. But I only had the spell at level fifty at the beginning of the break. Now it was at seventy eight. I could keep an avatar all the way in Vale while I did what I pleased. Be at two places at once, basically.

Finally after that whole work frenzy (not much of a break) I took a few days off for christmas. Just a small break for everything to settle down. The fuss over nature's bounty settled down and all of Vale seemed to just stop and take a breather. I'm taking one too. I've had enough work for now.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Blake Belladonna. I suppose you're wondering why you're here."_

" _Yes, high leader Sienna."_

" _I suppose you've heard about nature's bounty? The new corporation in Vale?"_

" _Whispers but nothing truly informative, high leader."_

" _Hmph. Well they're a new business backed by a newly emerged powerful huntsman. A faunus huntsman by the name of Mystic Mavros and co-owned by a man named only as Mahogany. He's more of a paper pusher to my understanding through our correspondence._

" _His company has become a rather… large issue for Vale. They've developed a plethora of advantages. They can farm the forever fall trees of Vale and industrialize the process of tapping the trees for their sap, an expensive seasonal export of Vale's, and using Mystic's semblance creatively have the power to turn the poor and harsh land of patch to a rich flatland suitable for farming or running an orchard of red blooms, as they're using it._

" _The company is unique in that the public face of it is a faunus. A powerful faunus that has now grown to influence and has nothing but a promise of growth. The company has hired poor faunus for it's labor and given them a better chance at life. Plenty have placed faith in the company as of now. The white fang is no different except that we have taken it further. The company of nature's bounty is to be aided by us as a sort of haven for faunuskind. A symbol of what we can do and our power as a people. That's what people will see when they see nature's bounty in contrast to the cruelty of the SDC._

" _As a representative of the white fang for the rising company you, as Ghira's daughter, are to show that the white fang are willing to take equality and not simply attack humanity. A concept your father strives for. Show that we use violence to stand up for ourselves and not to lash out. Nature's bounty is an example of beating the human's at their own game. Something I had a good laugh about._

" _But… why me?"_

" _Normally I'd prefer a more experienced diplomat but… well the requirements for a person Mystic would accept are rather demanding for us but reasonable. You're one of the few options we have."_

" _I think I understand. So I'm to represent the white fang's peaceful ideals publicly as a representative in this company?"_

" _Yes… well, except for one small thing. You see, the heir to the company, Abyss Mavros, who is also the nephew of Mystic Mavros. He's a powerful huntsman in training attending signal. It occurred to me that being a public figure it would be useful to have a public supporter of our own. Nature's bounty is a start towards representation of faunuskind. Not representation."_

" _Are you suggesting I become a huntress?"_

" _I'm suggesting a lot of things. To become a public huntress that shows what faunuskind can do, as Mystic has. To grow closer to Abyss and bring nature's bounty to a more publicly pro-faunus point of view. It passively helps the faunus as is but to actively show faunus pride would help more. I'm certain more opportunities will arise on the job. Do you believe you are up to the task?"_

" _... Will Adam be with me?"_

" _Adam will be assigned as the head of our Vale branch and manage operations there in a few years. I plan for two years. More experience will hopefully allow for him to cool his temper and grow as a leader before taking on a higher position."_

" _I see… yes. Yes I will do this. When can I start?"_

" _This summer you will enter signal as a second year. Adam said you were competent in your weapon and recently discovered your semblance. Grow those talents. To stand above and show what we as a people are capable of you will need to train. There will be eyes on you. I will be taking over your training due to the seriousness of this mission. I have the time for it at the moment. Adam has already agreed."_

" _Yes, high leader."_

" _That said, we start tomorrow. Fern, the guard who escorted you in, knows your schedule. Go."_

" _Yes high leader."_

" _And stop calling me that. We'll be seeing each other far more often this spring. Call me Sienna."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	20. Chapter 20

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 20** = ||||]

"Abyss!" Ruby called to me. "Tomorrow's christmas eve!" I turned to her and braced myself for her tackle-hug. She slammed into me and I grunted at the impact.

"We're going to go get a tree! Can you help?!" Ruby looked up to me with happy, wide eyes and really could I even say no?

"Sure."

"YES! Thank you!"

Something occurred to me. "We?" Ruby nodded brightly. "The clan of course! The tree's going to be in the lunchroom!"

I raised an eyebrow. The magical bandit clan picking out christmas trees? Well… alright.

"When are we going?"

"Like five minutes!" I blinked. Well alright then.

"I'm going to go put on some clothes." Ruby nodded again before using her semblance to go racing down the halls.

"GUYS ABYSS IS MAKING A PORTAL IN FIVE MINUTES IN THE LUNCHROOM!" I watched her call it out for anyone who would listen as I walked to the bathroom.

Roughly five minutes later I was walking into the lunchroom and-holyshit Raven was wearing a santa hat. Oh, Ruby was sitting on her shoulders with her own santa hat. Raven also looked grumpy with a bigger scowl than usual… best not to mention the hat. Or look at it. A glance around revealed the bandits had similar ideas to me. We were all wise men it seems.

"Yes! Now everybody's here! Let's go!" Ruby froze. "Wait, does anybody know where pine trees are?"

Raven sighed. "There are plenty of pine trees around where we last made camp. Abyss, can you make a portal there?" I nodded and made four in the center of the room. The bandits filed in.

As they passed Ruby she put santa hats on their heads. First she started with Vernal, who looked tempted but then at Raven, who glared at her at a level above the usual. _"If I suffer you suffer"_ was the silent message. I stepped away for a moment and took all the alcohol we had into my inventory. This might be more bearable with alcohol.

I managed to step into the portal without being santa'd and found my feet on snow. Oh? It was lightly snowing. I walked around and casted enchantments to keep everyone warm as well as alcohol, receiving plenty of thanks along the way. Nobody thanked me for the enchantments.

Ruby, still on Raven's shoulders, emerged from the portal. "That's everyone!" I closed the portals in response. "Now where are those christmas trees?" Raven pointed and I checked with mage sight. Yup. There are trees there.

"Onwards! For christmas spirit!" Ruby pointed dramatically towards the treeline past which lay christmas trees. Everyone slowly began to move in the direction of the christmas trees and Ruby tried to start a christmas carol. Did she lose all ability to read a crowd? Wait, it was working. It was probably the alcohol.

Speaking of alcohol I neared Raven and used a wind whisper. "What kind of alcohol?" Her eyes widened.

"Beer. Please beer." I sent a beer through our shared inventory and she accepted it gratefully. She took a long drink from it and sighed gratefully. Ruby looked down at her with her beer bottle and looked up.

"Where did the alcohol come from?" People sang louder and she shrugged and continued singing. Nobody was going to rat out the guy that handed out the only good part of this expedition, after all. Besides, I wasn't going to hand out any seconds to the guy that rats me out.

For a while we walked. I suppose I could have made another portal to the tree but people had actually gotten into it. The bandits were laughing as they drank and sang crappy christmas carols.

Occasionally some grimm would come around but for a bunch of tipsy magical bandits, a wizard, and a grumpy maiden they were barely a threat. For one poor beowolf a bandit wrestled it to the ground before they put it down… okay, this is pretty fun.

We eventually made it to the trees. It took about a half hour of murder on the ears and a large amount of walking before we all saw the trees come into view.

Immediately some horrible rendition of red nosed reindeer, but in remnant Rudolf is a grinn called a peryton. A deer with wings but instead of the normal dark feathered black wings of the grimm Rudolf has glowey red wings to light the way. Then the nevermoores could see the humans and kill them all. Geez, remnant is a weird place. This is a children's story by the way.

As we saw the first wisps of the skinny young pine trees cheers rang out. Ruby laughed and shouted "Onwards! Find the greatest tree of them all! So long as it fits in the apartment floor we can use it!" and the crowd obeyed. Bandits went running in all directions looking for the greatest tree we can use.

Raven set down Ruby - because no way in hell she was going to run around in a santa hat chugging beer with Ruby on her shoulders - and Ruby darted off with a laugh and a flurry of red and black roses.

Raven walked off with a groan and turned her beer bottle over. Nothing came out and she looked towards me. I tossed her a new bottle and she opened it with her teeth and took a small sip.

With a huff Raven waved her hand and a bench of ice rose from the ground. She laid back and a pillar of ice rose under her feet. She ignored the cold. I had never put an enchantment on her or Ruby, had I? I sat down next to her and raised my feet. I was going to make an ice pillar for myself but Raven did it for me. I smiled a little and poked her arm, applying a heat enchantment. She sighed and took her santa hat off. To my slight irritation she put it on my head. Bah, whatever.

"I don't think my tribe has ever been this cheerful." Raven said nostalgically. "They've been happy before when we hit a fat caravan or we got a whole load of eggnog before christmas but this sort of holiday spirit isn't seen. Nobody's ever gone to get a tree before or sung carols… but strangely enough they're still strong. They're just as willing to go rob a store as they are to play with Ruby. Vernal especially, has finally stopped hanging on my every word and developed a softer side. I have too. But I'm just as bored as always when I chop off some gang leader's head as always."

"You keep an eye on them?" I asked.

"Of course." She said immediately. "I still command their respect. They know what I do. Sometimes they go in first after I finish a gang. They remember well to respect and fear me. We're absolutely still a clan but we just separated at the beginning of each day now. I suppose it's like when a family has breakfast each day and then split up to go to work and school."

I nod. "I was worried your clan might drift apart. I'm glad it hasn't." Raven snorted.

"You helped with that. The tattoos. The magic. Nobody can talk with anybody else about that. It brings us together. Not even Roman knows about magic, after all. We're bound together with the knowledge of that… and the tattoos. They wear the tattoos as a symbol of the clan. They've marked down the matrixes on some paper. They're planning on giving them to the future Branwen members after some sort of 'rite of passing'. They put it to a vote and it was almost anonymous. I had no reason to disagree. It helps with the unity of the clan."

I nodded as Raven took another drink of beer. "The community is good for Ruby. You saw how close she is to everybody." Raven grinned a little.

"If she had tried putting these stupid hats on anyone a year ago she might have been punched. Now, though, exposure bred some familiarity. Especially during the summer. She might start wearing that fur clothing again now that it's cold. Or maybe make it her huntress 'thing'. Dye it red and black. I'm pretty sure I saw some drawings of her as a 'badass huntress' wearing the furs. Heat runes from you along with whatever you think is best, armor like you wear under the furs, and some other things. The necklace made of bone, the tattoos, and more words saying things like 'awesome' and 'badass' than I could read. How she drafts actual weapons is beyond me."

I laughed as she shook her head. "Did you see her schematics for the weapons she wants to use?"

Raven nodded. "Of course. She finished them." I stopped laughing quick.

"What do you mean?" Raven closed her eyes.

"You've been working so hard over your whole criminal empire and getting the land around patch ready and talking with the white fang - just all of it. Not to mention how you're always working. She's worried that her schematics might not be good enough. She's torn her hair out over the schematics, putting out draft after draft and taking the best of them. The stuff she's made could easily be called a masterpiece. I saw the schematics for Qrow's weapon. What she's drawn up puts his weapon to shame.

Some of the stuff she's made is ingenious. You should see what she did with the barrel. It actually grinds some dust onto the bullets of her rifle without even igniting the dust. I think she took some inspiration from my blades and your dust system and put them into your two weapons. She made up a schematic for my katana too. Nothing incredible like she did for you but just the effort she clearly put into that schematic alone would be a boon to me. I could use half the amount of dust blades that I do. Instead of telescopic blades they actually shoot out of the hilt and explode like some sort of… blade bazooka.

And what she did with your weapon… well she wants you to actually use it. She knows what you can do with magic and to her it makes her weapons feel… inferior. She hates it but she could never hate you. So she took the only option. She made a weapon that does what she hopes you could never do."

I was silent. "I didn't know she felt that way." Raven nodded.

"You raised her too well. She's smarter than anyone gives her credit for. Not just weapons and mathematics and sciences, which was a smart thing to teach her, by the way. She used those lessons a lot in designing her weapons. But she knows herself well. She knows how to hide what she feels when she wants to. In an eleven year old that's… impressive. Almost humbling. I never learned that sort of 'hide your emotions' thing until beacon."

I nodded. "... I have metals that can conduct magic. Does she know about them?"

Raven turned to me slowly. "..." Swiftly her hand came up and punched me on the nose. She breathed slowly and looked away with a scowl. Her other hand raised up and she took a drink of her beer. A moment passed in which nothing happened but her taking a long drink. The bottle pulled away with a soft breath. "Sorry. You only sort of deserved that. Did you know she didn't know about those metals?" I shook my head.

"As you said, I'm always busy. Ruby and I don't talk about weapon crafting all that much. I mean, I showed her the metals before but this was before I told her about how they conduct mana. I can technically use any material to conduct mana. Come to think of it… I'm pretty sure different materials can make my spells stronger. Some materials have an affinity. Red bloom sap and wood have a corruption element imbued into them. Maybe I could tell Ruby about them and… yeah. I'll tell her about the stuff soon."

"Now." Raven said.

"What?" I asked.

"You'll tell my niece now. Christmas eve is TOMORROW in case you forgot. She's probably going to tell you about the schematics then. Tell her NOW so she can still give you them. She's worked so long on these and she's told me how much she's studied for this. For years, Abyss. YEARS! So you damn well will tell her right now. RUBY! GET OVER HERE!"

I blinked at Raven. It was probably the alcohol making her so demanding and… punchy. But she was right.

"Auntie! Is something wrong?!" Ruby came dashing into the clearing. Raven pointed at me.

"He has something to tell you. He's been a busybody and completely forgot something incredibly important. I'm pissed so I'm going to go hunt down some grimm." Raven snatched the santa hat from my head and shoved it on her head and stalked off drinking the rest of her beer and tossing the bottle on the ground as she drew her sword angrily.

"Uhhh… huh?" Ruby stared at Raven as she disappeared through the treeline. "I don't think I've seen auntie so angry for me before."

"That would be… my fault." I said grimly. Ruby looked at me in some confusion before her face came to a realization.

"You don't have a santa hat!" Ruby patted herself over before finding a spare hat. She tossed it to me and I pulled it over my head down to my eyebrows with a sigh. That's really not too important here, Ruby…

"Alright. So… I made a rather large mistake. A very large mistake. It wasn't really something I thought about. In fact, it was a lack of it that caused this in the first place."

Ruby was silent and stared at me, figuring that this was important. "Don't get mad at Raven. She told me about your work with the weapons. How hard you've worked with them. I don't really know anything about them." Ruby looked a little annoyed as she glanced back towards where Raven went off to. "Honestly. She didn't mean anything bad by it and barely told me anything other than that you worked your butt off on them." Ruby turned from where Raven ran off grudgingly and put her out of mind as she listened to me.

"I can't believe I forgot to tell you this… there are metals to conduct mana." Ruby's mouth opened a little and she stared at me with a completely off-guard look.

"Not just that but I'm going to run a few tests. I recently found out that materials can have an innate affinity. I got the idea from wizard's staffs. Sadly I only know about that ice forest I told you about and the red blooms, which have a corruption affinity. The affinities in the materials might add to or amplify the effects of spells…"

Ruby stared at me with a more surprised expression than anything. I stand there waiting for tears or accusations but nope.

Ruby disappears in a flurry of roses and slams into me. I hear a crack from the ice making up the bench. In under a moment Ruby begins shaking as she cries into my chest. I sit there for a minute as she cries into my chest. Eventually she collect herself enough to sort of speak.

"I-*sniffle* I was so scared you-..." I could barely make our Ruby's words so I offer a handkerchief from hard light. She takes it and blows her snot into it. She tries to hand it to me but I pinch an unsoiled corner and toss it aside as it dispels when I stop fuelling mana.

"I was so scared you would be all… all 'I don't need a w-weapon!' magic is so-so awesome! You c-c-can do anything with it… what do you need a weapon for?!" I hugged her back as she cried a little bit more in a fresh wave of tears.

"I'm n-not mad! I f-forget stuff a-all the t-time! Auntie si scared you h-hurt me… she's sense… sensitive. *sniff*." I chuckle that Raven could be sensitive. Ruby was right but it was still funny that she, the woman who abandoned her daughter, brother, and husband, was one of the most sensitive people I know next to Summer and Ruby. Perhaps Tai. He's a little too sensitive though and I pulled a reverse Raven taking Ruby and leaving while Raven left Yang and left.

"Don't worry. Besides, we can always upgrade weapons. I only know about where to get the materials for ice and corruption and I don't even use corruption spells… well, yet. I might start when I look into forever fall, which I really need to do… I'll do that during a three day weekend. The same goes for the icy forest."

"Can I come?" Ruby asked. It was hard to tell what she was saying since she said it into my shirt.

"If you get Raven to come you can come to the icy forest. The deeper parts of forever fall cause insanity and a bunch of nasty stuff. I've got a little trump card against that for myself but it's too dangerous for anyone else. I'm pretty sure Ozpin doesn't go into forever fall because of the stuff in there. You never know, there might be a final boss at the end guarding the best tree in the forest!"

Ruby giggled and turned a little to free her face to talk with. "Pull out your trump card at the last second and yell 'this isn't my final form!'" I rolled my eyes.

"This isn't the remnant gamer, Ruby."

"What's that?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Meh, whatever." Ruby sighed and leaned into me. I flashed mage sight and saw Raven hacking at some poor beowolves. She seemed to have cooled off a little bit at least.

I sent her a wind whisper. "Ruby's fine. But I promised that we're going to the icy forest together. Soon." Raven grunted as she sliced the last beowolf, an alpha, in half.

"Fine. I'm coming with you. I have a fire affinity, unlike you." She spoke the last part with a little mockingness to it. I didn't mind. She mocks people when she's off balance.

"That's fine. We have some time before the break ends. I'll tell Roman and Neo to handle things and we'll have an overnight if it's safe."

"Fine." Raven said as she spotted another pack to massacre. I cut the spell and waited for Ruby to get tired of hugging me.

After a few minutes she sighed. "What kinds of stuff do you think we'll see?" I hummed.

"Well there's the ice elementals, who are like bony looking snake skeletons from the one I saw but I'll bet that there's more of them in other forms. There's probably a minor elemental or… I dunno. I never saw an elemental greater than a minor. But I think that we can just loot a sapling from the forest and cultivate them. We can totally do stuff with their wood. Like a house in Vacuo that doesn't instantly give heatstroke without an air conditioner or a thermos that's always cold. I'll bet that we can find something else to do with them. Maybe they grow fruit."

"Ooh. The fruit might raise your ice affinity."

I smiled. "That would be awesome. We could make a smoothie out of them."

Ruby giggled. "Fruit flavored ice cubes that never melt!" I laughed.

"A worthy use of arcane forces."

"You use teleportation to get to school on time!"

"I'm going to be using clones to take my classes for me-"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"-so I can work instead."

"Oh that sounds more like you." I laughed a little more.

"You know… I can probably just ask Ozpin about the places and he can direct me to the places but that's boring. He might say 'You're too young to go chasing magical artifacts!' or something like that."

"Well you can just teleport out."

"Exactly."

"Can we go before the break ends? We've got a week before school starts after christmas."

"I thought the same thing."

We stayed like that, just chatting about what could be in the forest from yetis to a castle made of ice to talking snowmen. We both knew there might just be nothing but the trees but it was fun to think about what might be there. The icy forest was a wild and mysterious place. It was a place where we could take a look into magic and just have fun and explore.

Eventually we finally got up and found the bandits arguing over which of two trees was better since one was a little thin in the branches and one was a little too bit to fit. Ruby talked them down and we cut down the top of the too tall one and I grew it back to a better size. Everyone was happy after that.

I popped open a portal and we maneuvered the tree through it. As for the tree we did the only reasonable thing to do. We put it in the lunchroom, rearranged the tables to be around it, and began our near holy work.

We magicked the ever loving shit out of it.

I casted my most little used spell, animate, and made the little birds flap their wings every once and awhile. I made water, put some food coloring into it, and then froze it and then enchanted it with a light affinity to glow. A bandit had picked some berries whie we were in the forest that were still faintly alive and I grew them into a vine that I tossed around the tree to add some red to it. Besides that we really couldn't do much more. A few bandits got to carving wooden ornaments but those would take a few hours.

As soon as we finished I handed Ruby a list of all the metals I had and their properties that I had made a parallel make. I also set my parallels to nurture my ice affinity as much as they could. I wanted to get an ice elemental while I was at that forest. I gained a point once every half hour with four of them working on it; the fifth was still working on patch as Mystic with his tornadoes. He was still moving from place to place and meditating though so he was able to help out to nurture the affinity. It was growing fast. Not quite fast enough but I only had to get it to two hundred fifty and I should be able to contract a ice elemental.

I had noticed a little trend in my affinities and elementals. Raven had one thousand in each affinity roughly. Swift and Hawk agreed that she barely had enough to sustain Hawk while Hawk said I could probably support two minor elementals or one minor elemental.

Since I have two thousand affinity in air I think that means one thousand of an affinity lets me contract an elemental. Two thousand lets me summon petty elementals and keep a minor elemental or two petty elementals. Three thousand lets me hold a minor elemental and a petty elemental. Four thousand should allow me to contract a… whatever was above minor elemental and summon minor elementals. Then i would be able to summon whatever is two tiers above a minor elemental at eight thousand. It's just a theory but my semblance tends to follow patterns. Like increments of a hundred to mastering a skill. I can guess that affinities work in increments of a thousand.

Ruby went to sleep late. She was merging those new materials with her blueprints and working as hard as she could to merge those magical metals with her blueprints. She also made the early drafts of some sort of spellgun if the materials can be used to amplify spells as I suspected. She finished one particular blueprint early and I swear the girl is a genius. I got to work on it for a little while that night for tomorrow.

I didn't sleep that night and instead meditated deeply for about eight hours to morning, which was close enough to sleep that I wasn't really tired. I do it occasionally to work my affinities. I'm doing the same this time but I'm also furiously working to get to the suspected prerequisite for an ice elemental. Raven was not going to one-up me. I'm the wizard, damnit!

I was at eighty six, eighteen points above what I had before, by morning from a combination of ceaseless work and all my parallels working on it. Well, except for a little… gift from Ruby.

Anyways, that's for tomorrow. I actually have a plan for raising my affinity for ice fast. It might be a little dangerous, though. I could use soul hearth in reverse on an elemental and siphon off it's affinity. It would be like the passive effect of passenger but I'll actively drain the ice elemental of it's soul and enjoy the bounty of it's affinity.

However, my passive skills enhance my affinities so would my ice affinity reach two thousand or reach one hundred seventy eight, where my skills would multiply it to roughly two thousand? I can't say for certain but I'm pretty confident that with my aura control I can fight the ice elemental inside me and drain it for as much affinity as I can before it dies. Then I can repeat. This technique might work with other souls as well.

It makes me kind of like a soul vampire… holy shit could I soul vamp Ozpin?! Or other humans?! Or what about taking some bark from the red bloom trees and siphoning off it's affinity? But it doesn't have a soul. Could I meditate and absorb the latent corruption affinity in the ambient mana of forever fall? Could that tactic work in the ice forest? Does any of this work at all?!

I put these questions out of my mind and excitedly waited for the day where we'll go to kick ass in the icy forest while furiously raising my ice affinity.

Christmas eve was filled with me working on my ice affinity, finishing up that idea Ruby gave to me and Ruby drafting, merging, discarding, and redrafting weapons.

Raven checked in once or twice. The tribe wasn't really the 'celebrate christmas eve' sort, which I was thankful for. I did, however, make cookies and lay them and some out cheese on a platter by the tree. My family had the weird tradition of 'santa mouse' from a kid's book back in my last life. Not everything has left me.

I also put Ruby's newest creation under the tree and politely ignored Vernal doing the same with a box full of presents for plenty of people. She did the same for me.

Christmas spirit at it's finest in my opinion.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Hello Winter."_

" _Hello again Weiss. I was hoping you would call soon. This is about the new company, nature's bounty? Or something else."_

" _It's about the new company. Father is getting rid of the singing lessons an-"_

" _WHAT?!"_

" _Winter calm down!"_

" _Calm down?! I nearly fought him to get you those lessons!"_

" _I'm getting sent to signal!"_

" _... I'm sorry, what?!"_

" _Abyss Mavros! He's the heir to the company and father wants me to befriend him so that when I eventually inherit the company the SDC and he inherits nature's bounty and we partner up!"_

" _... partner up… marriage?!"_

" _NO! Actual partnership!"_

" _Not lifelong partnership?"_

" _... Winter."_

" _Hm. Hold on… oh he is rather good looking. Some very nice eyes. I don't think I-"_

" _What? Are you… there are pictures of him?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Hold on… oh he is… his eyes are nice. Very unique."_

" _And his uncle too."_

" _Winter please don't speak improperly."_

" _You will have plenty of proper speech with father's tutors. Will you be alright without any more relaxed lessons for the time being?"_

" _I'm getting my experience with the rapier doubled and my business lessons increased by an hour each day. Father is also giving me lessons in dust usage from a tutor."_

" _I see… no trainers for your semblance?"_

" _I have a private study period, as normal."_

" _I see… I'll be coming over to tutor you in your semblance. Ironwood is otherwise preoccupied. The white fang have been more quiet than normal lately. Probably due to the attention being on nature's bounty and the Mavros'. I'm owed some vacation time anyways."_

" _You… thank you Winter."_

" _Of course. Just promise me something, won't you?"_

" _Within reason."_

" _Already you're becoming more businesslike. I suppose that will serve you well with the Mavros'. Or not, considering their… inelegance. You'll likely meet a man calling himself Qrow at signal. He'll likely say bad things about me."_

" _Why?"_

" _We mutually dislike each other. That's all you need to know. Call him an old drunkard for me, won't you? And for the love of dust don't pick up any habits from him."_

" _I… I'll remember that."_

" _Good. I'll see you soon, Weiss. Tell father that I'll come by to train you please."_

" _Of course. Goodbye Winter. Please be more decent next time we speak."_

" _I'll be in father's manor and thus in public. Of course I will be. Oh, and Weiss? Merry christmas."_

" _... Merry christmas Winter."_

 _*Beep.*_

"… _*Sniffle*… I'll be alright."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Here!" Ruby handed me a present. Around the tree were a number of gifts wrapped already. There were plenty made for Raven, Ruby, and I. there were also a fair few for Vernal and some other notable members of the tribe. Someone had made Raven's presents into a throne as some sort of prank.

There was Maya, an old seamstress that was like the grandma of the tribe. She handed out chores, repaired clothes, and did the cooking before I came along. She got a set of new sewing materials and tools, some clothes of her own, and some other things like a bronze necklace that I recall a bandit asking me to rune for him. I had done that in under a minute. Nevertheless the other guy wrote my name on the gift. All it did was keep a person a little bit more healthy. It was like a heal spell and a weak collection and storing system for mana. It was nothing really.

There was also Moss, who took the hit with flight and invisibility for the clan to be a scout. He got a few really nice explosives, a mechashift sniper and sword with a few hundred rounds, and some explosives with a note that said "To drop on poor dumbasses".

A man everybody called captain got a bottle of some well aged whiskey, a flak jacket (which I had been asked to rune to be lighter and had my name with it. I can barely remember doing this stuff), a decanter, and a case of cigars.

There were a few others with notable gifts but a good two in three people had a gift that I had runed to be better. I hadn't realized that I had done so much. Runing only took a minute. Three at most. For a full body was maybe thirty minutes to an hour of work.

We did the gifts in order of who got the least to who got the most for some reason. It was just what was suggested and nobody had any better ideas. Ruby had the most, I the second most, then Raven, and then Vernal.

As Vernal got started… well… there was a reason we didn't get along much.

"What the fuck is this?!"

"Awww, thank you Mint… but you're still a bitch with beowolves."

"Holy fuck!"

There was just so. Much. Swearing. I have a hard time handling it. I'm not the cleanest mouth around but I don't have swears every sentence. Vernal also has a tendency to insult everybody but Raven and Ruby and hasn't really picked it up that I don't just dislike being insulted constantly, even in a friendly way, but I don't like swears to be used often. It was one of the main reasons we didn't get along.

That Raven kept her around was something that still surprised me sometimes with just how crass Vernal was and how calm vernal could be. Well, Raven had her bitchy moments. She makes sure not to bitch to me or Ruby because Ruby is too nice and knows when to back off and I was more powerful than her and she knew I might poison her food if I was annoyed. I did that once to a bandit that had mouthed off to me and people got the point to not piss me off and expect me to make them food.

Vernal got a book titled 101 creative ways to swear, a plethora of city-wear for 'bad girls' such as herself with spiked collars and studs and whatnot, a set of paintbrushes and paints of various types (apparently Vernal liked to paint in her free time. I had no idea), and some more normal gifts. Then we got to the last one…

It was Ruby's, and apparently my, gift. On it was written 'From Ruby and Abyss! (I tricked him to make these). Instantly I knew something was up. Vernal's eyes lit up and she smirked as she opened up the weapons I had unknowingly made for her.

Two deer-horn knives capable of using wind, fire, lightning, and water dust as well as combining them in a few different ways. They didn't have a 'gun' but they did fire beams of wind and fire dust and lightning and water dust. One combined beam for each. They were also runed to hell and back to be light as a feather, about half as durable as diamond with none of the brittleness of gems, and sharp as… something really sharp. I don't think there's any real comparison here. They can cut through stone if I slash with all my might.

Ruby had shown me the schematics and I just shrugged and went "Sure" and made them for her. Deer-horn knives weren't something I had done before and I had some free time. So I made them and forgot about them.

"Uh… thanks Abyss." Vernal said uncomfortably. I shrugged.

"It's no problem." She nodded and Ruby fist pumped. Was she shipping us? Dust I hope not. Please be friendship. That's probably it actually. Ruby knows I'm not looking to date anyone.

"Okay! Raven's turn!" Ruby said excitedly. We all looked towards the throne of presents and Raven sighed and picked one off the top, where she wouldn't destroy some poor bandit's hard work. She tore open the boxy present pretty easily and…

"Leadership and tactics… for dummies…" we all held our breath and Raven looked up.

"Who's the kind soul who gave me this?"

Nobody spoke for a minute. "It was probably Roman. Check the tag." I said. Raven's eyes narrowed and she looked through the torn paper and pieced together a name.

"A gentleman thief… hm. That's pretty good actually. I think I'll pay him back in kind." All of us shivered at her tone. It would have been a great joke if we didn't know that poor Roman was utterly screwed. He had tried to joke and failed at it. Now he paid the price.

Most of the gifts passed pretty quickly after that. A bit of alcohol, fine teas, some nice teacups (Raven really liked tea and alcohol and not much else), a set of weapon maintenance supplies since Raven was wearing down on some of her swabs and cleaning agents, and some good quality dust.

The last two presents were Ruby's and mine and I had actually known that I was giving them this time, considering I made one of them last night. The first was filled with high quality dust of a few different types. I specifically said that it was for her dust system in a note on the inside. She wordlessly looked to me curiously as to why but I just pointed to the last box from Ruby and me.

Raven opened the box under the paper and her eyes widened at the sight. I added a list of capabilities on a piece of paper for easy use. These items were made of a special array of metals though. Metals I've had for a while and never used.

 **Moribus**

 **Rarity: Rare**

 **Material type: Metal**

 **Melting point: 1891 degrees celsius**

 **Hardness: 42/100 (Somewhat soft for a metal)**

 **Ductility: 93/100 (Easily molded)**

 **Special trait: Superior conductor - This metal is capable of conducting any form of energy with no resistance. Mana, aura, electricity, heat, ether, and otherwise.**

 **Novis (Unattuned)**

 **Rarity: Rare**

 **Material type: Metal**

 **Melting point: 1984 degrees celsius**

 **Hardness: 64/100 (Somewhat hard)**

 **Ductility: 54/100 (a little hard)**

 **Special trait: Dust reflective - Upon contact to a dust and/or attuned mana or aura the metal will absorb the dust's or mana's affinity and when mana is channeled through it after treatment it will attune said mana to the affinity of the consumed dust. Grade of dust/Affinity of mana and purity of metal determines amount of affinity granted to the mana channeled through. Mana already attuned will have a more intense attunement after being channeled through if the affinity is the same as the metal's.**

The items in the box in question were a set of special dust blades and a hilt. As soon as Ruby saw novis on the list of metals I had she immediately thought of her aunt and how much this would save her money and time not to mention being able to channel mana better with the new properties of the metal. So she brought the idea to me and I made blades of Novis to conduct the attuned mana and amplify any spells cast from her blade, which most all of them were.

To actually channel mana properly metal kind of sucked while wood and natural materials were great at it. But I had moribus. So I just made a hilt made of it to attach to the blades. Raven could now use her dust blades infinitely without any worries over the blades breaking and channel spells through them to become even more powerful than before.

But that wasn't all of course. Because Raven had my dust system so her spells were already supercharged with affinity. The blades were chock full of affinity already from the high quality dust imbued into them but with a spell already made more powerful from dust Raven had a spell (powerful) amplified by dust (very powerful) amplified more by the blade (scary powerful).

With these blades Raven might actually be getting closer to beating me if we went all out. I mean, my affinities overshadow hers and I'm better at the spells AND I have far more aura and mana than her but she was stronger and faster than me with better skills in the blade. It was skill in magic, superior magical energies, and better affinities versus skill in physical combat and superior physical stats before but now it was just my superior reserves and skill. Raven could more than compete with her affinities with her blades. We both had the dust system so that didn't count.

It was a little scary that Raven could compete with me in combat even if I was at my best. There weren't many who could do that. Ozpin, Salem, possibly Cinder, and whatever forces were hiding in the background. Some grimm of incredible strength perhaps or whatever elementals were able to fight on even terms with me now. There's probably other magical creatures around remnant able to fight on even terms with me or utterly stomp me cone to think of it. Nothing to do about that.

Raven looked to me seriously and I glanced away uncomfortably for a moment before looking back. Wait, her upper lip quivered.

"Thank you, Abyss. Thank you Ruby." Raven said. There was the smallest shake to her voice as she replaced the dust blades in her weapon with the magical ones. Awww. She's a big softie.

"Okay!" Ruby called out to bring attention away from Raven, who clearly wanted to shed a tear in peace. "Next up is Abyss!" The usual cheering came out from the clan and the first gift was placed in my hands by Ruby, who looked at me with happily shining eyes.

I got onto unwrapping presents and just got… stuff. Nothing actually useful but they got me stuff. It was so strange to be the person receiving gifts after all this time. In the previous christmas' it had just been me and Ruby so we went out and did something nice together. Ruby killed her first grimm on christmas. I still have the picture… I should spread that around.

Most important to me was a journal from people. Everyone had come together behind my back and had a brainstorming session on what I could do with runes. From making windows made of concrete by making them transparent to using the affinities of somebody else to cast a spell the ideas were nearly endless. It was the only of two gifts that actually meant something to me. It was a bit of a shocker to see Raven's and Vernal's names on a few ideas.

Raven offered the idea to store spells in runes and release them later through my soul space to mitigate mana costs. It was one of the best ideas in there with the magical metals I can use so I can make a sort of spellgun for real instead of the gun/wand that Ruby was coming up with. I'm pretty sure she's going to merge that with my halberd/shortsword somehow though. But that was the last present.

Vernal pointed out that maybe I could make a fortress and rune it to hell and back to store mana and use it as a sort of safe house. An unassailable wizard's tower. It… wasn't a half bad idea. I just needed a tower, first of all. Actually… I could make something like a tower of ice and maintain it with all the ice mana that the ice trees emit and bind the elementals to me somehow. The elementals were bound to defend the icy forest. Could I bind them to defend me?

"This is his thinking face." Ruby whispered. That snapped me out of considering whether ambient ice mana could maintain ice.

"How long was I out for?" I asked.

"Only about twenty seconds." Raven said. I shook my head and looked towards the last present. The holy grail. Ruby's schematics.

I opened the box and withdrew the three rolls of schematics, even colored blue from some drafting paper I had gotten Ruby a while ago, and opened them with reverence. Ruby chuckled a little nervously as we looked at them.

Holy shit Ruby.

The first was Ruby's scythe/shortsword/sniper with… whoah. That's… that's… well then…

First form was the scythe. The sheath was the shaft of the weapon and the blade the… blade of the weapon. It was pretty big. The blade was about half the size of her body but that was fine. It was actually a little-fuck…

She wrote to use space runes to expand the blade but they only activate as she draws it. I can do it but that's really smart. I don't even have to make the runic matrix that big since, as an annotation stated, it could slowly burn off a small amount of mana to fuel an expand spell only when it was in scythe mode or when she activated it in it's shortsword mode apparently.

The shaft was also extremely complex. It used novis to add a dust effect to the gun. Ruby had studied the runes for hardening that I used and she warped them so that they still worked fine but they were shaped along a tube of novis to add spin to a bullet as well as a dust effect while the moribus wouldn't budge since it was harder. It wouldn't even be dangerous since she had an inert non-magical metal as the outside of the shaft to keep from hurting herself from the attuned novis. The shaft had some odd engravings on it though. I don't understand them. They aren't runes…

There were an array of safety measures crammed into the scythe as well.

Next was the sniper mode. The barrel was the same as the scythe but the blade bended through some unholy contortions that worked though they made my brain hurt just looking at them to become a grip and scope. The scope was an iron sight actually. Ruby was confident that that was enough for her and made a reference to a piece of headgear to allow for long-range sniping. The rest of the sniper just sort of fell into place as the barrel shortened and it sprung to become the sniper and the novis became harmless as it was covered by the safety measures.

Finally was the shortsword. Undoubtedly the most complex form. The blade was filled with the novis once again and the hardening runes pressed against the case of the non-magical metaland-OHHHHH! Those engravings touched the runes and filled them, making the runes filled in and-why in the name of Ozpin does that work?! Somehow the runes are made three dimensional and apply to the non-magical metal and the novis so they're both harder.

The blade is two-sided in a way but some parts of what was the scythe blade are folded up with some spring works that were making the rifling of the sniper to both… so it hits something, has a delayed effect, and then the sniper fires and you give me some space to make anti-recoil runes and I can actually do that. Fucking genius girl. This is so smart it's pissing me off.

The gun can use the springworks to extend and fold over the blade, effectively sheathing it. The handle, thankfully, was normal.

"Dust…" Raven whispered.

"This pisses me off. It's too smart." I mumbled. "I want one. I'm making ten."

"I call it rose eclipse… I've got some color schemes but I really like red and black… what do you guys think?" Ruby smiled sheepishly. "I mean, the spring works are a little prone to fault in the shifting stage to a scythe but it works. So long as nobody hits it while it's shifting the novis will be fine and-"

"Shut up Ruby." Vernal said. Ruby flinched. "It's amazing. And way too complex for me to comprehend. I just get that this works in some sort of mad scientist way."

"Those contractions from scythe blade to sniper rifle… they hurt my head." I say. Ruby giggled.

"I could calculate that they're possible but yeah. I had a huge headache actually making them on paper. Be really careful with them, alright?"

"Ruby…" Raven said carefully. "The rifling with the moribus with the scythe and sniper… what are the velocities on those?"

"That depends. You see that blank space there?" Ruby timidly pointed out a space in the moribus rifling where the bullet just enters and yes there was a blank space. "It depends on how intense the momentum runes Abyss can make there are. Without them, though, the bullets travel at mach 2."

"I can double that." I mutter as I pore over the schematics. Ruby's eyes widened.

"Really?! With that little space?!"

I nodded. "You've already got novis here and there's the recoil negating runes here, right? They still work?" Ruby nodded.

"As a sniper, yeah. I can turn them off and on with the scythe."

I nod. "Well in that case… I could imbue motion mana into the novis and instead of an elemental effect the bullet will be faster. They'll also be immune to gravity, being imbued with the motion magic. I'm guessing… mach 9? Yeah… or probably 8 after wearing down the moribus a little but I'll give you a plate filled with motion attuned mana and you can refill the moribus."

"As my affinity for motion increases the bullet will get increasingly faster. This is only possible because I'm going to put a mana charging and storing system on the recoil negating part here so I can just conduct the mana through here and make the runes way more efficient."

Ruby was looking at the schematic with stars in her eyes. "Do it."

I grinned. "Now for my halberd/shortsword…" Ruby grinned wolfishly.

"It's even better than my baby, that being eclipse rose." I nodded with a similar grin.

"And what are the final two schematics?" Ruby laughed lowly. She sounded like a menacing goblin.

"Well… it's armor. Mine is just some basic stuff to allow you to go ham on runes and be protective. But auntie Raven got some pretty nifty upgrades… and she can stop showing so much thigh to her clan with this. It also looks good."

The entire clan glanced towards towards raven, who was glaring at Ruby for bringing it up. Now everybody would notice it for the whole day.

"Yours… well… remember my sheath idea? Where I have a sheath that's a part of the weapon that also stores it? Well it occurred to me that I don't actually need to make it a sheath. So why not full armor?" I stood up and cackled with Ruby. Raven got over us mentioning her thighs and looked towards us with a shiver. The clan collected everything and ran as we began to talk about Ruby's absolutely _wonderful_ ideas.

"Oh that's beautiful! Does that mean we can cut the auxiliary piston here?!"

After we finish planning a masterpiece. I'll make Ruby's weapon tomorrow too. Not that it's not a masterpiece of it's own. She deserves it.

[|||| == ||||]

" _You're working too hard."_

" _I'm not. There are people like this Abyss Mavros going to be there. I need to train!"_

" _No. You want to train. There's a difference. What's wrong?"_

"… _How can I compete with people like that? I looked him up on the dustnet. He fought on even grounds with a huntsman. Not for long but… I can't do any of that. How can I fight that?!"_

" _It's simple. Try. You don't know that you're going to lose. You're finishing the fight before it even begins with that attitude."_

" _Or was the fight over before I thought in the first place? I am trying. Through training more."_

" _Training is just making yourself feel better. You're not getting stronger. You're hitting dummies with forms you know better than the back of your own hand."_

"…"

" _You need to relax, Pyrrha. Sit down and smell the roses. You're not fighting with your life on the line. You're going to make our family name proud even if you just make it to the finals. With all the time you've put into this in the first place I think you would be harder on yourself than anything we could do to you."_

"…"

" _Pyrrha we-"_

" _I want to meet him… I want to be friends with him. Dad, I fought the fourth years at sanctum today. I beat them all. I've stagnated. I love fighting but… it's so stale now. People practice the same forms, the same tactics, sing the same praises. I just… I just did the same thing as them! But I just didn't know that to do! What can I do beyond what I've done?! I want to fight in the tournaments and I'm going to but what am I going to do after?! I'll just go to sanctum and what? Stagnate! Stop growing as a fighter!"_

" _Slowing down isn't a lack of progress, Pyrrha. It means you get a chance to breath and look around. Now stop. Breathe… Now look around. In your training session you just destroyed four perfectly good training dummies and you didn't even realize it. That's what happens when you don't know how to stop. You go straight through things that could have lasted. You have months until the tournament. Now slow down, stop ranting, enjoy the peace and quiet, and tell me what you want to do after the tournament that you're so concerned about."_

"… _Okay. Okay… Sorry I… Sorry."_

" _It's alright."_

" _Right. I… I'm scared. That nobody can actually challenge me. That's what I want to do. Be challenged every minute of the day and grow past the obstacles. But this Abyss… he's an obstacle but more than that I don't think he's going to stop and let me surpass him like so many others. Sanctum, for example. Call me superstitious but I have a good feeling about him. A really good one. I want to meet him. I want to see if he slows down and I leave him behind or… just maybe… he can actually match my pace. He could actually give me a challenge and keep challenging me to stay ahead."_

" _Hm… That's true. I got that impression from him as well. But there's something else, right?"_

" _Yes. He said in this interview that he made his own style. The sting style, focusing on fast strikes towards vital points after putting an opponent off balance or creating your own opening rather than taking the already open ones. It's the opposite to my achilles branch of the spartan style with an impenetrable defence and strikes at every weak point. I made my style and he made his. I want to see who's is better. I can't see the recording of his fight with that schoolteacher at signal either since they don't allow recordings of fights."_

" _You're still not telling me something."_

" _Um… well I… ah… Abyss is my age and I rather like a challenge."_

" _Wait… oh dust you're fourteen and…"_

" _He has very nice eyes."_

" _Pyrrha…"_

" _If he turns out to be rude or of weak morals then I'll stop! Really!"_

" _My girl's first crush… I'm going to grab my spear. I need to be in shape for when we meet."_

" _No! Wait! Dad stop! I haven't even met him yet!"_

" _Your blush speaks more than your words can Pyrrha."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Damn it! So close! The icy forest is RIGHT THERE! Grrrrrr… stupid filler chapter… being necessary for plot progression…**

[||||= **LEVEL 21** = ||||]

 **Rose eclipse - Scythe/shortsword/sniper**

 **Rarity: Mythical (low)**

 **Material composition: Novis, Steel alloy (High quality), Various minor metals**

 **Special traits: Barrel/gun, high bullet speed (mach 9(Scythe)/mach 5(Sniper)), runic matrix (+bullet speed; toggleable), runic matrix (recoil negation), runic matrix (self sustaining), innate affinity (purity - 144)**

 **Bio: A newly made sniper/scythe/shortsword made for Ruby Rose by her brother (Faintly genetic due to ocular genetic modifications) Abyss Mavros. The designs were changed for years as Ruby Rose, who designed the weapon, learned the trade of weapon designing. In a moment of discovery numerous designs of hers coalesced into a work of art more than a weapon.**

 **Abyss Mavros, a wizard, rune-master, and expert metalworker, immediately made the weapon perfectly despite the complexity of it. However, he took it one step further. In inspiration of the magical properties of red bloom wood Abyss used the power of precursor silver eyes to increase his affinity for the pure and infuse an element of purity into the weapon in the hopes that it would take root and better protect his sister against the forces of grimm. It worked. For sparring purposes the gun's runes were made toggleable to revert to a mach 4 bullet speed.**

I woke up to see Ruby cuddling her new weapon, which I spent all of christmas day making with her after we stopped finalizing the drafts for my… weapon and armor.

During the forging of Ruby's weapon I had an odd thought. What if I were push purity mana and aura into Ruby's weapon while I was making it? And so I flared my eyes and I did. And I'm so glad I did. With the purity element in it I can only guess at how it will affect her but a few guesses are that it will cut through grimm like butter (as if it wouldn't before) and interact with her silver eyes… somehow. Certainly in a good way.

But I had a rather difficult decision to make. In truth, the expeditions had driven some caution into me. These were elementals that we were going to see in the icy forest. They were strong and powerful. I was bringing Ruby there of course though she would have Swift and Hawk with her while she snipes at a long range and Raven would be fine if we watched each other's back. But I want an insurance. The answer is obvious. Power and luck. I want the best possible outcome. So there go a few of my points.

 ***Ding!* By reaching 100 LUK a new skill has been acquired! - Selective karma**

" _ **Luck and I have a hate/hate relationship. She plays favorites. I'm not one of them but I hope some lucky sonofabitch is. He owes me a drink."**_

 _ **-Qrow Branwen, on his luck based semblance**_

 **-Actions towards an ally with benevolent intent increase both of your LUK be 50% towards the outcome of that situation.**

 **-Actions directed towards you with malevolent intent will have a 50% decreased LUK stat in play.**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 200 STR a new skill has been acquired! - Size doesn't matter**

" _ **I may be tiny but I'm stronger than all you %^$ &s! Come at me you %$^ sucking ^&!$&$*s !"**_

 _ **-Irwin the angry**_

 **-Muscles size does not indicate strength and instead is optimized for fighting. Penalties to growth are negated when applied to strength.**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 350 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Prediction**

" _ **If all the numbers say that this is going to happen then it'll probably happen."**_

 _ **-Jallashuma, statistician**_

 **-See .25 seconds into the future to the most likely scenario (takes your luck into account)**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 350 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Compounding affinities**

" _ **The ice affinity, the most common compound affinity, is just water, heat, and order, yeah? So how could you have a massive affinity for water and just a little for ice? Your affinities are supposed to support each other. Depend on each other."**_

 _ **-Tolfdir, wizard**_

 **-Compound affinities have the sum of their base (not increased by elementals or skills) core affinities added into them.**

 **-Compound affinities can be gained through two baser affinities. The baser affinities are not lost in the creation of the new affinity. Meditation is required to make a new affinity.**

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Titles: Wizard; The Storm**

 **Level – 208**

 **HP – 10,622 (+26.56/min)**

 **AP – 63,000 (+3,150/min)**

 **MP - 200,900 (+10,045/min)**

 **STR - 200 (+495%)= 1190**

 **VIT - 184 (+480%)= 1062.2**

 **DEX - 272 (+525%)= 1700**

 **INT - 350 (+250%)= 1225**

 **WIS - 350 (+350%) = 1,575**

 **LUK - 100 (+0%)= 100**

 **POINTS - 690**

 **Affinities:**

 **Air: 311 (+100) = 6247.2**

 **Electricity: 185 = 2,812**

 **Purity: 144 = 1,613**

 **Light: 135 = 756**

 **Space: 125 = 700**

 **Heat: 112 = 627**

 **Ice: 109 (+49)(+45)= 1,137**

 **Water: 99 = 752.4**

 **Nature: 79 (+37)(+62)(+20)(+8)= 1,154**

 **Life: 78 = 442**

 **Motion: 77 = 431**

 ***Ding! Modification made:**

 **-Ice: Ice you make is very durable to heat and harder than typical stone.**

Wow… Just wow… I'm up to a fifteenth of what Ozpin has now! But my air affinity is getting insane. I'm starting to think that the only way I'll ever be able to beat Ozpin is through having a cadre of elementals and insane affinities that absolutely dwarf his.

My growth in my ice affinity recently shows how far I've come from what I've had before. Typically my parallels focused on a variety of elements. I just didn't want to neglect any of them. But now I'm thinking that it might be better to capitalize on my air affinity. With dominant nature it grows three times as fast.

The augmentation from ice isn't really great but it's good. If I ever need a sword in the middle of battle I could make an ice sword far superior to any projected mana one.

Come to think of it, the passives I learn from the benchmarks I reach every fifty stats… can I teach Raven how to use them? Not the physical ones but she might be able to learn how to use the WIS ones.

Spirit is just meditating to stimulate the growth of your affinities. Yeah, she can totally learn that. Body of worlds… she might be able to do that already. I don't often use it because of how conspicuous it is but she might appreciate it. Dominant nature was a technique of a sort too. It was like putting your greatest affinities on a pedestal of your other affinities. They're sort of supported by the others in a strange way. Compounding affinities is also totally a skill.

I can teach all of those. I just do them passively so I never thought of it.

I excitedly got up to go tell Raven about this and get her and myself a electrical elemental. It was about nine o'clock, which was later than usual but we were up late last night as well as the night before. We're going to the icy forest hopefully around noon but we can do the elementals and me telling Raven about the techniques and finish off with a late breakfast. I'll do belgian waffles. With home-made whip cream with extra vanilla… mmm.

I knocked on Raven's door and heard a groan and a shifting of sheets. Some cloth was shuffled around as she got dressed and footsteps trudged to the door.

Raven opened the door with that 'just woke up' look. Clouded eyes, mussed up hair… well her hair was always kind of chaotic and curly as it fell down her back but it was more… everywhere. It had strands poking off of it.

I ignored all of this. "I can summon electrical elementals and I think I found a way to increase affinities." Raven was instantly at attention.

"We're getting elementals now?" I nodded. She shut the door and I hears some more cloth shuffling around and a little clinking of metal. Raven opened the door in under a minute with her sword case, probably filled with new blades, and dressed in her combat uniform. Well, it's also her typical attire but she had the armor on, making it her combat uniform.

I opened up a portal to the land around patch and walked through and immediately set my parallels to saturating the air with electrical mana. It wasn't directed into a spell like with the wind mana I used to summon the wind elementals before. It was free and undirected.

Slowly in a few minutes there was a charge in the air. Walking around there were audible static shocks crackling when I walked. My skin was on edge. I swear I could hear a buzzing sound. None of this hurt or even tickled me. I had my affinity for electricity making me immune to pretty much all of this. It was interesting to see what happened when you just dumped a large amount of attuned mana into the air though.

I yelled in surprise and slammed my hands onto my ears right before a massive boom suddenly crashed down on my ears. Raven's earth sword was drawn with her standing attentive for any threats with a harsh grimace on her face. She sheathed the sword and rubbed her ears irritatedly.

Was that… my new prediction skill just activated. I knew that lightning was about to strike and I could react accordingly. What a useful skill. I didn't know that lightning was going to strike from the sky. I thought lightning was a compound element of electricity, plasma, and chaos? Ugh. Whatever.

The skill activated again and I whirled around to see a sort of wavy buzzing in the air. Electricity attuned mana from me coalesced together and a form faded into existence. A sort of creature looking like a dragonfly with short mantis claws began whizzing around through the air.

"Mine." Raven claimed. She sent the signal for aura and the reasons why and the mantis dashed towards her. She opened her soul space and he flew right in.

"His name is Sickle." She said. Then she grimaced and groaned as that uncomfortable feeling set in for her. "Ugh… and it's gone. Oh, the other feeling is different. Sort of… electric, ironically enough. More energetic."

I nodded and my prediction skill buzzed again and I turned. Another elemental. I sent the pulses of aura saying to be my familiar. He didn't mind and I opened my inventory. My new elemental, let's call him Krebs, buzzed on in and I closed my inventory and felt him poke around a little before finding the pocket of my electrical affinity, which was way smaller than my air affinity but still my second largest affinity.

He dug in and I grunted at the sensation. When he settled I felt a little buzzing feeling like when you have a shiver go up your spine but… pleasant.

 ***Ding!* You have contracted a petty electrical elemental! +100 to electrical affinity!**

 ***Ding!* As your electrical affinity is over two thousand total your contracted electrical elemental has become a minor electrical elemental! He may downgrade to a electrical elemental should your electrical. affinity decrease.**

Now that we got Krebs I've got one more elemental to summon. I wouldn't actually be able to do this without my eyes. Thanks Summer.

"Can you open a portal now? I'd like to get some breakfast and run things over with Ruby. We need to decide how we want to divide things up as well." Raven looked at me expectantly. I grinned.

"Actually, I've never told you about what my eyes can do have I?" Raven shook her head.

"Only that they make killing grimm about a hundred times easier. Then you get a knowing smirk and refuse to talk about it." I rolled my eyes. She's right though. I absolutely do smirk knowingly.

"I'll give you a rundown. They increase my mana to be over double what it was, my aura to over triple." Raven's eye twitched.

"Hack."

"Did I say I'm done? These aren't silver eyes. These are precursor silver eyes. Just by looking at a grimm whether or not I channel mana I harm grimm unless I will my eyes not to. Actively channeling mana or aura towards my eyes regardless of affinity will give the energy a purity attunement and further harm the grimm versus what just looking at them does."

"Quit bragging." Raven hissed jealousy.

"And finally this." I poked that reflex in my eye mentally and they did that maiden thing but silver. Raven recoiled a little and her mouth turned to a small frown. "I call it flaring them. It increases my purity affinity by a factor of a hundred, and actually think about that number. It's huge. But… while I'm flaring the eyes I can't use any of my other affinities. Including my elementals or normal mana." Raven nodded but kept that small frown.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"… It makes you look like you're wearing silver eyeliner." Raven said. She held her hand up to her mouth to hide her expression. "It's really girly."

I opened my mouth to reply but thought better of it. "Could you make a mirror from ice?" Raven waved her hand and a pane of ice sprung upwards. I looked closely… It looks like I'm wearing a really good cat-eye. I look great but yeah. It's not helping me look manly.

"Goddamnit." I muttered. Raven snorted and collected herself.

"So you're going to, what? Baptise me? Sprinkle some projected mana with a purity affinity onto me and yell 'begone'? Or bless the land maybe?"

"I'm going to summon purity elementals. But these won't be basic petty elementals. These elementals are going to be insanely strong with all the purity affinity in the air… and they'll be mine to command." I grinned and shut off my eyes.

"But first let's go to a place with more grimm. I want to see my posse in action." Raven sighed as I opened a portal to the middle of Vacuo, where there are bound to be some grimm. Hopefully some strong ones around.

I deactivated my net system and flared my aura as hard as I could. I put the system back on and flared my eyes then. I began dumping loads of purity attuned mana and aura into the air. I made sure that my aura was telling any elementals that would appear that Raven was a friend.

Immediately several petty elementals appeared. They looked like shimmery and silvery wolves. Minor ones appeared as well. They were bigger and even shinier. After a few seconds there were the next tier, lesser. A moment more tnd there were what were called average elementals. Then there were strong elementals. Then greater elementals. By now they were like stars with how bright they shone. But it wasn't blinding. This wasn't light that they emitted. It was aura with a purity element so great that it expressed itself brightly.

Finally I saw two of what I knew would be the strongest elementals I could summon. Grand elementals. But there was something different about them. They looked different for one thing. They appeared as female human-sized warriors armed with a bow… huntresses? They're dressed in wolf cloaks…

"What the?" Raven muttered. She looked towards me but I said nothing. Instead I sent a message through my aura. To kill the grimm.

Immediately the huntresses and the wolves blurred and were gone. I absently wondered how high their DEX stat was. It must be insane. And I control them… such an odd feeling. But they can't harm humans or anything else without a corruption element. They can only kill grimm and nothing else. Because that's what purity does. It counters corruption. That's it.

It irritated me that the greatest power I had and all it did was make me strong against one person in Remnant. Salem. With these eyes I was her biggest threat by a huge margin. Especially if I could get to even stronger elementals through my purity affinity reaching yet greater heights…

Damnit. I wonder if Summer had any idea that giving me her eyes would inevitable draw me towards destroying Salem… of course she did. Summer was smart. Smart and dedicated to destroying Salem. She likely believed her eyes would protect me and through me Ruby… and with me going to beacon Ozpin could recruit us as he recruited her so long ago. Two silver eyed warriors, one of which being a wizard… it would be a real shot at killing Salem… but I don't think Summer understood that I don't care about killing Salem. But I don't think she expected this either.

I gazed at the horizon as my elementals decimated any grimm for miles around. The huntresses fired arrows that appeared as streaks of light they flew so fast. When they struck the grimm they instantly looked as if to roar but their blackness faded to a grey and then a white and they disappeared into a white mist instantly. They were being purified.

The elementals of a lesser grade than the huntresses barked and from their maws shor beams of purity mana and my aura towards the grimm, purifying them more. The lower the grade of elemental the slower the purity took to work.

Out of some curiosity I observed a grimm as it was dying of the purity from a huntress' arrow.

 **Sand Wyrm (Lv. 64) - A large centipede-like grimm on par with a deathstalker alpha. Venomous, fast, armored, and extremely dangerous as well as rather rare. This type of centipede has adapted to 'swim' through sand, giving it it's name. It is currently suffering of a conflict of it's innate corruption and the purity of a purity elemental's arrows.**

 **Affinities:**

 **Corruption (Innate): 21,110 (IN CONFLICT)**

 **Purity (Invasive): 48,936 (IN CONFLICT)**

As expected. The grimm are basically corruption elementals. But why are they… OH! They're not in an area with high corruption so their affinity is innately infused into them. But that apparently makes them weaker as well as allowing them to travel out of areas with a lower concentration of ambient corruption affinity.

It's pretty clear that the grades of elementals are in exponents of two so it goes two thousand, four thousand, eight thousand, sixteen thousand, and so on between the tiers of elementals. So I would guess that the sand wyrm was a strong elemental. And these guys, while rare, aren't in short supply.

This means that the grimm are really… REALLY strong in any area that has a high ambient corruption affinity but acting offensively is very difficult since they're so much weaker outside those areas.

Actually they might just be permanently weaker, being locked in a physical form. I wonder…

How much stronger would they be if they could use all of that corruption affinity through the conduit that is the soul?

I can only pray that doesn't happen… but I can grow stronger. I look towards one petty elemental of purity.

"Come here… I'll name you Gem. For your shine."

[|||| == ||||]

" _I can't believe you talked me into this…"_

" _You said yes."_

" _You actually played dirty in a spar… Shameful."_

" _It wasn't that shameful!"_

" _Tossing my wife's panties in my face certainly is shameful, Pyrrha!"_

" _I did it for victory! I really needed to win the bet!"_

" _Fine. You playing dirty… Is the moon coming back together?"_

" _It's not that unlikely…"_

" _Remember a year ago when you kicked your cousin and thought that it was unfair because you were in high heels and he was in sneakers because of that?"_

" _High heels hurt!"_

" _He challenged you while you were in high heels, Pyrrha. If I had it my way you'd have kicked him a bit lower than the stomach."_

" _*sigh*. Look, are you going to teach me dustcasting or not?"_

" _Yeah yeah. I'm sure you'll impress your hopeful boyfriend very much with your tiny shred of dust casting ability."_

" _I'm doing it because I have nothing to do and it's better than practicing forms again! Or do you want me to destroy some more training dummies?"_

" _In all honesty an hour of you training that way is more expensive than a crate of dust for you to practice with."_

" _I know. Thank you for getting good training dummies. Now teach."_

" _Fine. I'll bet the Schnees don't have to deal with students trying to learn more than they should. They're probably drowning in business lessons."_

[|||| == ||||]

" _Winter don't leave! I need to learn time dilation exactly right!"_

" _Please Weiss it's good enough already!"_

" _No! Stay and teach me!"_

[|||| == ||||]

" _Sienna please! No more sparring!"_

" _Stop crawling away Blake! And it's time for climbing practice!"_

" _PLEASE! ANYONE! HEEEEEELLLLPP!"_

[|||| == ||||]

"We need to decide how to divide what we find-"

"I call some crafting stuff!" Ruby shouted out.

"Magic tomes are mine. Back off my knowledge Raven." Raven growled.

"Fine. I'm getting to read them after you're done and any loot we find. Since you're more of the wizard than I I'll forfeit rights for first pickings to you."

"So long as you give my books back to me after." I said sternly.

"I'll make a copy by hand if you want one." She said seriously. I waved the idea off.

"I make a copy of every magical tome I find. I keep the originals locked away deep in my soul space."

"Fine. You get them first and you make copies." I nod.

"If we find any magical tomes." She adds.

"Don't say something so horrible!" I say with mock horror. Rave rolls her eyes and a few people around us at the other non-VIP tables chuckle.

"Mmm. these waffles are really good by the way. Thank you Abyss." Ruby says with a mouth full of whip cream, syrup, and waffle.

"Of course." I accept with a nod.

"Formations now." Raven said. "Ruby. You'll stay back with Hawk, Swift, Krebs, Sickle, and Gem. Krebs and Sickle are our electrical elementals we got this morning. Gem is a purity elemental. Snipe the ice elementals."

"They likely won't be very fast but very durable." I added. "My ice affinity is really lazy. Ice won't do a single thing unless you actively use mana in it."

"Earth is the same. The lazy affinities kind of piss me off sometimes." Raven agreed. "Anyways, you'll stay back with the elementals surrounding you. Krebs and Swift are the strongest so they'll be able to defend you better than any of the others. Trust in them."

"Got it." Ruby said.

"Abyss will be dealing with the threats as they come. I'll be sticking a little closer to you and hurling fireballs or whatever works best against the elementals. We'll see on-site."

"The petty elementals aren't even a threat to you at close range." I said. "You're strong enough even without actively using your aura to enhance yourself. If you're using your aura to enhance your body actively, though… how much stronger and faster are you?"

"About three times faster than normal." Raven said.

I nodded. "Four times stronger and faster is the maximum you can do with aura to enhance your body. Aura has limits and it can only increase you so much. You outclass minor and petty elementals to just not even be a threat to you. I can't really say with lesser elementals. You'll probably be faster than them if our prediction about ice is correct but they can take a beating.

"But more than that you're more skilled than them, which isn't hard considering that they're barely sentient. Less than a fortieth of the brainpower of yourself." Raven looked smug. Like being way smarter than a bit of ice affinity and mana strewn together was something to be proud of. "And don't be smug. I've got three times what you have. Not in life experience but in thought speed I outclass you hard. Besides, they're literally just some ice affinity and mana. Even Hawk and the others don't actually have emotions other than the primitive 'yay mana' and 'no! Intruder!' ideas." Raven sighed.

"Anyways, Ruby…"

 **Ruby Rose**

 **Title: Rose blooming**

 **Level – 172**

 **HP – 6,068**

 **AP – 19,200**

 **STR - 113 (+310%)= 463.3**

 **VIT - 68 (+310%)= 278.8**

 **DEX - 219 (+310%)= 897.9**

 **INT - 173 (+50%)= 259.5**

 **WIS - 192 (+150%)= 480**

 **LUK - 95 (+0%)=**

 **Semblance: Petal flurry - Dash and become immaterial as you travel from one place to another so rapidly it's nearly teleportation, leaving red and black roses in your wake. Adding dust adds an elemental effect to the roses, which 'pop' once they hit the ground releasing a sort of carpet bomb effect. Low aura cost to use.**

 **Perks:**

 **Silver eyed warrior (Rank 2) - Your affinity for purity has grown immensely yet the emotional block for your eyes remains in place. Some grimm will flee from you even without your eyes on. Multiplies your WIS by 150% and INT by 50%**

" _ **There's a power in you. You just haven't quite found it yet."  
-Summer Rose to her daughter**_

"Now for your age… you're really damn powerful. But you have a huge flaw."Ruby looked to me expantly.

"You have puny and pathetic aura reserves." Ruby pouted.

"Luckily this is easily fixed." Ruby perked up.

"You can stay behind."

Ruby's face went from hopeful to devastated. Luckily she could read me like a book and saw that I was messing with her. She kicked me from under the table and halfheartedly glared at me. I snickered a little more and told her the actual plan.

"I'm going to be giving you a glove with a rune on it to be connected to my and Raven's soul space. It'll refill your reserves whenever they're empty from whatever's in my reserves, and don't worry about me running out. I regenerate your entire reserves in two minutes. One if I concentrate."

Ruby huffed. "I don't have small reserves! I'm at the top of the class in aura capacity!"

I grin. "And yet you've only a fraction of what I have."

"I have one and a half times what auntie has!"

"And only a third of what I have at my disposal. For shame. And your auntie makes up for it with stupidly big mana reserves. About half of what I have-oh!" I stiffened and remembered what else I needed to do today.

"Raven, I discovered that my mana and affinities do some things to become more efficient that your affinities don't do. Your mana is like a jumbled mess of things while mine is a neat and efficient machine but less powerful overall. My affinities are like an old rusty sword used to it's best ability and your affinities are a well maintained sword used by a toddler."

Raven sighed. "All my training and it turns out that I'm practically a toddler magically."

"By no fault of your own." I assured her. "I didn't even realize the things my affinities did was applicable to others until I wondered what made our souls so different and realized that there's nothing different at all and that I was being shortsighted."

Raven nodded. "And what are some of these… techniques?"

"That's a good word for them. Well there's a technique I don't use often. Here." I raised my hand and started body of worlds with my light affinity. My hand lit up and I reached down to pick up my spoon. Since my hand was made of hard light it worked fine and I picked it up without issue.

"There's also electing a dominant nature, an affinity that's more powerful because it sort of shepherds your weaker affinities. Then there's spirit, which is stimulating your affinity through meditation to grow stronger but I'm pretty sure I'm missing something there. Finally there's my most recent find, where you link your baser elements to a compound element and the compound element grows stronger because of it. I'm going to work on combining some of my base affinities to be more powerful compound affinities soon."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Meditation? Interesting." I nodded.

"I use it all the time for looking into my aura and my affinities. You can feel how strong your affinities are and their sort of personality. It was how I felt my ice affinity and knew ice was lazy."

Raven nodded. "That makes sense. Or as much sense as magic can do. But back to our expedition?"

"Oh. Right. Anyways, Ruby, you're cleared to get up close and personal with petty elementals. No issues with that at all. Be careful with minor elementals and stay far away from lesser elementals. At common elementals stay away and blast it with your guns or magic. Ruby, you can pretty easily outrun one with your semblance and actively using your aura and keep up with it too but elementals can use some primitive magic of their element. Don't play around with them.

"Finally, there's a little experiment I want to try with an elemental. Let's capture one before we leave. And Raven, the elementals are bound to the place to be hostile for some reason. Don't even think about trying to make a contract with one. It'll try to kill you as they all will no matter what you do." Raven nodded and Ruby hummed happily.

"Alright. Go grab whatever you want to take with you. Remember that it's an overnight but something terrible might happen like we fall into a cave that's runed to not allow teleportation or something. Not saying that we will but pack for a week and expect to stay two days and a night. That means clothes, Ruby take your fur clothes for sure."

"Yes!" Ruby whispered to not interrupt me. "They're so soft!"

"Raven, bring alcohol. I've already got food and water. We'll be fine as far as survival goes. Also check in on Roman if you haven't already. Make sure he knows we're heading out for a few days."

"I told him yesterday." Raven said calmly.

"Good. We'll meet in my room in twenty minutes. And Ruby, here." I got the runed glove to the inventory space from my inventory and tossed it to her. Ruby caught it deftly and slipped it on. Raven slipped away to raid the kitchen of beer and whatever else she wanted to bring.

"Touch something and channel a pulse of your aura to put it in the inventory. Think of an object and send a pulse of your aura to make it appear in your hand. I already got you two hundred bullets with burn, wind, shock, and freeze dust. We'll probably not need the freeze dust but they had a sale."

"Thanks!" Ruby said. She touched her now cleared plate with the gloved hand and sent a pulse of aura. It disappeared. She didn't close her eyes but another pulse and the plate was in her hand. "Whoa. That's really easy."

"I made it to be that way. Now go get out of your pajamas and into your moccasin. I runed it to be battle-ready, right?"

"Yup! Recoil resistance for blunt weapons, resistance to cutting attacks, piercing attacks, and I'm pretty much immune to the cold in it."

"Good. Remember that runes aren't absolute. You'll still be hurt by attacks."

"Of course!"

"Good. Now scram."

Ruby disappeared in a flurry of rose petals to her room and I got up, stretched, and walked to my own room. I had my own things to store.

I had my magic journals in my mobile home in my physical soul space augmentation so I didn't need to worry about those. I also had all the things I want to use for experimenting in that soul space in the sort of lab. The red bloom leaves, sap, and various labelled parts of the woods, being the highlight of the lab and the only real thing I had to study more. I had a potted plant growing and a collection of seeds as well to eventually see if I can make my own magical plant of purity. With Ruby's scythe as an example of permanent infusion it was looking good.

I checked and found that I didn't actually have an empty journal in my room or the soul space. I sent a parallel to go get more from Tukson's book trade, which was a nice place. Tukson was a nice guy too. He had plenty of empty journals that he was willing to sell along with some books for me. Not many were skill books and I didn't use them yet but if I ever needed to know how to tile a roof I have a book to learn how.

Anyways, I continued checking for things I was missing and refilled my dust system from my somewhat dwindling reserves of dust. I have enough to last a few months at my typical rate of use but I just don't like that amount. I like at least four months of spare dust available to me in case something comes up or dust starts getting scarce.

A parallel came back with ten empty leather journals (I like the leather and I have the money to have the nice ones. I love my journals) and ninety lien poorer and I got out a marker and wrote on one 'Icy forest expedition 1'. I doubt I'll need two journals for this but you never know. We might fall into a different dimension somehow. Or my prediction on that anti-teleport pit might prove true.

I got all my things nice and orderly in my inventory and my room just how I like it and I glanced at the clock. Two minutes to twenty minutes. I'll check if Ruby needs any help.

I walked down the hall a little to Ruby's little apartment and found her struggling to choose between a hood up or down in front of a mirror.

"Down." I commented. Ruby's eyes flicked to me and she had a conflicted expression.

"But up makes me look all mysterious! Like a barbarian girl with some deep dark secret."

I rolled my eyes. "Raven and I will be the only ones to see you. Well, unless there's a cult of some sort in the forest. I doubt there are and people inside the forest though. If there were any they're almost certainly long gone. Even with magic immortality isn't very easy to achieve. You can extend it by a few hundred years at most according to the primer on magic but for… there's only going to be me and Raven."

"... huh? You lost me around 'certainly long gone.'" Ruby blinked honestly at me. As if.

I shook my head. "You got everything?" Ruby grinned and nodded with a happy hum. "Great. Now we need to see Raven and get to the forest." I turned around out of the room and Ruby followed after me. I saw Raven in the hall about to enter my room. She wore a fur outfit like Ruby.

Where, Ruby looked all cute and cuddly though Raven looked fierce. She actually had leather under the armor with fur covering her to be warm. Mostly wolf skin and what looks like bear skin over her arms. Damn it. Now I feel left out since I'm not wearing furs.

I was interrupted from my feeling of sticking out looking like a normal person by a pile of furs being thrown in my face. "There." Raven said in a satisfied tone. "I asked Maya to make you a set of your own. The fur clothes aren't hard to make and comfortable in winter. They're just not the longest lasting and you can't layer them well like most modern clothes."

I looked at the clothes with surprise. I had bearskin pants turned inside out to feel the soft fur on my legs. The… chestpiece, I suppose it's called, was made of two layers of deerskin and was fitted so that I could put a chestplate on it. The arms were similarly made of deerskin and flawlessly sewed onto the body. As for headgear I had a thick hood with two little holes cut for my ears at the top. Just touching the clothing made me feel warm.

"And here. For your feet." Raven showed me a pair of brown work boots. I normally just wore average shoes that anybody could have. The work boots, though, were… well still normal wear but clearly expensive normal wear. Quality treated leather, in fact.

"I… thank you." I said honestly. Raven sighed.

"Quit expecting to do things yourself. Even I have a tribe behind me." With that said Raven grabbed my arm and pulled me behind her to my room.

I came out a minute later looking good but there was still something missing. I felt like I needed some kind of facemask. I had that hood and every part of my body was covered since I had some thick and snug gloves tucked into my pocket. So I made one.

I teleported to the kitchen and grabbed some black food coloring, emptied half the bottle into some water, grabbed the white bottle and did the same to a different bit of water, and froze the two dyed waters with the ice augmentation.

I brought the two blocks of ice together and with a little affinity and my mana merged the two pieces of colored ice together to make an intricate mask that looked like crystal.

The white made a pattern that looked identical to the runes on my face normally, which reminisced of the Branwen clan's new look.

I added runes on the inside to make the ice absorb no heat since I prefer my face not frozen thank you. It was like thick high quality steel with all the space for hardening runes I had on the back and the ice itself was already tough as solid stone in the first place.

Finishing it all off was a pretty simple thing. I had nothing to attach it to my face. So I made some sticking runes on the hem of the hood that activated based off a reserve of mana. Since I'll be refilling it myself I didn't make any collection system.

All this only took about five minutes. With it all done I teleported back into my room and made sure everything was in place. It was so I walked out of the room.

"But the springs-EEK!" Ruby interrupted her talk, presumably about her new weapon, and jumped with a squeak after seeing me. Raven glanced towards me and her gaze turned questioning.

"It felt like it was missing something." I explained. "I made a mask out of ice and sketched hardening runes on it and one to make it not emit heat. It sticks based on some more runes I put on the hood." Raven nodded and Ruby finished inspecting my outfit.

"Actually though it was kind of surprising it looks really good." She admitted. "Kind of draws a color to the outfit that it lacked before." I nodded. I was thinking the same thing.

"I won't wear it often. Just when I want protection for my face."

With a wave of my hand the portal opened back to the desert I had wandered so long ago. "Well… you two ready to go?"

[|||| == ||||]

" _Sword UP!"_

" _I… I… I'm trying."_

" _I know! Try harder! Nobody will be going easy on you just because you're tired. Keep your sword up at all times because otherwise means you won't have the opportunity to be tired ever again!"_

" _Not every enemy will be able to… to spar for three hours!"_

" _Obviously. But the ones that can are so much more deadly than the ones that can't. I got the reputation as the steel storm not just because of my semblance but my discipline, speed, strength, and the NEVER. ENDING. STAMINA WE AS ARCS ARE KNOWN FOR!"_

" _Why… not beat an enemy… quickly?"_

" _You WILL! You'll be defeating enemies with a flash of your sword as you easily move to the next one. You have a burden but you were given the tools to do it, loathe as we are to enjoy them. You have to fight through every enemy in your way and move on to the next one! AND THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A NEXT ONE! There will always be a next one and you have to fight them with only your family and your future friends at your back! NOW MARK UP!"_

" _Finally!"_

" _NOW FIGHT LIKE YOU'RE TRYING!'_

 _*CLANG* *CSHHH* *HSSS* *SMACK*_

" _Better! But you can't just rely on your enhanced physique to win a clash! Technique! Not every enemy will be using blades! Dust! Magic! The absolute BULLSHIT that the gifted have! Remember what we've taught you since the marking!"_

" _Fine!"_

" _NOW FIGHT LIKE YOU DESERVE THAT STRENGTH THE VILLAIN'S MARK GIVES YOU!"_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	22. Chapter 22

**AN: Some of you might be thinking that this is a crossover chapter or something. Nope. This is all original. Well, I imagine the ice elementals to look a lot like the ice wraiths from skyrim but with a vertebrae but that's just a choice in imagination. Hardly worth the title of a crossover.**

[||||= **LEVEL 22** = ||||]

Around us was a beautiful place. A forest of blued trees made entirely of ice. Trees filled with ice clouded by oxygen stand tall everywhere. Their branches creep out overhead everywhere with icicles hanging down just about everywhere.

Every once and a while there's a stalagmite of ice jutting up from the ground under a tree. Sometimes there's a line of them following a particularly large branch.

"Eight o'clock!" I call. Raven twirls and immediately sees the ice elemental coming towards us. She swings her sword and a perfect arc of fire flies towards the elemental. It hisses as it melts and the opposing affinities break down the elemental.

A vicious hissing sound pierced the air behind me. Boring. I'm not using mage sight to be fair to the sport of the thing but it's really easy to hear the ice elementals move around. I had heard this particular elemental a minute ago.

I spin and my sword sings a note as a harsh shattering sound marks the dispelling of the elemental. Prediction made surprise attacks much less… surprising than before.

"One at ten." Ruby says. She takes aim easily and fires. The crack and more distant shattering sound marks another. "Oh it was a minor."

"Nice. that's four now?" I ask. There's three more elementals coming close to me. I ready a massive heatwave, well for them. For me it was just four thousand mana. Not even worth the effort of thinking about it.

"Um… five now." Ruby calls back. "This is kind of less fun than I thought it would be."

"Yeah." I release the heatwave and the three elementals hiss greatly as they begin melting to water. One manages to survive long enough to come somewhat close to me. I don't use my sword even. I jab out with my fist. I had the brawler skill making my punches five times as damaging so the already weakened elemental had it's head separated from it's body.

"Luckily this is still the fringes of the forest. We have plenty more miles to go towards the center." I said. Then I sensed something more powerful. Something actually dangerous.

"Common! Two o'clock!" Ruby scanned her part of the forest quickly and turned to face me. She looked past me and prepped a shot.

I made a long string of space where the motion would be accelerated, the acceleration spell I had gotten a while ago. Ruby's shot went rocketing towards the common elemental and hit it directly.

The elemental screeched and darted towards us in a serpentine motion. "I've got it. Raven said. She swung her fire sword again towards the elemental but it glided over it. The movement allowed Ruby enough time to get a shot on it again, which hit the already damaged parts of the elemental and killed it.

"Good shot. Nothing else?" Raven asked as we all looked around.

I noticed one more elemental coming towards us. A lesser one. I made a powerful shock bolt and used my dust system's fire dust to turn it hotter and more powerful than it would have been before. The elemental let out a screeching hiss and died.

To say that these creatures died would be inaccurate. They disperse to their component mana and reform somewhere else. But that hardly matters. I get XP from them still.

"Okay. let's go." Raven says. She begins trudging towards the center of the forest once more and we keep our eyes out as we walk.

We've been working on our fourth hour of hiking through the icy forest by now. It's not exactly thrilling but we've got about eight more miles to go so we're toughing it out.

It's to my intense irritation that mage sight, teleportation, and a lot of spells don't work here. The ice mana is thick and getting thicker as we go in towards the center. Teleport can't reach through all that mana very far until it stops, making my portals inaccurate and unpredictable. Casting spells from internally is perfectly fine since the ice mana doesn't get into my body.

Mage sight doesn't work for the same reason your eye can't see when a red laser is being shined towards your pupil. You need a spectrum of light to see. It can't be just red light or green light. Mage sight needs a spectrum of mana to see through at the same time but looking through mage sight now is like looking at a whole bunch of ice mana. Boring and useless.

The good news is that with all the ice affinity in the air it's super easy to cast ice magic… but that does almost nothing to the elementals. It's useful for throwing icicles at enemies like spears, which I've done a few times with motion magic manipulation (basically telekinesis). It's easier to use heatwave to melt the elementals though. The trees aren't really affected by my heat magic unless I actually focus on trying to melt them.

To fix this issue I've had all my parallels focusing on making my heat affinity better. I've gotten a bit of progress but not as much as I would have liked. It's helped, though, and it'll likely continue to help as I keep casting heat magic. Eight points so far is pretty good.

The cold hadn't been a huge problem. We were all bundled up and active. I packed some wood, marshmallows, chocolate, and gram crackers in my inventory since there wasn't any wood in this forest. Just a bunch of ice. There's some beautiful stuff here, not gonna lie, like a cliff made of ice that had the sun reflecting off of it. It was beautiful and a bright enough that it was hard to see in that general direction. Kind of annoying after you got over the beauty.

It was also annoying that there were so many ice elementals. They were everywhere. Just everywhere. The petty ones, we soon found out, were absolute scrubs. Ruby could take them ten at a time. Raven literally took five with her eyes closed for fun.

Minor elementals needed a little concentration from Ruby but were easy for Raven or me.

Lesser elementals were actually a challenge for Ruby since they physically outstripped Ruby and skill came more into play for her. If she used her semblance she could handle them though. For Raven she could just fick them and they died (not literally). I could handle them with ease using magic but took some effort with my sword or halberd.

Commons weren't especially dangerous but when playing with magic be careful. So we called attention to them when we saw them. Raven could deal with them up close if she was careful. Ruby stayed back and sniped them (she did a lot of that) and I could magick everything in this entire forest to death with some time and effort so…

We hadn't seen a strong attack us yet but Ruby swears that she saw a sort of bony snake (because that's what they all looked like. Snake bones) but with armor. I saw something huge once. Some sort of giant but we passed a tree and I saw a little disturbed snow and nothing else. It was eerie.

"Where do you think we should make camp?" Ruby asked. Raven spoke without hesitation.

"Somewhere defendable. A cave, maybe, after we melt all the ice in it. If we need to we can create our own. Then we can elect a watch. Abyss, can you make runes to harm the elementals?"

"Of course." I said. "I've already got the perfect one planned out. You can maintain it if you have to or I can."

"Perfect." She said in a pleased tone.

"Ooh! Do you think we can go up to a cliff and take a picture? And snipe stuff, of course." Ruby unconsciously moved her finger towards the tripper of her incredibly powerful and dangerous weapon.

"Maybe. I don't think we're going to be able to get to the center before tomorrow but the curiosity could keep us awake. Getting to a vantage point and looking towards the center could solve a lot of questions. Like why this place is here in the first place."

Raven nodded in agreement. "Some answers would be nice. It's not like we're hurting for time either. I told Roman we might take about a week at most but that we'd be more like four days. It gives me a day or two off if we stick to the schedule."

"That's fine. I don't think that the world will end if you spend a little time away from Torchwick. I would like to get back to school without missing any days. I've got my friends to check up on."

"Of course. But travelling an exotic land for magical artifacts is more important than missing a day of school."

"Well that's true enough."

We stopped the chatter as we came across… well it was a dead body. An old one frozen in ice.

It was male, well built, and in an older looking blue uniform with two patches on the chest. A blue shield with a light blue flame in it with chains running across the shield and flame. The other patch was the symbol of Vale. Beside the man was a military styled backpack colored striped blue and black with three pockets. Over his patches was a sewn nametag. Sergeant K. Mango.

"Oh. This doesn't look good." Raven murmured. Ruby scanned the area and approached the man. I observed him and saw nothing I couldn't already figure out by seeing him. Dead, frozen, preserved from twenty six years ago, and part of a military organization, though observe didn't say which kind or the name of it.

"... Poor guy. The chunk taken out of his neck right here. It had aura blocking it but it broke and he died." Ruby said.

"When did you learn postmortem checks?" I asked.

"With the bandits last summer. Moss taught me on deer and rabbits first and then a raid by a clan nearby. I… I didn't really forget the experience." Ruby frowned a little.

Raven approached the man and checked the wound. "Wait… her." Raven pointed to the man's throat and traced a faint line with tiny punctures in it. "He was choked first… and then he died. So an elemental wrapped itself around him and bit into him. I think the little puncture marks are from it's ribs."

I grabbed onto the man's backpack and malted the ice on it rapidly, removing the water in case there was something perishable in it. Inside it was…

" _HSSSS!"_ An ice elemental, a petty one, hissed at me from inside a cage of tinted glass reinforced with metal. Observe said the metal was an alloy of nillum, a mana resistant metal. The glass had nillium forged into it as well, giving it it's grey tint.

I took out the cage and set it aside before looking back in. There was another cage below the first one… busted open from the inside. Probably the one that killed him that did that then. It escaped, Mango tried to take off his pack when he heard the cage give, and the elemental escaped before he could get away. Then it got to his neck.

I opened the second pocket of the pack and found nothing but old deodorant, a small oil lamp; not dust; some expired military styled rations, a little high quality fire dust in a well sealed vial, and some trash. Wrappers, a toothbrush, and an empty roll of toothpaste.

Opening the final pocket was a change of clothes and the holy grail. A journal.

I withdrew the journal and flipped through it without reading. It's too long to read right now… I shut it and put it in my inventory. I'll read it tonight. Things just got a whole lot more interesting.

"Somebody was… trapping elementals?" Ruby said lowly. "But what… why…"

"Vale." Raven said. "But these uniforms aren't recent. It's a winter variant, obviously, but

"The closest thing I've got to scrying magic says that the man died twenty six years ago." I reached into the backpack and took out the broken cage. "Probably from this." Raven reached out and took the cage, inspecting it for herself.

"It's made from nillum. A metal that's extra resistant to magic. The bars in the lattice is refined nillum. The glass has it smelted into it, giving it it's grey tint. The tops and bottoms are pure nillum. But I can't tell how they open."

Raven turned the cage sideways and made a sharp knife made of ice. She levelled the knife with the edge of the edge of the top of the cage and the glass sides and quickly slashed the corner. She repeated this process a few more times and then did the same to all the other sides. She dropped the knife aside and latched her fingers on the rim of the top. With a swift jerk she seperated the top from the rest.

She offered it to me and I could see a small sheen of a hardened clear substance. "Adhesive." Raven explained. "I've seen something like this for capturing small grimm before. A new type popped up in the eastern islands and team STRQ was sent to capture a few and find their weaknesses. We caught them in cages like these but bigger. Scientists don't like to leave latches or flimsy locks with something as dangerous as the grimm so they make these to seal the tops on and call them observation cages. They're specifically designed for grimm to not get out except normally they use steel and reinforced glass instead of this nillum."

"I see… well either that cage was defective or… maybe the nillum isn't strong enough to contain them. It's actually an alloy of nillum and steel. They should have used fire dust treated nillum alloy. If they got the concentration right the cages could hold an elemental without killing it."

Raven shrugged. "This was twenty six years ago, roughly. Besides, do you think Vale knew what they were doing with the elementals?"

"Obviously not. I'm curious as to what a Vale military branch was doing in a magical corner of Vacuo twenty six years ago."

"Elementals." Ruby interrupted as she readied her weapon. "And I think that's a strong one."

A large serpentine form as big as the thick tree trunks was approaching us burrowing in and out of the snow like a worm. I immediately readied a large air blade. Air attuned mana whirled around me to a blade made of air and I used fire dust from my dust system. A pale blue sheen encased the blade and heat radiated off of it from the high-oxygen flame. I let the blade loose and if flew off with something between a whoosh and a sonic boom.

The large elemental reared back and struck forth. It's maw shot a blizzard of cold at my blade and weakened it. My wind blade slammed into it still thanks to my huge affinity for air and the elemental made a breathy screech. It wasn't dead though.

 **Strong ice elemental (Lv. 4,241) - An uncommonly strong elemental compared to the norm born of a high concentration of mana with an ice affinity in this location. It is naturally hostile to all entities besides a select few long dead.**

 **Stats**

 **STR: 5,993**

 **VIT: 15,179**

 **DEX: 3,969**

 **INT: 73**

 **WIS: 42**

 **LUK: 49**

 **AFF: 32,000**

Definitely not dead. Just very angry.

Ruby took charge and spoke commandingly. "Raven, fireballs on the strong one. Abyss, heatwave for the weaker ones. I obeyed, trusting Ruby to know what was going on, and channeled five thousand mana to a heatwave. I combined it with some fire dust to make it more intense and released it.

A massive wave of heat flew out from me with a few wisps of fire among it. The other elementals screeched but were quickly melted. The big one screeched louder than them but was still alive, though it was looking pretty melty. Raven made a fireball and shot it towards the elemental solemnly with a bit of air dust boosting the fireball. The ball of flames slammed into the creature but still it continued towards us. It was getting really close now.

"Dodge!" Ruby yelled. She disappeared in a flurry of rose petals far to her right and took aim at the beast. Raven jumped and used her air magic to go higher. I used my seldom used skill, body of worlds, to turn my body to wind. I blew towards my left and reformed myself with an idea on my mind.

Ruby leveled a few shots at the elemental, breaking chunks off of the magically hardened ice - because no ice was that hard - and Raven sent another fireball at the beast.

I had coalesced a few thousand units of heat attuned mana into my palm. I concentrated it as much as possible and shoved my palm towards the elemental. My beam of heat rocketed towards the creature, mimicking the heat of a fireball but more condensed, and shot straight through the creature's icy skull.

The elemental let out a weak strangled hiss and laid down tremblingly. Ruby took aim at it's thin spine and let off a shot at the center of it's spine. The creature trembled once more and went still. I also levelled a few times. Elementals were pretty good XP.

 ***Ding!* New spell acquired! - Heat beam**

" _ **Heat is like all the good things from fire with the better parts of ice! It's like fire's more fantastic younger brother. This particular spell is even good for welding if you sustain it!"**_

 _ **-Kerra the sightless inferno**_

Raven breathed slowly and sheathed her sword. "We should be more careful."

"They're smarter than I thought." I remarked. "This one waited until we let our guard down and then rushed us. What's just as worrying is that the smaller ones followed it. A pack intelligence, perhaps." Raven nodded.

"The bad parts are that the weaklings swarmed us slowly and we got confident that they were all that was there. So was that just a coincidence or did they send them knowing that we would get overconfident? And on that note, we're not even halfway through the forest. Not even to the densest hotspot of mana… so what's stronger than this?" a moment of silence was all that answered me for a few seconds as Raven and Ruby processed what sort of horrors lie in this forest.

"… We should keep moving. I don't think lingering is going to do us any favors." Ruby said quietly. I walked over to the cage with the petty ice elemental and considered it… I sighed. I walked to the backpack and put the cage back in and re-sealed the cage in ice.

I couldn't take it with me because I could only hold it in my hands, preventing me from using my melee weapon, and I couldn't put it in my inventory because I can't supply it with ice mana constantly. Well, not in it's cage. Perhaps I can come back later and grab the elemental to use for the siphoning experiment or as my familiar.

For now, though, I have to find out what's going on. Experiments will have to come later.

[|||| == ||||]

" _No that's enough, Pyrrha. Take a break."_

" _But I don't know how he does it! He just waves his hand and a blade of pressurized air comes out?!"_

" _I've told you, it's making your aura like a blade and just applying dust to that form. Then you flick the form and the dust sort of peels off like a bandaid sort of. But if you do it right it holds it's strength."_

" _I AM flicking it! I didn't even know some of that stuff with aura was possible!"_

" _You see now why we don't meddle with dust. You're not the nerdy type, Pyrrha. And you're not the 'feel it out' type either. You're the type that does one action a thousand times perfectly and you can do it right that way for a lifetime. You're the repetition kind of person while I and your mother are more of the 'feel it out' sort of person. That's why you're not good with aura control. I told you dustcasting wasn't for you."_

" _Yeah but I've made some progress. Not much but some."_

" _And gone through half a crate of dust to get at that morsel of progress."_

"… _Didn't you once say that people could learn anything?"_

" _Yeah. And then I said 'but not everything should be learned'. Are you going to stop being a workaholic now? Me and your mother can't find it in ourselves to stop you from working so hard but it's christmas break, Pyrrha. Come have some leftover eggnog."_

" _I don't like the alcoholic stuff. Well, except that time you let me try wine. That was pretty good."_

" _It was practically grape juice but sure. Are you done with this dustcasting phase?"_

" _Of course not."_

" _Ugh. My wallet."_

" _But you're right that this is the obviously wrong way to go about it… so I need to augment my weapon styles to include dust with the weapons. Other than bullets I mean."_

" _That's… actually yeah, that might work… Sure. Let's try that. Do you want me to call Hephaestus and say you have a project for him?"_

" _Yes! Thank you!"_

" _Yeah, yeah. Just stop being so hard on my wallet."_

" _I'll… um, aren't aura conducting metals super expensive? I kinda need those though…"_

" _Oh… oh right. I'm just going to go ahead and retract my-"_

" _Thanksdadloveyoubye!"_

" _God, why did I have kids? Can't I scold her over grades or something? At least she's better than her sister… I think if I had to give Pyrrha pep talks as often as Odia I'd break out the alcohol."_

[|||| == ||||]

"So… so steep." I grunted. Ruby was breathing somewhat heavily behind me. Raven was perfectly fine in front of us.

"We're at the top." She said casually. She disappeared over the angle of the top of the path for a moment before I made it up. Ruby came up shortly after. I ignored the view for a moment, wanting to see it properly. I made a bench from ice beneath me and gazed out. Raven took after my idea and made a chair and Ruby collapsed next to me and leaned on me. I could tell she was being dramatic, though. She could probably go for a spar right now and be alright. It was a pretty steep climb though.

We had always been travelling sort of upwards but the climb had increased sharply. We had no choice but to climb the slope. Combined with the occasional elementals we had a tiring time. At least there were none up here, though. I still kept an ear open just in case.

Down below there was a valley of sorts. It was at a way lower elevation than where we were at least. Most eye catching was a tower - because of course there's s tower- of ice on our left. Mana sense confirmed that the densest ice mana spot was there. Trees grew denser going towards the point up to a point, where they suddenly stopped and formed a perfectly circular clearing around the tower. You could only sort of see the clearing from our angle. We were high up, sure, but we weren't gazing down on it.

Of the three structures we could see the tower was the second farthest away.

On our right was a… base. I think. It's a squat concrete structure spanning some distance before sloping downwards. I'm no expert but I'd wager that it goes underground. In front of it is a genuinely large lot with an old bullhead in it. I'm not sure if it works or not though. There's a tank likely full of dust next to it. If I recall, bullheads use lightning and burn dust to form a mixture called 'energy dust' by those in industry. Bullhead dust is normally pretty high quality. Not great but good. I could use that dust with all the fire dust I've already used up.

This was the closest structure.

Finally was a large sort of square structure made of blued ice in the distance. One side of it was open ended but it obviously led downwards too. You could faintly see a pathway leading from it to the bunker.

"This is… odd." I said.

"What were they even doing here?" Ruby said frustratedly. "Capturing elementals and an honest to dust military bunker in the middle of this icy wasteland… and whatever that dome thing is - all of it makes so little sense!"

Raven took out her scroll and took a series of pictures. Then she sat up and turned around to do the same. She paused before taking a few. Then she put her scroll away. "Look."

I sat up and turned around but didn't see anything readily apparent. "On the right. It's in the trees but you can see it if you squint." Raven leveled a finger and I followed it. Still I didn't see anything so I tried pulling out a pair of binoculars from my inventory.

A little glimmer caught me eye and I saw it! A grey building was peeking out through the trees. If you looked closely you can see what almost looks like power lines and a path leading to the slope we were on. Just farther down that way.

"Interesting… mysterious building, bunker, tower of ice, or mysterious dome." I muttered. Ruby couldn't see it still so I handed the binoculars to her. She made an 'oh' sound and inspected the building.

Raven turned a little more and her eyes widened in alarm. "Oh no." I turned myself and saw a… a lot of white. But… what's that?

"Quiet!" I hissed. Raven and Ruby quieted as much as they could. I closed my eyes in concentration and listened very closely in the direction of the blizzard.

 _*hiss*hissss*scree!*hiss*hiss*scre...*_

"Oh shit…" I said as my eyes widened.

"What?" Ruby asked. I moved her head to the snowstorm through the binoculars and she froze. "Oh fudge… that's a lot of elementals."

"What?!" Raven grabbed the binoculars and looked at the snowstorm in severe alarm. "Fuck… fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" Raven popped the binoculars into our shared inventory and paced. I blinked in surprise. I've never heard Raven swear that much before. Or pace. I suppose I've never seen her so stressed before either. I cut in with a plan.

"We need shelter. Bad. The grey building is the closest. It's also downhill. We have to go that way."

"Absolutely." Ruby said.

"Any plans to get there quickly?" Raven asked as she stopped pacing. "That storm is moving fast. Walking or even running won't get us there in time."

"Does your semblance still work, Raven?" She frowned. I jogged over a little and let her test it. A portal opened right next to me.

"Fine." She said.

I manifested my wings. "Ruby is pretty light." Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Can you fly with them?" I bobbed my head from left to right a little.

"Sort of. I can't land very well and not from lack of practicing. I also can't take off in cold weather like this. I need warm air and an updraft to rise up and warm air to stay aloft, which I can make through magic. Humanoids weren't meant to have wings… Look, the point is that I can glide and that's enough to get us close enough to the building to run the rest of the way with some spells but it's going to be close. Can you fly as a bird? And don't ask how I know. I can distinguish between nature magic and the maiden magics pretty easily. I just never brought it up."

Raven blinked a little but didn't look very surprised. "I can fly alright… but when I transform to a raven I don't have any insulation. I get hot and cold easily. I could get hyperthermia before I get to the building. I also don't fly all that fast. Maybe twenty five miles per hour. Perhaps less in the cold."

I nod. "Not fast enough?" She shook her head.

"That shorm's going to be here in a minute or three. That building's two miles away at least. Go and I'll make a portal when I get too cold. I'll burn mana to ward off the wraiths and use my semblance when I can." I frown but nod. We don't have a better plan and we're running out of time.

"I'll send mana through the…" My eyes widened.

"My soul space! Get in!" Ruby's eyes widened and she ran to me. I tapped her and sent her to the habitable soul space. Raven blinked in surprise but I held out my hand and she clasped it.

"Stay safe." She said seriously. I nodded and she disappeared into my soul space with Ruby.

I ran towards the edge and made a hot updraft. I jumped and my wings spread. I grunted but kept myself straight. I poured mana into motion spells and my air affinity and felt myself flying fast.

I could hear the roar of the storm getting closer but it was looking like I'd be safe. I approached the trees pretty close to the building and tree-hopped with some air and motion magic along with my already strong leg muscles.

I stopped for just a moment to look at the building. It looked like a somewhat small warehouse. It was long and rectangular with cart tracks outside holding two carts modified to hold two gunners at old machine guns. Probably to deal with the elementals if I had to guess.

The warehouse had barn-like doors that were almost certainly frozen shut but there were windows broken above. I jumped once more and used an updraft to sort of double jump. I dismissed my wings and was able to squeeze through the window when I moved my legs to my chest.

Immediately I was faced with another problem. Elementals. A strong one and several of a weaker variety. Shit.

To the right side was an elevated platform with lockers lining the wall above and below. On my left was a stairwell leading underground. The elementals lay in the middle on some tracks.

I sent a pulse of aura to my soul space and hoped that alerted Ruby and Raven while I collected a massive amount of heat mana into my left hand and drew my shortsword with my left.

As I neared the ground Raven appeared and Ruby as well. Their eyes widened at the elementals and Raven performed a laido strike with her fire blade. A wave of flames rebuffed the elementals while Ruby ran with her semblance to the elevated platform.

I shot my heat beam at the strong elemental and it screeched at the flames and concentrated heat. I followed that up with as much air attuned mana as I could make blasting out of me, creating a huge blast of wind that pushed back the elementals.

Ruby managed to get some quick shots off and knock out four weker elementals. Raven was working on some sort of spell. I readied a heat wave for the rest of the weaker elementals. I need more heat based moves…

The strong elemental, to it's credit, recovered quickly. Ruby shot at it four times but didn't do much. It was just too big. The sound of her magazine clicking was met with her immediately loading another.

Raven dashed forth to meet the charging elemental. I saw it rear back to use it's breath attack like it had used on my air blade before but Raven didn't stop. She swung her sword as the elemental pushed forward and shot a concentrated blizzard at Raven.

Raven's sword blazed with fire but in front of her a portal sprung into existence. Another was made right next to Ruby. Raven flew through it and came flying right at the elemental's side.

I shot my heat wave at the small cluster of elementals, which was down to three and the strong one now. The weaker ones died and the strong one interrupted it's breath attack to turn into a hiss.

Raven finally met the vertebrae of the elemental and her sword cleaved through it's neck. The hissing cut off and the elemental began to wisp away into ice mana.

A long silence met the end of the skirmish. Ruby kept her gun trained at the stairs and I dropped my shortsword/halberd to instead have two heat beams - one in each hand - ready to fire if anything came up. Raven swayed a little but shook it off. I was at about a quarter of my mana but I spared a third of it to her and she nodded gratefully and got into a more fighting shape.

"I just need a minute." I said. I had my parallels meditating for heat affinity and mana all the time, though the mana regeneration didn't stack, at all times now since I could spare a parallel, but I was dangerously low on my mana and my aura wasn't looking too good either. I had drawn from it for my spells to save some mana and use both regeneration effects. I was at about three fifths.

Everyone just stayed calm and took a breather for a moment. Exactly two minutes later, I was counting, I drew on my ice affinity and made sure the doors weren't moving and iced over the windows. I made the ice as cloudy as possible to prevent any elementals seeing us… or however they see. Not aura or mana sense seeing that Raven and I were hidden…

"Alright…" I pulled Swift from my soul and ordered him to inspect the stairwell for danger. If there was danger he would return. If not he would do a flip.

Swift checked it out and happily did a flip as he returned to me. Simple enough. Swift wasn't very useful in a fight but little things like this were good.

I moved towards the stairwell and kept my senses alert. Ruby hopped down and went to the railing of the stairwell, peeking her gun down when I took a look. Sweep and clear, huh?

There wasn't any danger though. There was a metal push door…

"A door. Raven, if you would?" I sent a bunch of aura and a bit of mana to Raven, draining myself a little, and she sighed and passed by me. She walked down the stairs and drew her fire attuned blade and readied a fireball in one hand. I walked down the steps to be near her if she needed it.

Raven drew back a boot and strongly kicked the door in. Or, well, tried. The door budged a little and a crack of ice signalled a failure. She didn't emote at all and kicked again. The door flew open and a shattering indicated ice being broken. A loud hiss came from a minor ice elemental that lunged for Raven. She sliced it's head off and checked the room.

It was a smallish square room with an open doorway leading to another room. I could see some old beds through it. It smelled… well, it didn't really smell at all. There wasn't any dust because literally nothing but a mass of ice mana was here for years.

Ruby, Raven, and I swept unanimously let our guard down. I turned and closed the door, seeing a sheet of ice on the other side of the door. Now with a spiderweb of cracks on it. The hinges were also so cold that after Raven's kicking them they cracked. Oh well.

The main room we were in had two older computers on one wall and a couch, bookshelf, cabinet, some shelves, and a stove in the corner. People… lived here? Or rested here before taking the minecarts to wherever they went.

Raven looked into the other room and sighed. I walked over to see the other room. Two bunk beds, two empty footlockers, and a thin plastic sheet drawn back to a thankfully empty toilet.

"Was this place some sort of outpost or resting spot? It's my best guess. People like Mango went out to collect… things, and then they went back here to take a cart back to a main camp. Probably the bunker we saw."

"Carts?" Ruby asked. I nodded.

"Two carts with older machine guns mounted. I can't say if they're motorized or not. They might be like bicycles with foot petals. Two guns facing outwards making it a two seater. We can probably take one to see where it goes tomorrow." Ruby nodded.

"This isn't how I imagined the icy forest would go." Raven said.

"Oh believe me, we've barely scratched the surface of it so far." I said. "But we can really only wait and see. I want to know more about this organization that Mango was a part of. Why was Vale here? How is this place here in the first place? The trees emit ice mana passively but the tower has a larger signature of mana than any of them. It's all… very obscure."

"Maybe that journal you picked up has some answers?" Ruby suggested. I nodded.

"I'm half expecting more questions but at least it's a start in the right direction." Raven sighed.

"Can we start on some food first? I'm fine with anything right now."

"We'll have to save the marshmallows for another night then."

"Awwww." Ruby whined. "Alright… can I get first watch? I don't feel like sleeping right now."

"Want to do some reading first?" I put the journal into my hand and raised it. Ruby nodded with a small smile.

"Food please?" Raven asked. I sadly had to forfeit good cooking and use warm and go food so I got out a can of chili and pried the top open with a knife. I quickly started the process of heating it with my heat affinity and Raven eyed it like she might just take it without heating.

I walked over to the couch and sat down. I assigned a few parallels to remote clones and directed them to make a series of barriers to both hide all mana in the building and walls of intense heat when they detect ice mana in close proximity.

I also wanted those lockers searched for anything useful. Three clones got on the barriers while one searched the lockers. The last continued meditating on my heat affinity.

I finished quick-heating the can of chili so I passed it to Raven. She made a spoon out of stone from earth mana and started wolfing it down.

I made a pot from some quick ice producing and jotted down a rune to make it not absorb heat as I so often did. I produced water from mana and filled it before flash boiling it and dropping in a tea packet. Raven took notice and looked pleased at my initiative.

I closed my eyes and watched through my clone's eyes at the contents of the lockers. Nothing. A whole lot of nothing. Well, there was a family photo, a box of old dust rounds, and an old pistol. Not useful at all. Not to mention that the ammunition might be bad with age. I ordered my parallel to crack open the bullets for the dust and he got on it.

I ignored the other three, who were a quarter of the way done with the protective runic circles, and made some canned ravioli for Ruby and I to eat.

Pretty soon we finished two cans of the ravioli and Raven got to her tea, which I handed her a canteen for. She drank some for a few minutes and put the rest in the canteen before heading off to bed. My parallels finished and checked their work so they got to practicing the heat beam in my soul space.

And I opened the journal…

[|||| == ||||]

" _So how did you brats like your jobs?"_

" _Bouncing was boring."_

" _Those guys you wanted recruited were idiots. I have no idea why you think they even have the potential to scrub toilets but they work for you now."_

" _Goldilocks one day you'll realise that plenty of idiots have their uses. Anyways… Fishie?"_

" _The dust depot was fun to break into. There were a few guards patrolling around but I got the tax reports."_

" _Thank you, Fishie. Now… rewards! Here you are you two get paper and Fishie, be very careful with these deadly poisons. They're worth a lot."_

" _We can use them to kill rats maybe."_

" _Shut it Goldie. Here. This was easy enough to get but like all things precious you own it comes from me. Well, on our mutual friend's behest but meh."_

" _Sure. Li… a… an apartment at… okay then I'm just going to take this."_

" _Sure, sure. And here, stone. It's apparently for your family."_

" _Thank you."_

" _I like him. He doesn't have snark like you two."_

" _Can you put your poisons in his coffee?"_

" _That would be a waste of good poison."_

" _Love you too, brats. I'm glad we got to know each other so well. Now shoo. And don't slam the door this-"_

 _*SLAM!*_

"… _I hope we never meet again."_

" _Hi Torchwick."_

" _GAH! Oh… teacher."_

" _Right. Here, pictures of that drug dealer. I got all his stuff sold to another one. I also found his contact to Vacuo. He's running with his tail between his legs and a lovely tattoo on his face. It's like a poster board of your name."_

" _A little brutal but sure. My friend said you didn't like violence though. And where'd your cheer go?"_

" _You forgot to mention that he was experimenting on the homeless. I kind of… got a little angry. Not really feeling like being happy and bubbly."_

" _WHAT?! Dust damnit. This is why I don't like drug dealers. Not now, not before, and not ever. Too unpredictable… um, here. Wait - that's not it… here it is. Your reward. It's the only one I didn't have to get myself."_

" _Thank you."_

" _You're the only one of the four that I actually like. I'll reach for you if I have a job dealing with terrible people other than myself."_

" _Huh. I'd be alright with that. Bye now."_

…

 _*Shrkk*_

" _Hm? From Qrow?… Oh?… OH MY GOSH! AHAHAHAHA! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! I FINALLY GOT A DATE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	23. Chapter 23

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 23** = ||||]

 _Journal log 1_

 _Beck said that since I think so much I should write it down. I actually took the idea down to heart for once and got this little beauty. I had to bribe one of the brains but I got it._

 _Oleander is being a nosy ass as always but I'm trying to deal with it all by just waiting it out before he gets transferred. Sarge likes him so he stays through the complaints._

 _This is all the nice and normal stuff but we still have strange stuff going on. The wraiths aren't horrible if you're careful and stick with a buddy but we don't understand them. It's bad for morale… And one guy who had a phobia of serpents._

 _Anyways, I'll keep from writing it down for now. The brains are trying to keep everything quiet…_

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log 19_

 _Strange stuff has gotten worse. People freeze quicker with the temperature dropping past freezing. The brains are getting nervous about something. I can't say I want to know what._

 _The blizzards are getting more frequent, almost daily, and the wraith are growing in number._

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log 29_

 _Blizzards keep getting worse. Food keeps feeling to shrink. The base gets colder, as though below freezing isn't enough. This is sort of a daily thing now. I don't feel like writing any more._

 _Even Oleander has been quieter. We talked a little bit with an almost civil conversation. We threw insults but they were half-hearted. I didn't know that he scored top marks in marksmanship. I thought he was compensating with that long rifle of his._

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log 37_

 _Something BIG happened yesterday. You cour faintly hear the roar of a storm but kinda higher pitched than the usual rumble._

 _The brains were running around in a semi-organized scatter and somebody must have done something right. They all get a switch on that little buzzing thing they have. A pager they call it I think. Techs really not my Forte._

 _Anyways, the pagers have four lights. Green, yellow, red, and white. The pagers were at red for a moment and the brains all started panicking and rushing to the snow globe… Sorry, to beta camp. A few of them ran to the nearest radios and frantically called to beta camp, had a guy yell at them, and they in turn yelled at us to get our guns._

 _We already had them, not being stupid, and locked down at a checkpoint. Just like we were drilled._

 _Maybe ten - fifteen minutes passed and the brain's pager buzzed to a green and he gave out a weird gasping laugh. I can't tell what he was feeling but we were dismissed to our normal schedule for the day._

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log 38_

 _Everything is abuzz with rumors about what happened yesterday but nobody actually knows. The brains are being real quiet about it. Probably hoping it will die off as a drill or something._

 _Oleander got in a fistfight with a guy. Caboose. The nicest guy in the station, that. He gave me his pudding once. He wouldn't say what it was about but Caboose is being comforted by his little gang he hangs out in - who are all kind of stupid but not hopeless - and Oleander left off to brood._

 _I tossed him my pudding before he left. Who doesn't like pudding? It'll keep the mood nicer. Caboose saw and gave me a thumbs up. I tossed him a grin and he got to doing his thing again._

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log 59_

 _Wouldn't you believe it… the temperature kept dropping. It was below freezing at first but now it's just utterly shitty. The wraith have been quiet lately. Nothing troublesome has come._

 _The brains are perpetually nervous again, ticking us all off. Food literally didn't even come yesterday. The truck crashed and we had to send a few squads out to pick up what's left. Some of the food is ruined, though, so ration dinners tonight._

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log 67_

 _The brains carted something through the base yesterday some sort of scaly four limbed creature with sort of catfish-like and a cold aura around it. Seriously. It was moved past me and everything around me got colder. I could see my breath steam in the air._

 _You could kind of see it's chest rising and falling. As it's chest expanding the scales parted just a little bit. It had super pale skin to the point that you could almost see through it. But I swear that it's skin almost looked to glow a sharp pale blue._

 _I don't know what that thing was but the brains wouldn't talk and honestly I don't want to know. Some sort of… Cold weather salamander?_

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal lug 68_

 _Not many people got much sleep last night. Those roars we all assumed were from the storm? They're back and they're loud. Kind of ringing throughout the whole forest. Blizzards last throughout the day now. If you stay stiff for too long, even, a sheet of hoarfrost might start to cover you and then real ice starts to form on the hoarfrost._

 _Obviously it's not natural but… Daily blizzards? The wraiths? We all knew we were stepping into some deep shit here, joining the Managuards, and hell if we all just blew past that name._

 _Fuck… Magic is real, isn't it? We sure as hell don't understand the world we live in, that's for sure. I've got questions. So many questions… But I doubt I'll get any answers._

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log - 69_

 _Well that whole magic crisis is over and done with. Yesterday to take our minds off of the roaring, because what else could it be, Oleander just said "So we're not talking about the magical stuff then?"_

 _Pretty much everyone just stared at him for blowing the tension wide open in classic Oleander lack of tact._

 _We all got to discussing it all at least. Jameson saw a sort of Yeti looking creature. Oleander saw a huge white serpent. I told them about my catfish dragon. Sarge saw two things. A bat with pure white skin and pure red eyes not like the Grimm but like rubies and a lanky, lurching humanoid form through the blizzard that nobody captured. It's still out there in the woods._

 _All of this said we were… Well at least a little safe in our bunker, hopefully._

 _Logging out - Kastan Mango_

 _Journal log - 71_

 _We were not safe in the bunker. The constant roaring died down for about five minutes during lunch and suddenly a really REALLY high pitched shred rang out. A scientist's pager buzzed and we all looked at it to see that white dot._

 _The scientist screamed "Evacuate!" and we all sprung into action. We ran to the closest armory, yelling evacuation to every soldier in our path. They then ran back to their assigned room._

 _Evacuation policy is to grab a pack from the armory and run to the desert to trek to the nearest road. Meet with the local army center for Vale or the embassy and report in._

 _We all got to the armory and suited up in heavy gear. SCARAB armor. Super fancy and expensive with the tanks of dust in the back fuelling it._

 _The only problem with them is that they can't use aura for anything other than using dust to fuel it. The armor is too thick to allow your aura to shield you. On the other hand, you can get out fresh and fight on… Or run. So long as you aren't trapped in the armor you'll be a Goliath among Davids._

 _We aren't really allowed to use it but during an evacuation It's open season on everything. I got a heavy assault rifle. Prototype chain gun with some stuff happening with fire dust._

 _Anyways, we started using the suits to run out towards the dome. Didn't want to cross the bump after all. Ah, the hill._

 _I'll keep from gory descriptions and say that it was hellish. Scientists blind-firing into the blizzard hoping to hit a wraith or a creature, soldiers yelling for some sense of order or to call out hostiles._

 _Every minute or so a roar would echo out. The blizzard would pick up, you would feel a pulse of extreme cold, and the creatures would be whipped into a frenzy. Sarge yelled for a retreat for us. Man was always smart._

 _Sarge got an icicle to the foot that didn't bounce off his aura. His floor was pinned and he couldn't do anything but shoot and tank hits. His aura gave out and I suppose something got him._

 _Beck's chest plate was ripped off by some sort of clawed wraith - and it was definitely a wraith._

 _Jameson tripped when he, me, and Oleander finally got out of the chaos. Oli and I left him behind._

 _Finally Oli and I escaped to the relative peace of the forest and blizzard, hoping that we can cross the hill with our suits and dust and find the outpost. If we could find the rails we'd be free but that would take a miracle, and despite magic existing I'm not counting on it to help me out._

 _I'm writing this as me and Oleander take a break under an ice tree. But… Oli took a nasty hit to the ribs. They're broken. So I'm gonna hand my journal to him and let him write some last words._

 _I'll write mine after, ditch the SCARAB suit and the heavy assault rifle since it's dust and too heavy to carry without the ammo to be worth it._

 _Logging off - Kastan Mango_

 _Oleander Fenric Alabaster - last words._

 _I don't know how Mango can scribble in his journal so often. Ever since Captain Beck recommended he write his thoughts he's been taking this journal with him wherever he goes. Well it helps out now so whatever._

 _I'm thirty one, ran away from home at twenty in disgrace to join the army, became the best shot in the whole platoon and made some friends. I'm no interesting person. Just an asshole with something to prove._

 _I don't care for this whole last words thing really. I've got no quotes or anything. Oh, I wish I had died in a pretty woman's arms. There we go. That'll piss my sister off._

 _If anyone gets this don't bother finding my corpse. I'll die with my platoon here. Managuard is pretty much my life and with them dying here I die._

 _My sister, who's nineteen, is still in Vale. Thyme Alabaster. She lived at 2095 Yeckle street at the northern end. Give this page to her please, and that's the only time I'll say please so you damn well better respect it._

" _Thank you sis. You tried to keep me around when I was clearly good for nothing and everyone knew it. Well I'm not much good for anything now either. Maybe Mango will live and get to live out his life waking off with some war veterans. I'll die for that. Anyways… Thanks. And you better not have had sex before marriage._

 _P.S. Remember that time capsule in East Park under the 'super tree'? I made another one in that tree I insisted was the real super tree. It's buried in your fancy metal shoe box._

 _Possible final words - Kastan Mango_

 _Look, I'm an orphan. Nobody's going to blink twice if I die and get forgotten. I didn't have many options so I enlisted and got recruited to the Managuard. "An opportunity to be something" the recruiter called it._

 _Well I sure will be something here. The guy that talks about the shady magical bullshit that they're doing here._

 _In the emergency packs are wraiths. A little one and a bigger one. I don't know what the brains were doing in that bunker. But I do know that a good many men died because they were poking into things beyond themselves._

 _They're playing with stuff nobody gets in a foreign land surrounded by whoever even knows what the wraiths are._

 _When I was fighting in that final fight I saw a scientist fling a vial of some sort of pale blue glowing liquid. It hit a tree and the wraiths and beasties all swarmed onto it. I dismissed it as magic bullshit but that's something different._

 _I won't pretend to know what it was. But I have a guess that it's part of whatever they were working on._

 _I'm bringing back these wraiths but I'm expecting answers if I get back. I'm damned if I don't take them with the walk and I'm damned if I do walk with them since I have such a walk._

 _Luckily, I've got a little trump card. My semblance. I call it slide. I just slide on stuff. I can ice skate without skates is the only real use for it. But it'll help to move on the sand and go down dunes. The way out of the forest is also sloping slightly downwards._

 _Now I'm going to give Oli the honor of a bullet to the head to save him from the wraiths and start on my way. And he agreed with me that a bullet is better than being torn apart by the wraiths._

 _I'll see everyone on the other side, be it wherever we go when we die or in Vale sipping some hot cocoa with whiskey shot in it. Because there's no alcohol or hot cocoa here. Just damndable coffee._

 _Logging off (maybe permanently) - Kastan Mango_

[|||| == ||||]

"Well… that was informative." I say as we finish the journal.

"I feel bad for Oli." Ruby says sadly.

"Stories like that are common." I remark. "Plenty of people are like Oleander. No outstanding talents, no close family, and not enough charm to make it big. Well, he was a good marksman. He seemed to have some pride in that."

"Yeah I guess… I still feel bad for him though. Let's give this letter to his sister when we get back."

"Agreed." I said. "Are you still up for watch?"

"Uh huh." Ruby said.

"Alright. I'm going to bed. Wake up Raven in a few hours. If she complains tell her that I'm making breakfast."

"Got it!"

I quietly walked into the bunkroom and didn't take off my clothes. It was cold enough that I would need them.

I closed my eyes and disappeared into my soul space to practice my heat spells as much as I could. I was going to need them. Badly.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Auntie. It's your shift."_

" _Give me the early morning one."_

" _Abyss is making breakfast then. Also we have answers to a lot of our questions."_

"… _Fine."_

" _Abyss is a really heavy sleeper unless we're pranking him or he's in danger. Don't worry about waking him."_

" _Alright. So answers?"_

" _Right. So Mango, the frozen guy, was part of a military organization called the Managuards. We're not sure if the Managuards are a military subsection of the whole organization or the organization doing all of this as a whole."_

" _I would guess a military branch judging that 'guarding' implies defending with force."_

" _Mhm. We thought that too. But we can't really say. It's not really important though. Anyways, the scientists were studying something secret. The grunts like Mango weren't allowed to know. One day the scientists freaked out over an alert through some old timey pagers and everyone went onto full lock down of the corridors."_

" _Nobody suspected magic when they saw the wraiths?"_

" _If a smart guy says that thing is… I dunno, something normal like a Grimm, what kind of soldier is going to say it's magic?"_

" _Ah, so they weren't educated about magic?"_

" _Nope. They were straight recruited, we think. From exceptional scores maybe? Or guys who won't ask questions."_

" _Probably people who can keep their mouths shut and don't have anyone who would look for them if they were to disappear."_

" _Oh! Mango was an orphan and his buddy, Oleander, ran from his family years ago. So that probably played a part."_

" _Now, what happened next?"_

" _The blizzards and cold kept getting worse and worse. Then some roaring and stuff happened. Like all the time apparently. Mango never found out what was making the roaring noise."_

" _An… ice elemental?"_

" _Nope! Also, they called them wraiths and I'm thinking we should call them that too. It kinda fits and it's shorter. Anyways, Oleander finally broke the ice and put the magic idea out there. Mango say some sort of dragon with catfish whiskers but not like sea dragon Grimm. It had four limbs. His sergeant saw a huge white bat and a sort of creepy humanoid thing in the blizzard. Jameson saw some kind of Yeti. Oleander saw a huge white serpent."_

" _Magical creatures… They exist…"_

" _Uh huh. Now, the roaring kept happening and people were hard pressed to get sleep. The blizzard became a constant. Finally the pager things flashed a white light and scientists panicked and called an evacuation. Mango and his squad got to the armory and found something called SCARAB armor."_

" _SCARAB armor… interesting. Did he go into detail?"_

" _Sort of. It sounds like some sort of exo suit. It's dust fuelled but it's flaw is that it can't use aura for anything other than dust. I really want to see the blueprints for it. It could teach me a lot about how to make Abyss' tool."_

" _There's probably a few pairs in the armory if the plans aren't there. Perhaps both."_

" _Uh huh. There's also a prototype gun with a rotary barrel like a mini gun on an assault rifle but it was really heavy. There's one by Oleander corpse somewhere in the forest but there could be more of that type in the armory."_

" _The bunker sounds like our next stop."_

" _Definitely. Now, they got into the armor, grabbed some emergency packs, and tried to leave through that path. But it was a huge chaotic brawl and everyone but Oleander and Mango died. Oleander had a cracked rib so he wrote his last words in Mango's journal and was shot. Less painful."_

" _I'll read them and give him my respects. Someone who can look death in the face and be willingly taken is at least worth reading an epitaph for."_

" _Mango took the packs because he figured he would probably die anyways and if a miracle was going to happen he should capitalize on it. But one didn't happen. More like the opposite happened."_

" _I see… You should go to bed now, Ruby."_

" _MmmI will… oh! And there was some blue goopy stuff that attracted the wraiths and creatures but Mango has no idea what it was."_

" _I see. I'm more interested in the tower for what spellbooks we might have but it's also likely more dangerous so we'll head to the bunker in the morning. I doubt Abyss will disagree."_

" _Um, what tower?"_

" _The… the large one made of ice. That we saw from the clearing?"_

" _Oh! The empty clearing. It seems kind of nice but why would we go there?"_

" _... Ruby do you remember anything about a large tower made of ice?"_

" _A tower made of ice? Um, no."_

" _Ruby stay there for a second and just wait. Remember these words. Ice. Tower."_

" _..."_

" _..."_

" _..."_

" _What were the two words I said?"_

" _You only said ice."_

" _Oh no… this is a job for Abyss… Go to bed Ruby."_

" _Uhm… okay."_

[|||| == ||||]

I went back to my body around five hours after I went to sleep. It was enough for me, being a homunculi in body.

I still had my clothes on so I just got out of the bed and walked out of the room. Raven was sitting on the couch reading a book. Her tea canister sat beside her empty. "Oh good you're up. We have a problem."

I groaned. "Already? Why can't we have problems when we run into the bunker?" Raven rolled her eyes.

"There's some sort of mental effect on the ice tower. Ruby can't see it or remember it and when I tell her about it she changes the subject and forgets about it."

I stood straight and was instantly alert. "What did you try?"

"I gave her a full physical check. She's perfectly fine there. I don't know about mind tricks so I let her sleep, hoping that no permanent damage will occur if she's not conscious to fight the effects. The soldiers were fine for a while. I read the journal and Sergeant Mango was stationed for almost a half year, perhaps more. With there being no mention of an ice tower in his journal whatsoever despite how prominent the tower is I assume nobody else could see the tower. I can't think of any explanation as for why we can see the tower other than magic."

I looked down. "You probably should have woken me but… Hold on." I turned around towards Ruby and hit her with observe. Nothing was wrong. Other than that… this is magical in nature. I wonder…

I sensed mana as hard as I could on Ruby and found nothing. She was fine.

"Nothing is wrong with her. No mana is on her and she's fine physically. How much sleep has she gotten?"

"Five and a half hours." I thought for a moment.

"We'll leave her for now. You're probably right that she's okay… for now. We'll test this thing in the morning." Raven nodded and went to her bed. I could tell she was asleep in minutes.

I myself focused more on my heat affinity in a deep meditation and kept my mind off of Ruby. My parallels practiced my four heat attacks, one of then new. And the new one… well, I read a few chemistry books. Water being one part oxygen and two parts hydrogen I can flash heat it and make an explosion so long as there's water in the air.

The icy forest is pretty dry but I can add a little water vapor to the air no problem if I need to. Sadly this wasn't actually a skill but more of a creative usage of my affinities. I could shape the air to make the blast shaped at least. It's almost easier to just throw a heatwave but heatwave doesn't have any force to it.

The other attack, actually a spell this time, is also explosive. I make a hollow casing of ice - normally a spike - and make a crapton of superheated steam in it.

I toss the ice and when it shatters it goes boom from the pressure and burns everything around it with the heat from the steam. I have to make the ice somewhat thin so that it shatters on contact but doesn't let a hole into existence from the steam.

 ***Ding!* New spell acquired! - Pressure spike**

" _ **Steam is surprisingly destructive. Then again, it's ice with a chaos part. Chaos tends to be sneakier than most care to admit with incredible potential. Kind of like those water mages and their BS."**_

 _ **-Cynlenia the broiling**_

Getting sciencey with magic was… well it produced some good results. It also made me want to kick myself over something. I had absolutely neglected my water affinity. Water was just brimming with potential. It had a lot of energy in it's bonds with how stable it is. It brought my attention to my motion affinity. Could I oxidize atoms? Knock off hydrogen atoms of something to create energy then convert that energy to heat?

There was also my light affinity. Could I enchant something to inherit the properties of the speed of light? And lasers… Just lasers. I could probably make a laser if I got creative with it but I haven't the textbooks to properly research light. I knew of hard light and called projecting mana with a light affinity making hard light but in reality was it just projected mana with a light affinity to glow?

I had gotten lax. Overlooked potential in my spells and affinities. Ruby had taken things to the next level with her weapon. I had to take things to a new height with my spells as well. If there was one good part of this expedition at least it was that my desperation for more efficient ways of using heat brought me to powerful spells.

My heat affinity had actually reached one hundred thirty seven, making it my fourth highest base affinity. I would prefer heat over purity as a dominant for the moment. Actually… I wonder what I can do with air? It was mostly made of nitrogen… a nitrogen bomb… because science makes explosions.

I need to make a railgun. There is no reason whatsoever not to. Ruby's sniper works as a railgun in principle with the acceleration runes but I need a spell for it to be activated easier. A motion based spell to fire a projectile… a super-heated projectile… Better…

And the electrical augmentation… I could super-heat a liquid blade and run electricity through it. A motion rune could make it stick together… I could have a liquid metal sword that's electric…

And let's not forget about cold too. A shield of absolute zero would no-sell most elemental attacks. Electricity, fire, ice… I

I can't think of anything that could break such a shield.

There's also my air manipulation. When I fought Qrow I made a sonic boom by expanding a space and rapidly compressing it to create a boom. But that was just with the air already in that space. I could do better. I could shape it to fire sonic booms that throw an enemy back. I could also do it in the area around me with my space affinity. Using both could destroy buildings with just my affinities.

Make a large amount of space from expanding the space already there, force as much air into the space as I could, and let the space snap back to the norm, making all that air push against itself and make air fly out at a high velocity. I wonder if I can give the air more mass. I could just throw dust into it but… superheated steam. Duh. Alright. So that's one move I want to test out today.

I could make a portal in space too. Possibly. Or very high in the air and trick somebody into it. On the topic of spatial traps I could bend space into a doughnut so that somebody running towards me would turn whether or not they wanted to simply because going straight for them was actually curving in a circular pattern from out relative position.

I could use space affinity to draw a large object closer together as well to make it more dense through compressing the space it inhabits. Or… the SCARAB armor but enhanced by Ruby with runes to let it compact in on itself into a pocket dimension?

Dear lord that would be hard to properly plan out with us thinking in more than three dimensions on a two dimensional surface (paper). But it's possible. Ruby did some incredible things with her scythe and my halberd is already incredible with the planning that we have already done. But it could be better.

Actually making a pocket dimension would need a time affinity. Unless space naturally makes time by existing. Time not having a presence in a pocket space would be useful actually. I could store prisoners in one of those. I could also time-lock armor. Make it so that the way it is at the moment it's locked in time is how it always will be. I'll need to read up a bit on quantum physics for this sort of thing though.

With all I've been neglecting with magic… what can I do with aura? Is this why it's been leveling at a snail's pace?

I haven't been practicing what I've been preaching. Well I've been tearing into magic but that's not quite the same thing. It's very very similar but releasing the hidden potential in things is what makes me think I'm using science to my advantage. So no. I haven't been acting to my furthest potential. I need to try harder to use things efficiently rather than looking for new resources.

After meditating and writing ideas in one of my journals - more for ideas for later than actual science and theories on things - until I had to make breakfast. I checked if the stove worked and surprise, surprise… it didn't. I didn't really want to waste the wood I had in my inventory though. It was good wood. So I made an axe from ice and hacked the empty cabinet down to splinters.

I piled the wood in the center of the room and tried getting sciencey. I would need to start this sort of exercise soon enough anyways… I got a firm grasp on the air around us and separated the oxygen out from all the other junk. It wasn't extraordinarily hard. Just some mental discipline. Air was composed of a few parts in a mixture, all of which were apparently under the label of air. So I could control gaseous nitrogen, oxygen, and argon… I think. I don't know about the trace elements of air.

I can feel out the air well enough to get a taste for the nitrogen and oxygen easily. Argon took some concentration to find. Sensing elements was kind of like mana. I could feel the difference in them in a way that wasn't really equivalent to any of the five senses. I didn't get a skill for it, which was fine. I was feeling through my affinity for air. Not some magic or anything.

I took the separate oxygen and cloaked it in a thin layer around the wood. A snap of my fingers for dramatic effect and I made a small but intense burst of heat mana to the wood and oxygen. In a poof a fire sprang up. To deal with the fumes I just made a breeze to blow all the smoke out before it collected.

I took a pan out from my inventory and some eggs and got started cooking. Eggs, bacon, and sausage with the sausage skewered with my non-heat conductive ice over the open fire to give it a little more smokey taste.

Ruby got up but saw I wasn't done yet and rested a little more. Raven was more tired so she didn't stir. She might be awake though. I'm not really sure.

As I started dishing up three plates the two got up. It turns out Raven really was awake. We ate in silence with Raven and Ruby on the couch and me sitting back in my icy chair I made to sit near the fire.

As we finished up I broke my plate cleanly in two over my leg to nullify the rune and tossed it into the fire. I really don't think anyone needs more ice in this forest. Raven sleepily finished her food and broke her plate before tossing it to the fire. Ruby held up her bacon in her hand to nibble on and threw her plate to the fire, where it broke on the wood.

"So Ruby." I said calmly. I focused hard on sensing mana. "You remember that icy tower we saw yesterday?"

Ruby looked about to respond for just a moment but I sensed a purple attuned mana rushing towards her inthe organized and controlled manner that spells were. I stretched out a tendril of my own projected mana and encased Ruby in a bubble in a split second. Ruby darted up to her feet and crescent eclipse appeared in her hand.

"Calm down." I said seriously. Ruby looked towards me with an alert gaze. "Do you remember the tower of ice? The one you saw yesterday at the peak?" Ruby blinked and looked like she was about to respond but winced and hissed as she clutched her head. Outside the bubble a stream of purple mana continued to throw itself against my projected mana fruitlessly. My mana reserves decreased a little with it disturbing my mana in the barrier and knocking it from my control. I had a high skill in projecting and controlling mana and more than enough to spare. Bring it on.

"I… sort of? The spire… or was it a clearing?" Ruby grimaced.

"She thought it was a clearing when we talked. That there was nothing there worthwhile." Raven said. She pulled out her scroll and got to the pictures. She walked up to Ruby and showed the pictures to her.

Ruby let out an "Eeep!" and her hand went back to her head. "Okay… what's going on? Why is my memory so… blurry?"

"Mind mana, compulsion mana… mana that messes with your head." I explained. "There's some sort of magical system in place to deny the knowledge of any tower of ice like what we saw." Ruby's eyes widened.

"Someone's been messing with my head?!" I shook my head.

"More like something. But I don't think we can do anything about it. I can't maintain this shield from the compulsion mana in combat since you can't shoot through it and moving unpredictably too quickly like you do in combat you'd run into and possibly break the shield. There's three options here. The first is that we let the mana get to you. The soldiers were fine and all the mana seems to be doing to you is making you forget about the tower. Perhaps it also compels you to not go to the tower either. It's not going to kill you or anything."

"I really don't like that plan. Just saying…" Ruby said with a frown. I nodded understandingly. I wouldn't want anything messing with my head either.

"The second option is to put you in my soul space. Raven and I are protected from the mana due to our magic. In my soul you'll be safe too." Ruby nodded but didn't seem very happy with the idea. It was basically taking a bench for the adventure.

"The last option is I go into your soul space and we merge our souls. My mana infused soul will protect yours that way. Your aura just lets the mana right through as is but if a mana as dense as mine were within you then the compulsion mana would be harmless as a fly. I could still cast spells too and make a remote clone. However, I wouldn't be able to fight in close combat since as you know, clones are fragile." Ruby nodded.

"I'd really like option three." She said. "I'd rather not help than be compelled by a mysterious force to forget something really important." I nodded.

"Then we'll go with that then. I thought it was the best option too." I walked towards Ruby, passing through the mana barrier, and put my body into Ruby's soul space as I replaced my 'The Storm' title with my passenger title. I lowered the shield of mana cautiously and watched a little attuned mana crash harmlessly against out soul space.

I had greatly reduced air and electrical affinities and only 186,480 mana instead of my new usual above 200k. Also, Krebs downgraded to a petty elemental to his chagrin. Not fun for anyone but it was better than Ruby being mind controlled.

"Alright." I spoke through wind whisper. "Let's go. Everyone got everything?"

"Yup."

"Of course."

"Well then to the bunker. Chop chop. I'm going to make a smoothie in this nice warm soul space." Ruby sighed and Raven scoffed at me. Well I gave them other options.

I really was making a smoothie though. We had some pineapple, raspberries, and blackberries along with the normal vanilla protein powder and lemonade. Tasty stuff. But I didn't share with Raven or Ruby since they were cold enough already.

When we got to the hilltop my heat beam skill was at level twenty four and pressure spike at fourteen. I had mostly focused on pressure spike but I noticed that it leveled up slower. A lot slower.

It made sense I guess. Pressure spike was a very strong move and way more complex than heat beam. It leveled up slower as a result. I had seen it before but never quite so pronounced.

I had also discovered a little fun fact about heat beam. There were two ways of actually casting the spell, both of which run off the same skill levels. It made me wonder if a little looser a definition of a skill might do me good. Taking skills as a more free-form thing than the pre-determined move that I had been taking them for until now.

Heat beam could be a bolt or sustained. The bolt was a build up of heat beam collected in my hand and then fired. It was quite like the fireball I had originally imagined it to be and it was how I had casted it in combat.

The other way was sustained. Keeping a constant and steady flow of mana makes a literal beam of heat rather than the creative interpretation of the wording the more bolt-like form did. It was a heat laser basically with it's intensity based on my affinity, mana spent, and skill level.

I didn't get much of a chance to experiment before we got to the top. I made a list of skills that might have a different interpretation in my journal.

Air blade was the first one I noticed. It was really just sharpening the air through pressure and flinging the sharpened air at an enemy. I could probably make it a sword to wield. Would my electrical augmentation still work though, being non-conducting air? Would I make a lightning blade? I put these thoughts out of mind for later. Science and creativity... I needed to go over my skills with a keen eye when I get back.

"There." Raven said to Ruby. Ruby hit the top of the hill and stared at the tower.

"Whoah. Yeah, that's awesome." Raven shrugged and looked down the edge of the big hill. She seemed to be considering something.

"What is it you're thinking?" Ruby asked. Raven glanced at her and the edge.

"I'm thinking about sending you down in a sled. It would save time and there aren't many trees in the way." Ruby walked over and looked down the edge.

She was right. There weren't many ice trees at all. I could help her with some space magic. Try warping the space around the tree so Ruby curved around them instead of going into them… "Sure. Let's do it." I said.

Raven nodded as I made a sled for Ruby. Nothing great but it would slide. "I'm going to fly down quickly." with that she changed to a raven and got to flying downhill quick to not lose too much heat.

"Wheeee!" Ruby cheered as she jumped onto the sled. The sled tipped over the edge with the momentum Ruby brought.

Ruby laughed a little as she began rocketing down the hill. I managed her speed with weakening spatial interference and resisting it as needed and some encouragement through magically induced motion to avoid trees. Whenever I came too close I warped the trees to bend out of the way.

Ruby laughed as she hit the bottom and I slowed us down. Raven was already down and dealing with a minor and a few petty elementals.

"That was fun! Now to the bunker right?" Ruby hopped off the sled and Raven nodded as the two set off again.

I was feeling a little left out so I made a remote clone and walked with them. I didn't have any muscle fatigue or reason to use a clone but I kept an eye out for wraiths with them.

With the first group of elementals we saw I decided on a live action exercise of my pressure spike spell.

"Hold on. I want to test a new spell I have." I used my water affinity first to collect water vapor in the air in the shape of a cone. Then I made a thin sheet of ice around the steam from the vapor. Finally was to make the steam inside the spike extremely hot. Burn your face off hot. Keeping the ice solid and cold while the condensed steam was very how was difficult but I had gotten it with practice. Finally I grasped the ice with my motion and ice affinities and threw it as hard as I could towards the group of wraiths.

It only took a out a second and a half to make the spike. The quicker I got it done the less mana I had to spend keeping the temperature of the ice down. It was made from my super ice so it was somewhat cheaper to make the ice as I needed less to hold a shell.

The spike flew towards the wraiths and hit the face of a common one. It felt like I was watching in slow motion as the spike shattered and the steam exploded out.

The elemental didn't stand a chance. It was hurt a little by the ice spike but that massive amount of steam shot out at the point of impact in a violent, forceful, and very hot explosion.

The explosion was pretty big. Enough to hit some people standing close to each other but not big enough that I had to be careful aiming.

I had only killed one elemental and harmed one from the explosion. There were still three more to go. How about I try that sonic boom?

I stretched the space as quickly as I could and shoved as much air in the center as I could. I drew water vapor to the middle of the blast and dumped mana to my heat affinity to warm it to scalding steam once more.

For a second I continued pulling air into the vortex and heating and collecting water to steam in the center. I made a panel of ice in front of Ruby and Raven just in case and finally let the expansion of space go. The space near instantly compressed everything but I pushed it further to compress the vortex.

I probably could have done more. I had set up the vortex only in the middle of the sphere first of all. I wanted the space to really slam the air and steam together to make them blast apart.

I could also make the vortex way bigger with time or mana. But I'm edging on ten thousand mana costs now.

If I want to repeat this I'll make the expanded space smaller so I have to fit less air into it. The higher the fullness of the space the better it will be. Size matters here but what matters more is the density of the technique.

With this technique I just made a vortex at the center. It worked but it would be better to push air in than pull it in. I want a bubble of evenly displaced air so it all collides at the center. Otherwise I lose a lot of force from the lack of motion. It's less efficient this way.

That's why the shockwave when I fought Qrow was so big despite not really having that much space. The space was filled with air completely. This time, though, the bubble of space was far larger but the air wouldn't slam into each other with the condensing of the space fuelling it. It was already condensed and no energy would be gained from it.

Oh well. I'll do better next time. The space expansion was nearly useless this time but I still had a shockwave and a bunch of steam that will shoot out.

This result was far more impressive than the pressure spike. It was longer to prepare and four times as expensive, taking about ten thousand mana to create, but well worth it even with my poor setup.

The compressed air and steam blew out with the force of one of my strongest tornadoes. Scorching steam and winds strong enough to throw a man into the air at high speeds slammed against everything in the clearing.

The ice trees cracked and groaned against the blast and the intense steam rushed past them but not without leaving a melted patch of icy bark.

The elementals hissed but in the massive boom the noise was lost. They died before the steam but even before fully disappearing they were hurled into the trees so hard they left an indent. And that was with their mass half gone from the disappearing.

The ground, too, was left marred. A ringed crater pushed deep into the ground and the snow was blown into the air, where it fell back down.

 ***Ding!* New spell acquired! - Shockwave (enhanced)**

" _ **Making air into a shockwave to really stun some idiots who thought that wind couldn't hurt them is fun but more fun is to make it bigger. Even more fun it to put shrapnel in it.**_ **"**

 **-Marvoleo the unseen explosion**

"Abyss… What was that?" Ruby asked

"A shockwave of compressed air and very hot steam inside expanded space. Let the space close to a normal size and it becomes even more compressed, which makes the air and steam blow with even more force. You think I can trap all that air into a shell of ice like the steam in the pressure spike?"

"It's… Destructive." Raven said cautiously.

"I prefer smaller things but I realized that a lot of what I do isn't really shock and awe. I made a laundry list of spells to make. I've got an idea for a rail gun and a shield or range of absolute temperatures to negate elemental attacks."

"My gun is a rail gun though… Sort of. It uses kinetic energy instead of magnetism but it's got the same principle." Ruby stated.

"Yes but I can make a gun that's better at that one thing. Made just to shoot things really fast. I also want to see if I can travel at the speed of light if I turn my body to light. I know from when I was a mass of aura that I couldn't but with my light affinity as pure energy with a soul I could develop a pseudo teleportation. Like what I did with wind yesterday but more instant action."

"Do you think I could do something like that?" Raven asked curiously.

"You have a space affinity but compared to your other maiden granted affinities it's nearly unnoticeable for you. You might be able to make a weaker version. Also, that one I tried was a trial so it wasn't at full power. With a few more seconds or more mana I could make a far stronger shockwave."

"That was underpowered?" Raven asked disbelievingly.

"It was the first time I've done that move. Compared to my usual moves, though, that took a lot out of me. Not nearly as much as that little flight yesterday but a lot. About one tenth of that flight actually. Heating a strip of cold space to be warm for a mile as well as pushing myself with wind, space manipulation, and motion as fast as I can isn't cheap."

"Why haven't you done these sorts of things before?"

"I have a few times but I never needed heat magic much. It seemed a somewhat useless affinity. But then I made the heat beam fighting the strong elemental in desperation and realized that I had the most dangerous aspect of fire at my disposal. Heat."

"I didn't immediately come up with pressure spike. I found I could create steam from ambient water vapor first. I tried making it as hot as I could and found that it was… Well very hot. Then I remembered pressure. So I shoved a ton of steam into a ball of ice but it didn't really work right. It worked but it was a little hard to break. I brainstormed and thought of a spike."

"That… alright. That makes some sense." Raven admitted. "But the shockwave?"

"I made one by accident when I made a warp and closed it quickly while fighting Qrow. I didn't really think to weaponize it since… Well why would I? I can make tornadoes. What would a tiny shockwave do? Well as you can see, it does a lot. And this one was really inefficiently made. I need to practice it and go over my spells with a critical eye since I probably missed more hidden potential somewhere."

"We both did." Raven agreed. "I never thought of shockwaves. I saw you create tornadoes - small tornadoes admittedly - like they were nothing and I suppose I got into the bigger is better mindset as well."

"Hmmm. We can fix it. But first… to the bunker." Raven sighed and walked along towards the direction where we had seen the bunker before. With all the rust on the rails it was obvious that they didn't work.

I snickered inside Ruby's soul space. Not walking or feeling cold all the time was really nice. I just got to stay in here practicing my spells while my parallels meditate. Actually, I'll change them to meditate on my air affinity. It grows three times as fast. I should take advantage of that.

[|||| == ||||]

" _So… what do you wanna do? I've done all the paperwork for nature's bounty, bribed, blackmailed, and threatened everyone in need of it, or you have, we've got all the protection money and such… we have nothing to do."_

"… "

" _You could at least help."_

" _?"_

" _No you've had two of those bigger containers of ice cream already. No matter how skinny you stay there's a certain limit to how much ice cream one can eat. You'll get yourself sick again."_

" _?!..."_

" _Don't refuse to look at me! Unless you want stomach pains again."_

" _!"_

" _Yeah. Nobody likes those… but back to my original question… what do we do now?"_

"… _*Schtick* "_

" _No Raven's gone too. On that trip with them… whatever they're doing."_

" _*Schtich* "_

" _How about we… we went to Junior's last night… and it's only - three o'clock?! I thought it had to be at least nine!"_

" _!"_

" _I know!"_

" _!?"_

" _Yeah. I have no damn idea what the hell to do besides work now either. Paperwork is mindless enough but it's all sorted. It's just gratuitous now."_

" _*Sigh* "_

" _I wish Mystic was here. He's really good at cards when I can get him to play. He's not an alcoholic, weirdly enough… you know how to play?"_

" _*Shake* "_

" _Awww. Sorry but I'm not really interested enough in a card game to teach a beginner. I'm bored. Not desperate."_

" _*Shrug* "_

"… _Wanna go beat some poor thugs up?"_

" _:D"_

[|||| == ||||]

I shot a few more heat beams at wraiths, one-hitting them easily. Raven and Ruby didn't even pay attention to them anymore. Unless there was a big one they just eyed them and kept walking. I never missed with prediction.

We had all kept an eye out for anything weird. There were two things. The first was a giant thing like before but then it seemed to sink into the snow. Like it burrowed down… Not exactly reassuring.

Raven threw a fireball at it and we saw nothing but dirt under the snow. So either we're hallucinating, there's a creature following us that can sink into and disperse into the snow, or something is making ice rise up and fall sporadically. I don't like any of those.

The second was a glimpse of a mythical creature. A large white furred ape-like creature with six black eyes and a small trunk was swinging from the trees near silently. Too quiet for Ruby or Raven to hear anyways.

I caught a whiff of a high affinity for ice above the norm and immediately shot a super-powered heat beam at it, thinking it a particularly sneaky ice wraith.

I hit and the creature let out a high pitched pained trumpeting sound, which was weird to hear, and ran away. We probably could have caught it but we were caught off guard.

We talked a little about it but nobody knew what it was or… Anything about it other than that it was there. It didn't seem dangerous but we only caught a glimpse.

From then onwards it was smooth sailing. I kept a closer eye on my mana sense, thinking that I might be able to sense the collective mana from a blizzard. They were almost certainly caused by an abundance of ice mana. Possibly the roaring creature, judging by the journal's mention of how the storm would whip up and the creatures would get into a frenzy whenever it roared.

When we finally hit a road… It was not pretty. Bodies stuck out of the ground a little, dead from bad wounds and frozen to death, giving blued skin and grisly eyes. Eyes and extreme cold is not a pretty sight. Especially the ones that shatter due to the cold.

Raven sighed softly and walked forward. A little pull on Ruby's shoulder got her moving, though Ruby looked disturbed at the sight at the battlefield. She let out a quiet gasp at the sight of a scientist with a face of terror and his head half decapitated messily.

I crouched down and grabbed onto Ruby's waist. Without a sound I lifted her upwards onto my shoulders. Puncture wounds could dispel the avatar but something as small as some weight on my auric shoulders is fine. Ruby is light anyways.

I walked through the battlefield trailing behind Raven. She slowed, however, when she saw a long blue pincer poking out of the ground. I magically moved the snow aside and revealed a sort of huge quadrapedal creature with an upper torso and scythes for arms. Observe called it an elder tundra scimarliac. I've never heard of any sort of creature like that before…

I put it in my inventory for studying and dissection and walked onwards. Along the way we saw a few other magical creatures preserved in the snow. A wolf-like creature with mandibles and two tails called a snow arawarg, a small squid like creature that was furred called a makkakan, and most impressively of all was a huge manta-ray sort of creature called a northern alpha sky skiff. How it attacked anything is a mystery. I stored them all in my inventory. I'm lucky the cold preserved these creatures so well.

The path finally made it to the bunker, where the corpses thinned out to some soldiers slaughtered in various ways. One poor fellow was skewered by an icicle that sunk into the concrete itself, such was the force with which it had been propelled.

Ruby was very quiet throughout all of this. I didn't see any elementals or creatures at all during our walk, despite it being over twenty minutes of walking… But I think i know why.

The ice trees passively emit ice mana. Observe has said that since the beginning. But the bunker has a little bit of a clearing around it. The ice mana was way thinner here…

If I loosed a huge amount of heat attuned mana and Raven released fire attuned mana we could leave this place without a problem since the mana will have canceled out the ice mana to the typical neutral state that mana was typically at.

Not that we needed it. Raven could make a portal to Vernal at any time.

Now that we're here though we get to rummage through the place… this is going to suck, isn't it?

 **AN: No ending segment since this chapter is edging 10k and you got Mango's journal at the start.**

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	24. Chapter 24

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 24** = ||||]

The bunker was… empty. Eerily so. Quieter than a graveyard with our footsteps echoing eerily down the halls.

" _SKREEEEEEE!"_

"SPIDER!" Ruby yelled.

"Ruby!" I yelled. "Dust, Ruby don't suddenly scream in this quiet place! It's creepy enough as is!" Ruby looked down embarrassedly. Raven sighed irritatedly and sheathed her sword again.

"I thought you were fine with spiders." Raven said irritatedly.

"Not when they surprise me." Ruby said sheepishly. Raven rolled her eyes and we walked onwards.

With the ice mana so much thinner here I could use my mana sight again somewhat. I could see a good thirty feet now before my head hurt from the mana. If there was anything useful in a room I let Ruby and Raven know before we grab it.

I say splitting up as me and Ruby together since the purple mana was still flowing onto Ruby. It was a little irritating. Like a gnat that was always buzzing in your ear but I kept with it. Being annoyed was better than the alternatives.

While mage sight was useful for saving time I couldn't see everything by a long shot. The bunker was huge. It must have housed at least two hundred soldiers and we haven't even looked at the scientists quarters. We had a destination in mind, after all, and we just had to follow some signs.

"The armory!". I said happily. "It's forward three doors on the left." I was getting so sick of messy rooms with soldiers belongings. It was odd to see the belongings of soldiers from two decades ago.

Remnant used to be a lot like earth except for the complete lack of functional body armor. Everything was made for complete uniformity rather than functionality. Also the dust. That was a pretty big difference.

"The armory?!" Ruby gasped. "Finally!" Ruby raced forwards but Raven caught her by the arm and lifted her up.

"Slow down. The SCARAB blueprints and armor aren't going anywhere." Ruby pouted and Raven set her down with a stern look.

Ruby and Raven made their way to the armory at the normal cautious pace as before. I couldn't see everything in the rooms after all. Sometimes there were larger rooms like a lunch hall. I don't think anything is hiding in the corners after so long but after the strong elemental nobody particularly wants to test that logic.

The door to the armory was thrown open and a door stopper jammed under the double doors. Raven swept it and entered, which meant it was safe for Ruby.

The armory was spacious. Very much so. Large shelves filled with boxes of old bullets lined a wall and the other held guns on the walls and heavy weaponry, meaning old modeled miniguns, assault rifles, shotguns, some rifles, and a variety of other old weapons.

Workbenches, spare parts, bullet reloaders of a few different types, and a small modern forge consisting of only a few pieces of equipment sat in a corner of the room with rubber mats over the concrete floor.

Separating the main armory they were in from another room was a large sort of garage door made of thick steel.

Ruby used her semblance to go to the weapon wall and inspect them with stars in her eyes. But after a moment it was replaced with confusion. She grabbed a sample of each weapon and dashed to the workbenches in the corner.

With an inspecting eye Ruby disassembled each of the weapons and looked over their mechanics. A frown on her face worsened as she looked through them.

"What the… But the trigger could be extended… you don't need the barrel that long… Why is the receiver so… So Criss-crossy! GAH!"

With her frustration growing Ruby shoved all the weapons to the side. "They all suck. Low tech, inefficient, mass produced, horrible garbage! They're just filled with… _Things_ and it's like they're supposed to work!"

"They're standardized military weapons from two decades ago. Maybe three if they were on a budget, though I doubt they were. The real stuff would be behind the doors on your right behind you."

Ruby scowled at the guns like they were at fault for what they were and turned around to the metal door.

"I thought that was a vehicle bay?" Ruby said.

"Why would there be a vehicle bay underground?" Raven asked from across the armory. She was inspecting some crates of ammunitions, probably wondering if it was worth it to take the dust from the bullets. I had wondered the same thing.

"I dunno. It looks like a garage door and I thought the guns here were the advanced stuff until I actually looked at them." Ruby said with a shrug. Valid enough reasoning, I guess.

"Are you thinking of taking the dust from the ammunition in those crates?" I asked. Raven nodded. "Ruby, can the reloaders work in reverse somehow?"

Ruby walked to the reloaders and fiddled with a few pieces. "Um… yeah. This one here can dismantle bullets and turn the dust to another bullet. It's called a refitter. They're not really common but they've got one here. I can just cut the part where the dust is pushed to another bullet and funnel it to something that stores dust."

"There are some empty crates designed for holding dust right here." Raven said, pointing at an empty box. Ruby rushed over to it and looked inside. Yup. No dust there.

Ruby put the crate in the inventory and went back to the refitter, where she let it go. A little fiddling bent a little slide from a funnel that would lead to a bullet casing to instead go into the crate. Easy enough.

"Okay! This only accepts 5.56 caliber but… Actually how many bullets do we have?"

"More than enough." Raven said plainly with a wave to the mostly full shelves of military supplies.

"Right. We'll have to check in on the refitter in a while and replace the crate for another empty one. No biggie. Now about that door…"

I didn't hesitate and sent three dimension slashes at the door, cutting right through it. Then I made a shockwave at the other side but made sure to keep the air all around it except for the door stilled completely.

Ruby let out an "Eep!" as the part of the steel door went flying out. It fell to it's side and scraped along the ground a little but slowed down quickly enough that it didn't mess anything up.

"Done." I said in a satisfied tone.

"You could have warned us." Raven said in irritation.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." I probably should have done that…

"Uhhh okay that's convenient." Ruby walked over to my hole in the wall and walked on in. Raven followed after though she had to crouch under a little.

"Ooooh." This part of the armory seems to have been the advanced section or something along those lines. Another smaller rack of guns lay on one wall, some sort of suits on the other, and at the end wall was… The motherlode…

Dust. So much dust. Oh so so much dust. In at least eight rows coming from the wall back a little were labeled crates filled to the brim with dust! I could last far into my adulthood at my current average rate of dust consumption, which I actually calculate by the way, and have a little bit left.

I'm well aware that Roman stole much more dust in the train job but that was a huge operation. I'm just one guy and I won't be using whole crates anytime soon.

Ruby looked right over the dust though.

"OHMYGODTHEYRESOCOOL!"

The sort of suits were full body sets of armor in a few different sizes. They were full black with numerous armor plates all over it.

"This armor! It's… it's four inches thick of solid steel! They're walking tanks!" Ruby said in awe. "And here!" Ruby gripped the edge of a panel on the left arm I couldn't even see and opened it.

Inside were some labeled buttons and switches like 'open chassis', 'disconnect tanks', and, somewhat disturbingly, 'self-destruct'. Who thought to put that there?

Ruby switched the open chassis switch and the front of the armor suit hissed a little as the chest plate and helmet were pushed upwards by hydraulics in the shoulders and the legs clicking and swinging outwards like a door opening.

"Okay that's awesome." Ruby commented. I was forced to agree with her. That was a pretty sweet if impractical way of opening a mech suit.

"Oh I remember these." Raven said as she approached the suits. "Atlas briefly used them when I was young but discarded them since they have too many weaknesses. If you shoot the tanks in the back the suits are useless and can't open. They only use them for extreme environments now."

"Huh. That IS a pretty big weakness. We'll just use an aura conducting metal and Abyss' aura will defend the tanks." Fatal flaw? Solved in a moment. Good job Ruby.

"But that ignites the dust." Raven pointed out.

"Abyss' aura is laced with his mana. There may not be any aura rejecting metals but there are mana rejecting ones. A layer of mana resistant metal under an aura conductive one would keep Abyss' aura out though it wouldn't stop the auras of others."

"A good start. My aura and mana are too closely intertwined to really separate unless I force them to, which isn't hard but I normally have a little aura with my mana and vice versa."

"Great! One fatal flaw fixed. The weight is a flaw too but we can use better metals than this cruddy steel and add some weight reducing runes."

"Atlas has been trying to better their design for generations, you realize?" Raven said dryly. "Even in the newer models, which they call delve suits since they delve into dangerous environments, have problems with the weight though they moved the tank internally, which caused some problems of it's own."

"Like overheating?" Ruby guessed.

"In desert and volcanic models, yes. In winter models the additional plating increased surface area, straining the heating systems and making the weight problems worse. This all was years ago during my time at beacon, remember. The suits have likely changed a lot since then."

"I'll bet you can tear out a bunch of junk and let me replace it with runes to do the job more efficiently." I commented.

"Yeah… Like an arm mounted minigun…" Ruby fantasized.

"Low hanging fruit. Get a rail gun or at least something with lasers." I scolded her. Ruby's eyes widened and she facepalmed.

"Ugh. You're right. Those are way better. What was I thinking? What about an automatic missile launcher?" Raven looked at Ruby like she was a lunatic.

"I can store the missiles in a pocket dimension so yeah that would work. However, producing the missiles would be a bit difficult with how many we would use." Raven looked at my avatar accusing for feeding Ruby's habit of overkill. Sorry Raven. You should know she got it from me by now.

"Make your parallels do it." Ruby said easily.

"Good point. An area attack is needed but I still say a rail gun is more important… actually, I have area magic already. Oh! If that magical amplifier works out let's put that in a gauntlet."

"Good point. Left hand gets magic catalysts and the right hand… how about auto loading for your assault rifle? Oh! A heavy assault rifle like Mano grabbed. Speaking of…"

Ruby dashed excitedly towards the weapons racks, though plenty of weapons were gone there seemed to be at least one of each type of gun for most of the types.

Ruby grabbed all of them and used her semblance to fly back to the workbenches. She did this a few times happily but… I have to stop the fun.

"Ruby we still have to see the science stuff. You can tear into the weapons later but first we have to check out the lab." Ruby slowed and looked sadly at the weapons.

"Wait for me my sweet." she whispered. I couldn't tell if she meant to just sound obsessive or actually had a concerning attachment to weapons…

Ruby tapped the weapons and they were tossed to the inventory. I saw that Raven had put the crates of dust in it already.

"Get the SCARAB armor too." I said. Ruby nodded and went to the armor. In a flash we looted the four suits that hadn't been used in the past and started making our way to the science division.

[|||| == ||||]

 _*Shkk* *BOOM*_

" _... Almost there. Maybe more wind dust? But I need the concussive force. I suppose I'll take away from the burn dust."_

" _Pyrrha are you done practicing your style yet?"_

" _Yeah. You can come in again."_

" _Oh good. You know, I think I'm starting to get why you want to meet this Abyss kid."_

" _Huh?"_

" _You've practiced more intensely in the last few days than you have in months. You're actually using dust now - and don't even start on how bullets are using dust. You've warped your entire damned style and I have to admit that it's even better than before."_

" _Better how?"_

" _Wide area attacks. You've always had a bit if a narrow range of attack. From your small shield to your short spear they're all designed for single combat. They still are even with the upgrades but now…"_

" _... Now what?"_

" _Well… You hit things and they explode, Pyrrha. Not exactly single targets there. You're like the exact opposite of that Mystic guy. He can only target a whole town. You could only target a single opponent at a time before. Now you're somewhere in between wide range explosions and one of the deadliest combat styles in remnant."_

" _... Should I take it easy on Abyss when I meet him?"_

" _Hell no. Whup his ass. But you have my permission to go on a date with him. You really seem to want something for the first time in awhile. So go get him."_

" _I...oh… thank you."_

" _Now quit talking and get back to wasting my money… Say, do you know if he'll be competing in Mistral or Vale?"_

" _Oh I have no idea. So I sent him a letter."_

" _Ah, are you sure he'll find that? He's pretty famous you know."_

" _Um… I'll find him."_

" _I'll see if I can pull a few strings if he doesn't respond."_

[|||| == ||||]

Sifting through the lab was really really boring. I had all my parallels searching with me but we had only found one useful thing.

 **Ice mana - concentrated (Extreme)**

 **Rarity: Magical (High)**

 **Ice mana collected from ice elementals and refined to the highest degree. Has various uses.**

I don't know what it's used for but I found a few cases full of it. I had over sixty vials now and I could certainly make more if I really applied myself. I'm almost certain that this is the glowing blue goo Mango mentioned, as it was glowing and blue goo. But I didn't want to experiment with it now. I was saving everything for later when we got out. Besides, I could find some uses for the physical mana pretty soon in the tower or among the notes we were sifting through… though that was seeming unlikely.

"Abyss have you ever cut your hair?" Ruby asked. I paused in my work. Gathering up the samples of magical creatures was necessary if not fun. "... Not in a long time. Raven, have you?"

"Over my dead body." she said plainly. "Qrow cut my hair once. He never did again."

"Just wondering since I just realized that it's really long. Do you think you could do something with it?"

I frowned. "Like a pony tail?" Ruby laughed at me.

"No! You would look horrible with that! Like a… Uh… dread - no that wouldn't work either… auntie can you help me out here?"

"I think he looks fine with his bedhead. It works for me. Well, I just comb it but his hair always looks fine as is." Raven then sighed as she came across another batch of spoiled papers from a broken jar of something.

"I mean yeah but… I dunno. It just seems like you always wear dark colors and have a bedhead. You should mix it up a little."

"I wear dark blues, greys, and reds." I defended myself.

"Nobody says it but when you wear red and black you look like auntie had a kid with an emo." Ruby snickered. Raven snorted and glanced at me with a smirk. Oh dust she agreed.

"I need a huntsman outfit… I'll need one before the tournament but I just really don't like shopping."

"Shopping is terrible." Ruby agreed. "But you can't look like that one guy wearing a T shirt and jeans at a regional tournament."

"Yeah." I grudgingly agreed. "But we need the armor first."

"That just means we have to jump right to it when we get back!" Ruby grinned.

"... Alright. That should be everything." I said. "This was far less exciting than I thought it would be. I was hoping for tubes of liquid and bodies suspended in them or something. Not ruined notes and organized samples with obvious observations."

"They know what mana is at least." Raven cut in. "We'll somewhat. 'a typically inert energy emanating from the cryothsnium… I'm almost certain they mean the ice trees and classified them without actually knowing what they were. Anyways, they know ice mana freezes things and they know there's more ambient mana everywhere. They're just here because the mana is unique to them and it's abundant enough to easily study."

I nodded. "I read a mention of other sites. Site hellscape, site thunder, site heaven, and I believe this one is site frost."

"Ooh! I saw a site pocket and site pit." Ruby chimed in.

"Other sites could have other interesting things. Worth a look at least." I said. "but first we have to find the locations of the other sites. If they're classified… Well we can do this the hard way then. I know some people who can throw a line out and see what we find."

"A spy network?" Raven asked curiously. "Where did you get one of those?"

"It's still in the growing phase but I know some people who technically work for me so long as I provide some trivial things."

"I'm in contact with an old Valean field operator who has a lot of contacts and even more experience, a crime family specializing in information trade, a budding assassin or spy - I'm not sure which she could be yet, and a guy who could perhaps be the most charismatic cutthroat I've ever seen. The best part is that he's completely loyal to me. I'm fostering that."

"Smart." Raven said impressedly. "Planning on starting an organization?"

"No." I said. "I've already started one."

Raven stilled and a vicious smirk crossed through her face. "Abyss Mavros… heir to the largest business since the SDC, though you're actually the leader, and shadow leader of the criminal empire spanning… all of remnant perhaps?"

"Of course." I said deviously. "I want freedom. I don't see a good way of doing that without remnant at my back. And as big as the SDC? Don't down talkdown talk me. I'm actually be bigger than the SDC. On a completely unrelated note, did you know Weiss Schnee, the current Schnee heiress, also wants to be a huntress? I wonder if she'll be at beacon."

Raven smirked. "I wonder… won't you be at beacon?"

"Why what a coincidence. If only we were to meet each other. By complete coincidence, of course. Why… what if, and this is simply a thought, but what if nature's bounty were to absorb the SDC and place Weiss Schnee at it's head? It's just a guess but she could be someone sympathetic to the faunus plight and wanting to change her father's company for the better. Why, she's so passionate about it that she could convince somebody like Roman Torchwick to help her!"

"I'm sure she would practically have remnant under her thumb." Raven said with a hint of laughter in her voice. "Ruby might be onto something with that whole looking similar to me thing."

"You guys are scary. Geez." Ruby muttered. Raven and I chuckled darkly. Ruby shivered dramatically. "Welp, I'm out of stuff to sort through so… where else can we go?"

"Well the office of the head scientists is the only place I would bother looking." I said. Raven sighed.

"I'm tiring of this. Could we split up? I can go to the military head's office. If I see anything - even an ice wraith - I'll instantly teleport back."

I frowned. "Well… be careful. I'm more scared of the things we can't see than the things we can." Raven nodded and walked off.

Ruby was silent for a moment. "Do you think that might have been a terrible idea?"

I thought about it and shrugged. "Raven can take care of herself and teleport at will. Not to mention that she's also a maiden and one of the deadliest huntresses on remnant. She can handle herself. Even in a place as terrible as this she isn't going to get really hurt anyways. On the miniscule chance that she's hurt I can heal her right up."

Ruby looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yeah. You're right. I'll have more faith in auntie."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Adam!"_

" _I see training is doing well for you. Truly you seem better than ever."_

" _Don't make fun of me. I still have bruises on my… well everywhere but my face."_

" _When Sienna trained me she was more brutal."_

" _How can she possibly be more brutal?!"_

" _She didn't touch your face, did she? Also, you can still talk. If you want I can tell her to take your training more int-"_

" _Dust please no!"_

" _Heheh."_

"… _Ass."_

" _Anyways, I'm here to talk about your mission."_

" _What about it?"_

" _Being a public faunus figure is great. Really, it is. But there's a big distinction between pride and inspiration."_

" _Can't they be both?"_

" _Yeah. But there's a lot of different ways to go about bringing them to have more pride in their race. Publicly speaking out against the SDC is one thing. But they could support the white fang too."_

" _That… Adam I like what we're doing but we don't really have a good reputation."_

" _That's why the company can make it better. People could look at the white fang and see us as people who truly want to support the faunus rather than terrorists and criminals. We fight for a better future. Just let nature's bounty say that if you can."_

" _Adam I don't like that idea. The company is already an upstanding company that people know about and when they start really putting out, as we all believe they will, they'll show that faunus aren't dumb animals. That we can really do something with ourselves. Telling them to publicly associate with the white fang with a representative was unlikely to work but even now I'm a private representative. I'm not going to be making any speeches. Asking them to actually tie themselves to us like that is…"_

" _I know, I know. It sounds like a bad idea at first but… just think about it Blake. We've tried peace. Now it might be time to try something else. Just doing the same thing over and over again will get us nowhere. It's time to show that we as a people have power and that we deserve to be respected because of it."_

" _I know and I agree with you and Sienna but…"_

" _Just… think about it Blake. Nature's bounty can do a lot of good for a lot of people… but there are a lot of different ways to do good."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Ruby. Here. I found something." Ruby's eyes lit up and she quickly walked towards me. "Here."

" _-has been agitated for the past few days. We are running out of tranquilizers due to it's hostility and growing resistance to the drugs. Harvesting of it's renewable resources has continued to be fruitless due to hostilities. Due to it's high intelligence and the prevalence of it's aura and chill (technical name still under consideration) the only materials we have been able to retrieve are as follows:_

 _-Saliva_

 _-sheddings (?)_

 _-Auditory and visual recordings (Held at HQ)_

 _Even with the lack of available resources we are certain that the beast is the secondary cause of the chill. The spawn of the beast has emanated a chill as well. Short of a missile strike we have no way of eliminating it without excessive damage to the environment. Recommended course of action is retreat due to the aforementioned increasing chill and growing hostilities or entering of additional assets."_

"This seems like it's about the beast thingy. The roaring one." Ruby pointed out.

"Yeah… here. An address on the letter." I pointed out. "8798 Cross street. There's our lead to the Managuard. We follow this trail of breadcrumbs and find a map of the locations… hopefully."

Ruby nodded. "Can you set your spies and underlings on it?"

"Of course." I said easily. "But still… we have two more things to try to find here. A spell tome and something to use for nature's bounty. We might be able to use the trees but… well I just don't see any practical use for them. Hopefully we find a packet of seeds or something." Ruby smiled.

"I'm sure we'll find something! Even if we don't you have all the samples and stuff. I'm sure you can make some plants with super healing properties or something. And the stuff with the purity element doesn't seem impossible to do! You can totally do it!"

Ruby's faith in me brought a small smile to my face. "Thanks Ruby. Come on. Let's find Raven."

"Yeah su-... huh… wait a second." As Ruby was about to walk away she stopped and walked back to the desk. She moved a paper out of the way and looked at a very smudged paper. Age and paper did not work well. Especially in a musty and uncared for office with some hazardous materials spilled over papers in a nearby lab.

"Whoa." Ruby said. "Look at this." Ruby pointed at a piece of paper smudge. I squinted at it.

"What about it?"

"It's a photo in black and white. It's just got a black smudge over half of it and the creature's kind of blobby." I pieced together the photo and my eyes widened.

"Oh! Nice catch." The creature was a sort of squiggly tentacle monster-esque creature. Not very big. The photo included some edited in measurements. It came up to about my mid-chest standing on four legs with a rather small body. Weird.

"Uhm… fourth successful experiment. M I - and some smears and smudges so we can't read and… 'shows high amounts of intelligence and role - and smudges again… there are a few words scattered around but nothing else. Um, art-something, neutral something, and… I have no idea what that word is actually. Something with an H or a B as it's first letter and -gry at the end. Here, look."

Ruby showed me the paper and I took a close look at the words… yeah there was barely any reading this. That Ruby had been able to piece together the words she could was only because she herself had horrible handwriting. It was better than mine at least. Mine always looked like I was writing a ransom note.

I don't think we've seen a blobby sort of creature though. We also haven't seen any cat-like creatures though so I suppose it isn't too far off. Ice slimes or something were in a few video games… I wonder if I can get one as a pet? Or make a freeze gel from it's remains and figure out how to manufacture it's go if it stays cool… or I could focus on the hundred and one other samples I actually have.

"Hm. Interesting but not very worthwhile." Ruby shrugged with her smile on her face and we walked off together.

Out in the hallway I saw Raven walking towards us with a frown on her face her eyes were locked onto me for a moment before she glanced towards Ruby. "Oh Raven. Good of you to get back here. Was there anything in the military office?" She shook her head.

"Nothing worthwhile. A few requisitions for extra cages and ammunition were the most common thing in there. Everything else was just paperwork." Ruby shrugged.

"That's fine. We found an address to the managuard base or an outpost at least. We can follow that trail of breadcrumbs and get the other locations. We also found a goopy monster on a sheet in the office."

Raven nodded and her frown lessened very slightly. I felt something itch in me and my right ear twitched.

"Hm. Well where now then?"

"That dust crate by the refitter should be mostly full by now. We can grab that and dump more bullets in it. Uhh, what time is it?"

I glanced at the clock in my soul space for a split second. "It's almost seven o'clock. Probably too late to get to another location. We'll have to stay the night." Raven shrugged. I felt the itch again for just a small moment. I flared mana sight and didn't see anything around us. I'm getting twitchy. I don't like the confined spaces much at least. Underground in general just smells like death, steel, and dirt. And Ruby and Raven.

"Well let's go then." I waved us all back towards the armory. Raven and Ruby walked in near silence with Ruby softly humming something. Raven kept her eyes on me strangely enough. Was she concerned about me?

As we got to the armory Raven took her eyes off of me and scanned the room, taking a glance at the nearly full crate of dust. Her full attention, however, was on the cut out door I made.

Ruby used her semblance and looked into the crate and inspected the refitter to make sure nothing went wrong. There was a bunch of empty 5.56 casings but other than that the machine was fine. Not that any of us cared about the casings.

I walked over to the ammunition full of dust and emptied them into the refitter. "Ruby how do we shut off the machine?" Ruby ignored my question and just punched a button on the refitter herself. The machine clacked once more, emptying a little bit of dust from the last cartridge into the crate.

"Help me to carry the dust, would you Raven?" Raven sighed and walked over to the crate. Ruby looked at me curiously. I used motion mana to supplement my avatar's poor strength and Raven and I picked up the crate and I walked it into the deeper part of the armory. In a moment we walked through and Raven occasionally glanced around at the few guns we had left on the shelf and the stations for the SCARAB armor. All empty.

"Hold on a moment. I'll get the lid." I said. I placed a teleport marker on the crate of dust and jogged off back to the main room, where I looked for a grenade crate. I found one easily enough with my limited mage sight and stilled the air around me to make my actions muffled. I took the top off and beckoned Ruby closer and put a finger to my lips to be quiet. I placed another marker at my feet.

Luckily in the lower concentration of ice affinity I could teleport. Especially if I had a marker to pull me towards the destination. It was still more expensive with the somewhat higher than average concentration of ice mana but compared to the abundance of ice mana outside it was like comparing the densities of steel to water. I had tested it early on in the bunker with Ruby and Raven and now I was putting it to use.

Ruby still looked extremely confused and a little concerned but followed me anyways. I pulled a grenade out and pulled the pin. In a second I placed it back in. I waited one second and dared another half before I teleported with the crate back to Raven. She whirled around so fast you'd think she'd have whiplash and she stared in surprise at the crate of grenades. It was followed by perhaps more shock at me teleporting back to my marker next to Ruby.

I made a shield of projected mana around Ruby and took my physical body out of her. A massive boom and a fiery roar came from the deeper part of the armory but I ignored it. I grabbed Ruby and whispered in her ear "Trust me." And placed her in my soul space. I hope that was enough.

With as much speed as I could muster I dashed towards the cut in the door. I gave my ice affinity as much mana as I could to seal the doorway. Before my ice touched the floor a shimmering grey liquid shot out from under the ice and I jumped backwards.

The grey liquid coalesced into Raven's form with irritated eyes and pressed lips.

 **Mimic**

 **Titles: Curious being; Prisoner; Physical Powerhouse; Consumer**

 **Level – 888**

 **HP – 915,860**

 **AP – 4,200**

 **MP - 23,080**

 **STR - 736 (+420%)= 3827.2**

 **VIT - 1991 (+820%)= 18,317.2**

 **DEX - 960 (+420%)= 4472**

 **INT - 577 (+0%)= 577**

 **WIS - 105 (+0%)= 105**

 **LUK - 21 (+0%)= 21**

 **Semblance: Structured being - Your mind and body are completely under your control no matter the circumstances. Mental instabilities such as insanity or ferality are forbidden from you.**

 **Affinities:**

 **Unity (Innate): 8709**

 **Consumption (Innate): 4524**

 **Metal (Innate): 1424**

 **Ice: 489**

 **Perks:**

 **Polymorph - Your form is liquid and capable of becoming various forms via the mana in the air. This is instinctual for you and as such grants naturally high leveled acting and behavioral mimicry skills. Grants polymorph skill.**

 **Mana sensitive - Your species is especially sensitive to changes in mana and aura to a lesser degree. Venturing into areas dense with mana can be harmful or even fatal. Changes may occur to you due to exposure to intense concentrations of mana.**

 **Steel body (Regenerating) - You have the rare trait of your body being made of steel. You take 80% less physical damage (including physical damage to your aura) and 25% less damage from heat (Body only). +400% VIT.**

 **Bio: This mimic was artificially born from a collection of samples by the scientists occupying site frost. It was not harmed but the extremely logical perspective of the scientists at its developing stages stunted its emotional growth.**

 **For the years since the destruction of the site and the absence of the Managuard the mimic has been alone. It seeks escape to learn about the species who made it.**

"What gave me away?" The Mimic asked calmly. It's face was kept perfectly friendly with a small smile on Raven's face.

"You have mana that you didn't hide as Raven did." I said calmly. "You lack a heartbeat. Finally, Raven knows my capabilities. She wouldn't have bothered carrying the crate when there are more efficient ways of retrieving it. Now where is Raven?"

The mimic didn't shift it's expression at all. "She is unconscious and safe. The wraiths don't come here. None of their taint."

I narrowed my eyes. Well she was stiff in the bunker. That made this easier. "And what do you want?"

"You." the mimic said simply. "you are capable of shielding the little one from the purple. I want you to do the same for me and let me free."

"What are your intentions with the outside world?" I asked.

"To see it of course. To experience something other than this dreary bunker." it said in a perfectly reasonable tone, as though it hadn't attempted to deceive us and knocked out Raven.

"Why did you deceive us?" The Mimic let out a sad and vaguely mournful look.

"It is saddening… But such an approach was the best way to meet with you. In a position of power, you see. With both your friends hostage I could far more easily control you. I initially wanted to make peaceful contact and I still hope for a peaceful resolution but if I must be hostile…"

It was annoying that the mimic had such good acting skills. All I saw was honesty. I don't know whether I can't read him well enough, if it doesn't reflect human emotions, or if it genuinely was honest.

Trying something a little different I made a heal spell and tried to send it across the shared inventory to Raven. There was a moment of the spell not connecting before it hit her. I felt it connect and tried to heal her unconsciousness.

"I see…" I said with a frown. "Freedom is the most important thing to you, huh?" the mimic's smile almost imperceptibly widened a little and it nodded kindly.

"All I wish is to see all the world has to offer." I looked at him consideringly. Raven had oxygen deprivation and was slowly healing. No permanent damage luckily.

I enhanced her metabolism to compensate for the lack of oxygen. Her aura was either inactive versus mana when asleep or somehow sensed that my mana wasn't harmful.

There was my mana in my runes, actually. It wasn't like I could just scribble something and make it invincible. Maybe Raven's seeing of the runes as good and not fighting their foreign mana allows my mana some wiggle room with her.

Whatever the reason, Raven was getting better fast.

"Alright… And why should I trust you at all?" I asked the mimic. Raven's brain activity picked up from the unconsciousness.

"Good question." The Mimic approved. "It's because I can show you to the tower and the cave without any problems whatsoever."

I frowned. That… That might actually be useful. And with that said befriending the mimic could be a good option. It has advanced mana sensing and is powerful.

On the other hand the mimic I untrustworthy and emotionally stunted. And that power is a double edged sword…

No. I'm not taking that deal. Even if I respect the mimic's desire for freedom I can't help it. With that ice affinity It's accumulating it'll be able to free itself eventually. And it won't be my problem in the slightest.

I stared at the mimic, seemingly considering it, but actually waiting on Raven. Her aura had become more active and was seemingly more alert. I could sense it a little through the shared inventory.

I sighed. "You don't seem that bad. Desperate, perhaps, but I can truly relate to you."

The Mimic gave Me It's full attention… Damn I want him as an agent. But no… He's an unknown and a risk that could blow the whole magic secret wide open.

Well there are apparently cracks in the whole magic secret. The Managuard for example. And these sites. It's not my business to play cleanup but I'm not dumb enough to be the one to reveal magic directly to humanity.

"With that said…" A red portal opened up and, her sword already drawn, Raven emerged.

She looked capital P **Pissed**. Her maiden powers were acting with her emotions and mana and some aura radiated off of her like waves of physical force.

She had turned her net system off. Even a normal person would be able to feel the mana she was emanating. Aura was just a little extra.

Mimic hissed at the high intensity of mana and I smiled as I let down the hiding part of my own net system. I focused on that cold fury at the mimic that had attempted to harm Ruby and knock out Raven.

It was easy and my aura angrily whipped around me like a violent storm. My mana moved faster and more violently in my soul. I let it all out like Raven. Because of the high intensity of mana I let Ruby out.

Ruby had just barely come out before her head whipped between Raven and me. Something must have occurred to her since she took a few steps back. Good girl.

"Raven." I said coldly. "Let's rip him apart. He can take it." All the mimic's acting skill couldn't hide that small flash of fear in it.

Raven smirked cruelly. "With pleasure."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Mom… the villain… is he really a bad person?"_

" _Crimson… why… how could you even ask that?! He traumatized Lavender and Azure took a year off from Beacon from trauma! He beat mom! He forced me to be in combat!"_

" _He did but… was he wrong? Even you admit that he was right in a way. Something would have happened eventually. Salem, Ozpin, some shadow faction, or 'Jaune being a dumbass', as Coral once put it. What he did was horrible but in the end he's right. It could have been much worse than it is. Well… not that anything has happened yet but at least you're ready for whatever comes next."_

" _He didn't have to do it the way he did! He could have warned us! Anything could have been better than rushing in and throwing everything mom hoped for to pieces! Maybe I do want to be a huntsman but I would never hurt my family to do it!"_

" _... Yeah. I thought you would say that…"_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	25. Chapter 25

**AN: I've got to admit… I was getting kind of tired of this mini-arc but this made up for it. I still want to get to beacon too but that's going to take a while. I'm going to speed up the pace for years two through four of signal, though. Okay? I think that's a good idea… we need to get to the juicy stuff soon. I've got plenty planned for beacon… mwahahaha *rubs hands villainously***

[||||= **LEVEL 25** = ||||]

Raven dashed towards the mimic quickly. The Mimic gave up on It's facade as Raven and morphed to a spindly creature with four legs and no other features.

She and the mimic were roughly the same speed-wise. The Mimic was better physically but Raven was far more skilled at actively using her aura to be faster.

Raven was also way more skilled at the sword and general combat than the mimic. She also had her magic to attack.

Unfortunately, while Raven was one of the best human fighters in Remnant she was a close combat fighter. She hit things in soft spots and they died. The Mimic had no soft spots and It's VIT was huge. It also only took a single fifth of all physical damage.

A lot of Raven's strikes didn't hit because the mimic could change shape. If it was about to be hit it could just change it's shape to a form that wouldn't be hit.

With all this it would seem that Raven was at a slight disadvantage. But no. She had an advantage that made the fight completely one sided.

Me.

I took every opportunity to harm the mimic. I shot heat beams. I sent pulses of ice mana designed to freeze the bastard upon contact, which I received the spell creation message for it, called ice beam. I did everything I could to harm that fool that thought to pull one over us.

It was barely even a contest really. I kept resist spatial interference on the mimic and threw spells of any sort at the idiot. Raven slashed at the mimic whenever possible with her ice mana sword and left his mostly liquid body frozen around her slashes. She never got hit thanks to my interferences.

Ruby hung back and watched in a sort of fascinated awe as we went all out on the mimic. She kept an eye out but didn't interfere. Ruby was as protective as we were but she wasn't as vengeful as we were. Besides, I think she knew that we weren't really in need of protection.

I shot one more ice beam towards the mimic and got a direct hit. While it was slowed by the ice mana and, as it always was, stunned by the mana right in it's face, Raven landed a slash into it. Her left hand swept out and ice mana slammed into the mimic. It shuddered and frost spread over it's body. It slinked away from Raven and shook the frost off but it was obviously injured.

 **HP – 1089/915,860**

 **AP – 0/4,200**

 **MP - 201/23,080**

"Raven." I interrupted. Raven stopped herself from taking a final charge as I approached the mimic. I came close enough to it to perhaps get hurt and it lashed out at me with a spiked tendril. I dodged easily with prediction and waved my hand to push heat mana into the tendril. The mimic recoiled as if struck and desperately looked for a place to run. But there was none. The armory had only one entrance and one exit.

"You know, I almost feel bad for you." I said calmly. The mimic stilled. "Locked up in this lab alone with that awful semblance of yours making you sane all the time. You can't leave and after all that time you've had absolutely nothing to do."

The mimic shivered against the wall of the armory. "I wanted freedom too once. I got it." The mimic shivered harder, though it seemed less in fear now and more in rage.

"But I have freedom. You don't. That means I'm free to do with you as I like. And you know… if you'd just asked to be let go I might have even given you some advice for getting loose. But you hurt my family. With that done you've become completely devoid of any sympathy from me. That's why I won't feel bad at all about giving you a fate worse than death." The mimic went absolutely still.

Before my eyes the mimic appeared like Ruby was. Silver eyes wide and watery, face wracked with fear.

"You're a good actor." I blinked right in front of the mimic and my hand leapt out onto it. Seeing an opportunity the mimic grabbed onto it, seeking to consume it, probably. I sucked it into my inventory without mercy. The mimic must have sensed that something was wrong since it tried to get away. I dumped motion mana to pull it back to me. It strained against my magical might but it was to no avail. It tried to morph itself away from my hand but it was useless.

The remaining mana in the mimic fought against mine as hard as it could but I simply flooded the mimic's soul with my mana. The faint shreds of aura that it had were dragged into me. I could clearly feel the absolute terror the mimic had in it. Too bad. Steel will kept me perfectly in control.

With my aura control I engulfed the aura of the mimic. It wasn't consensual. The mimic screamed in it's soul but I simply choked it's struggles out. I was a greater entity than it. Perhaps crueller than it as well.

I assigned all of my parallels to it for my purposes. If my theory about my parallels taking affinity from the environment was correct I should be able to absorb the creature's affinities easily enough. I aimed for consumption first. I would grow faster at consuming the soul of the mimic as I took that affinity.

With all of my parallels meditating on the mimic I could, if I paid very close attention, feel it on the brink of death with it's affinities slowly being ripped away from it to my own soul. It was extremely painful for it; like being digested alive. Too bad. That's life for you.

 **Through a special action you have earned a title: Dark sage**

 **-Increases rate of affinity stealing by 50%**

 **-Creatures you are stealing from resist 50% less**

 **-Increases aura and mana reserves by 25%**

 **-No penalties to mana or aura are gained by keeping creatures in your soul**

 ***Ding!* By keeping a strong creature in your soul your AP and MP regeneration rates have dropped by 50%.**

I really wanted that title but it was better for me to have passenger and wizard on. I needed to keep Ruby well and to keep my soul as great as it was. It was the main factor in keeping the mimic subdued.

"Is it dead?" Raven asked coldly.

"Worse." I said vaguely. "Let's find a bunk that's somewhat clean. It's too late to head out. We can take the bullhead to the tower tomorrow or walk if it's not functional." Raven nodded. There was a small satisfied smile on her face. Ruby looked slightly disturbed but I think it was more of the violence of the situation than the act of vengeance to the mimic. Ruby wasn't any goodie two shoes but she wasn't happy to do deeds of cruelty to keep her family safe. It was just who she was.

Without any pomp or ceremony we all headed out to find a bunk to sleep in for the night.

[|||| == ||||]

" _What the-! Bella?!"_

" _Um… Hi Qrow!"_

" _You're my date?!"_

" _Yeah!"_

" … _Did Abyss set you up blind too?"_

" _Um… no. I kinda… um, dismantled a minor drug smuggling ring to get this date. I didn't know I was getting a date but, um, I'm pretty… pretty happy with it."_

"… _Huh. Well alright then. I didn't realize you liked me that way."_

" _That's because you're a guy."_

" _I blame my semblance."_

" _Do you blame your drinking habits on it too?"_

" _No I blame my nieces and unofficial nephew for that one. I'm pretty sure Abyss is a demon and that he's corrupting Ruby."_

" _I'm considering your nephew for sainthood myself."_

" _All the better to be hell's double agent."_

" _Hah! Yeah that hits closer to home than a saint that's for sure. I'm going to remember that one. Speaking of, have you ever met his uncle?"_

" _No. The guy just kinda popped out of nowhere. Oz knows him apparently but he's not telling me about it."_

" _Hm… you should meet with him. He's new family. It's important to know him."_

" _Yeah… I probably should get a drink with the guy."_

" _As one-track a mind as ever."_

[|||| == ||||]

I Kept an eye out for enemies while we walked and meditated on the mimic. I had already gained the consumption and as I consumed more of it's affinities I began to consume faster. I had gained a skill for it too.

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Siphon**

" _ **The most horrible of all creatures in the forest of Krannen is the vampiric cakkan, though luckily it is quite rare and while it's methods are horrid it isn't particularly a problem for your average wizard though an arch-mage may have a small bit of trouble… The vampiric Krannen steals the soul of it's victims and tears them apart piece by piece, feeding on the unlucky person's affinities to sustain itself."**_

 **-Helleal Gothic, Senior magical creature biologist**

 **Affinities:**

 **Air: 315 (+200) = 5768**

 **Electricity: 189 (+100)= 3236.8**

 **Heat: 149 = 1668.8**

 **Purity: 144 (+100)= 806.4**

 **Light: 135 = 756**

 **Space: 125 = 700**

 **Ice: 117 (+51)(+59)= 1271.2**

 **Consumption: 112 = 627.2**

 **Water: 102 = 775.2**

 **Unity: 98 = 548.8**

 **Nature: 82 (+19)(+63)(+20)(+8)= 1069.6**

 **Motion: 81 = 453.6**

 **Life: 80 = 448**

 **Metal: 42 = 235.2**

 ***Ding!* Due to your purity affinity dropping below the required two thousand your purity familiar is unavailable for usage outside your body. The affinity buff provided by it is unavailable. Raise your purity affinity over two thousand to wake your purity elemental.**

Letting Gem sort of hibernate was fine. I never need to use her unless I was going to fight some really strong grimm. It was more important to suck that mimic dry of all it was worth… I probably shouldn't ever mention this to Ozpin. Ever. Dark druid makes me think that what I was doing was like a wizard drug. Like this is what power hungry dark wizards do. Well too bad Ozpin. I'm growing stronger and stronger. Soon enough… one day… I might be strong enough to face him as an equal rather than someone he can push around as a pawn.

Being angry at my lack of power compared to the true powers of remnant is a meaningless act. For now I have to look in front of me. And by In front of me I mean the elementals around the tower.

Raven crouched down and looked through binoculars at the top of the ice tree she was using to scout out the elementals. Ruby stared through the scope of rose eclipse next to her.

 **Greater ice elemental (Lv. 8,927) - An elemental of rare strength compared to the norm born of an extreme concentration of mana with an ice affinity in this location. It is naturally hostile to all entities besides one long dead.**

 **Stats**

 **STR: 9,991**

 **VIT: 26,358**

 **DEX: 7,992**

 **INT: 146**

 **WIS: 84**

 **LUK: 64**

 **AFF: 64,000**

Well… They're big. Very big. Each of them are like large almost So the snake theme continues… I've no doubt that all of them can breathe ice of frost or something cold. The strong ones could so these ones probably can do the same but better.

The problem is this. There are eight of these beasts and all of them are on par with Raven but super tanky. That means that we can't just fight them. We actually have to plan and use our superior intelligence and abilities to kick ass. We can't just sneak through them either since if the lesser elementals could sense us then these suckers undoubtedly can.

My best plan is to make runes like landmines filled to the brim with heat attuned mana. Raven draws them in as little groups as she can through the landmines and hopefully a few are knocked out. I will be hidden on a tree and fire massive heat beams at them while Ruby snipes them. Raven fights defensively while we deal damage and we repeat. Boom. Eight dead elementals.

Hopefully the plan will be as simple as that. Nobody thinks it will be so easy but we can only hope.

It took two hours for me to write all the runic matrixes. They were simple things written on plates of ice. A rune holds heat mana and releases it upwards when the circle is disturbed. Easy.

I made roughly two hundred of these plates and scattered them around the forest floor all around the elementals. I made a series of sniper nests from ice for Ruby to run around in if the elemental was drawn out of our kill zones.

Raven started by just showing a hint of herself to an elemental. It looked at her for a moment before a hissing screech rang out. All other seven elementals noticed clearly. Two ran towards the entrance of the tower, guarding it, and the six others rapidly slithered through the snow.

I growled inaudibly, though Ruby heard me. I had considered that something like this would happen. It was dealable but not good. Ruby and I took aim carefully. My heat beam rammed full force into the lead elemental's face and Ruby's bullets peppered it's face not a moment later. The elemental was more pissed than hurt but eight more beams were fired onto it and several magazine's of bullets. It was barely alive. One more beam dealt with it.

That had used a quarter of my mana. I wasn't able to use dust unfortunately since I was in Ruby's body and she didn't have a dust system but using heat was much easier now since it was a dominant affinity. Without that we really would be screwed or I'd have to leave Ruby's body, which was… undesirable.

Raven whistled strongly and sent a few slashes of fire towards the elementals. They turned their attention from me and Ruby and started following her. Then one of them slithered over the first landmine. A moderate amount of heat attuned mana shot up and melted it's belly. The elemental screeched in pain but continued on.

These elementals were smarter than we gave them credit for. After seeing their brother in arms… or fangs or mana or something - get scorched by the plate of ice they avoided the plates. Sometimes they would miss one and get damaged by them but not all that often.

If only it could have been that easy. The elementals adapted again. They seemed to come to a consensus to use their breath attacks. Icicles and beams of razor ice spew from their mouths and Raven is now playing dodgeball as well as running away. I winced as an icicle clipped her shoulder. Another came flashing towards her face but she slashed it out of the air and sheathed her sword in a flash of embers.

The fight went much the same way. Elementals attacked, Raven ran away, dodged, and occasionally tossed some fireballs to keep their attention. Ruby and I shot bullets and magical heat beams whenever we could… it was kind of boring.

At the last elemental the other two tried to attack too but it was just blind repetition. Boring. Why is that becoming a theme of this place?

Ruby hopped down with a small scowl. Raven had a similar expression.

"I know I volunteered for that… but that was not fun." She said in irritation.

"It was boring for us." Ruby said frustratedly. "All we did was shoot and shoot and shoot… why am I missing all the fun stuff?!"

"Because you're not strong enough to fight up close with the strong elementals and the others are all too easy for you." I wind whispered out loud. Ruby pouted.

"I'm almost wishing something interesting would happen." Ruby muttered. I almost agree.

Raven sighed and withdrew a bottle of beer from the inventory. "Time to go inside." We all walked towards the tower and Raven took the honor of kicking the door in dramatically. A long hallway with a red carpet led in. The hallway was lit by glass globes that softly shined with light affinity. Because there was some practicality among mages and wizards the walls were made of a thick and dense wood. Runed darkwood, apparently.

"Okay, that's actually pretty cool." Ruby admitted. "But the apartment is cooler. Homier." Raven nodded and tossed the now empty beer bottle behind her into the snow.

"Wait." I said. "The mana isn't streaming into Ruby anymore." The compulsion mana that had constantly annoyed me was gone now. It just wasn't there."

"Ooh! You can get out now?" Ruby said excitedly. I answered that by exiting. Ruby squeed and hugged me. "Thank you! I know that was super boring for you to sit in my soul!" I shrugged.

"It wasn't that bad." Ruby grinned.

"Come on kids." Raven said a little teasingly. "We've a tower to explore." Raven walked ahead and Ruby and I followed suit.

Entering the main room there were two wings on the left and right and a doorway in the center. "Not splitting up." I confirmed.

"Oh absolutely."

"… Fine."

"Left first." I decided. I walked to the left and the only turn was to the right. I walked down the corridor a little and found the first door. Opening it was a… dorm room? And in good condition. My eyes zeroed in on the table, which had a book on it.

I instantly half stepped towards the book and snatched it up.

" _-ould be the frostfire branching spell, which is designed for cold that spreads like fire. The main benefit is that a fire affinity is unnecessary for such a spell though it can be used. Other affinities such as consumption and domination can be used though fire is the preferred method due to the commonality of the element."_

I chuckled darkly. "I like this place." I glanced around the room and saw Raven holding a staff curiously.

 **Treated icewood staff**

 **Rarity: Magical (Low)**

 **Material composition: Icewood, Ice essence (Medium concentration)**

 **Special traits: Magical amplifier (Ice - x3)**

 **Bio: An ordinary mage's staff from ages past. Icewood treated with ice essence (Concentrated ice mana) makes the entirety of the staff. This staff is, while well made and runed to be durable, quite standard compared to a normal staff.**

"Raven." I said warningly. "Hand that over. Now." Raven looked warily at the staff and cautiously handed it to me. I gingerly took the staff and brought it to my face. A huge grin broke my face and I hugged the staff.

"Don't worry, precious. You're safe now." I stage whispered. Raven lost all tension and deadpan to me.

"Really?" I ignored her. I was with my baby now. I would get a better one but this was my first.

"Uh… so what does the stick do?" Ruby asked confusedly.

"It triples the intensity of my ice affinity when I channel mana through it." I mumbled, only half hearing Ruby. Raven's eyes widened and she looked appraisingly towards the staff. I saw her look and held my staff closer. "I got first pickings. Back off. There may be better staffs but I already figured out how to make a better one. I'm pretty sure I could make any type of magical amplifier now… I just need to experiment a little." I set the staff down with a sigh of happiness.

"This place is already the most rewarding." Raven said in a pleased tone. "Onwards then." Raven exited the small dorm room across the hall, where another empty room was. She came out a moment later with another staff. I didn't even care.

We circled the entire corridor to the other side. It wasn't like the tower was super thick. There were only eight single bed rooms in the circular corridor. There were staffs in each of them and a poorly made longsword made of mana conductive metal treated with ice elemental mana. I didn't care to use that. It was badly made and I didn't use longswords.

As it turns out the book I had found was a textbook scribed to standardization. In other words, it was a handwritten copy of a magical textbook. I think we found hogwarts…

"Well I know you two are thrilled to have staffs that amplify mana but… well can we see what other stuff is around?" Ruby asked. "Like whatever arch-mage lives up high?" A pointed finger up the stairs did clarify to us that yes there was more loot to be had…

Like better textbooks and staffs.

Words cannot describe how fast I leaped up those stairs.

The second floor was filled with two lecture halls, some teaching supplies (Like volumes two through five of the textbooks and a teacher's annotated copy, which was mine now), and three teacher's quarters which all had better staffs in them. Not to the extreme concentrations of ice mana, but high grade. They had a 4x boost to ice mana. Beautiful.

The third floor were staff quarters, which were mundane except for the bedding being made of frost spider silk, which was to be my and Raven's new bedding since it was incredibly soft.

The fourth floor was a storage room… it had properly stored and labelled magical creature parts with their effects in all kinds of crafting. Ruby was pissed. All those samples we collected were for nothing. There was also a little hangout hidden in the boxes of supplies runed to be hidden from mage sight with a runed cooler full of magical beer. I took it all. I'm hoping I can use it with nature's bounty to sell beer to remnant. Raven demanded one, which I obliged. Her eyes widened and she found a new favorite drink.

The fifth floor had an alchemy lab. I don't know if I'll ever bother getting into alchemy but I took all the supplies and whatever stations I could. The potions were interesting. Alchemy includes the process of manufacturing elemental essences though so… I'll think about it. There's also the potions but they're not really useful. At all. The only one worth even a little were the mana potions but they only restore about ten thousand mana at most so I doubt I'll ever really care about getting into alchemy.

The sixth floor was a library. I took it all. Everything. Every scrap of paper is now safely stored in my soul space. I saw spellbooks for everything. Heat magic, water magic, space magic, consumption magic, fire magic, and everything in between. It was beautiful. So gorgeous.

Finally was the seventh floor…

I eagerly opened the double doors at the top of the stairs, hoping for the best. As the doors parted I gazed at the room's contents…

A large bed, a sort of lab with some ice dust that was glowing for some reason on it along with some equipment, a basin with some uncleaned dishes… is this some sort of magical bachelor's flat?!

I wandered in, still scrutinizing everything around here, and Raven wandered in with a gleam in her eye that faded to confusion when she looked around. "Is this some sort of magical apartment? I didn't answer. I was in love.

 **Ice Archwizard's staff**

 **Rarity: Magical (High)**

 **Material composition: Icewood, frosted silver, powdered ice dragon scale, powdered ice dragon bone, Ice essence (Extreme concentration)**

 **Special traits: Magical amplifier (Ice - x5)**

 **Bio: This staff used to be a symbol of authority and skill. The most powerful ice wizard of them all was allowed to wield it but with the fall of magic and the rise of the queen the hierarchy and magical community is in shambles. What used to be a symbol of power and skill is now simply a very good staff.**

I put my teacher's staff into my inventory and took this one. It's top was carved to resemble an ice wraith coiling around it. Silver circled up the wood in a spiral. The rest of the staff was made of ice wood that was paler than the norm. I can't say for certain but I think that it's the ice dragon bone and scale that's infused into the wood. It doesn't really matter though. It's beautiful. And super deadly. Ice magic just became my most powerful magic.

"This is the best one. The arch-wizard's staff. It's got powdered dragon scale and bone in it too." I grinned. I wasn't going to be creepy with my staff again. I'm kind of out of juice for that.

"Do you think we can make one better?" Ruby asked, walking up behind me. I sighed but nodded.

"We can rune one to be great, infuse it with the dragon bone and scale, and smelt this silver, called frost silver, into my best magical conductor. Not to mention that what we make will be mechashift and amplify more than just ice mana." Ruby smiled proudly and looked over at the glowing crystals.

"And… what are those?" I observed the crystals curiously.

 **Infused ice dust (High grade)**

 **Rarity: Magical (High)**

 **Special traits: Magical battery (10000/10000 ice mana)**

 **Ice dust infused with ice attuned mana.**

"It's ice mana infused into high grade dust. I didn't know that dust could act as a magical battery." Ruby walked over to the crystals and glanced at a covered basket under the crystals. She pulled it out and it was filled with ice infused crystals.

"Whoa…" She said in a little surprise. "How much mana do these things have?"

"About a twentieth of my total mana. I could make one of those every minute… or every two minutes right now. The mimic is hampering my mana regeneration right now." Ruby nodded, not questioning how the mimic was doing that or why I was letting it. I don't think she really wanted to know.

"Why is it hampering your magical regeneration?" Raven asked. Oh, so she wanted to know. That makes sense.

"I'm siphoning the affinities from it. It's fighting me but it's not able to fight back. I'm far more magically adept and aurically adept than it."

"That sounds… horrible." Ruby said, her face dark.

"It is. I've done a lot worse, though." I said sadly. Poor Jaune. I don't regret what I did though.

A moment of silence passed. Then my eye caught something. A runic circle on the wall. I approached it and tried to decipher it's function. A magical battery, a wide-range emitter, a collection matrix, and… oh?

Part of the matrix was specifically designed to run through a catalyst to convert the mana. I followed where a conductive pattern led and found a small matrix in an auxiliary matrix. In it was a purple rod of metal.

 **Infused moribus (Mind)**

 **Rarity: Magical (Medium)**

 **Special traits: Attuning rod (167,980 affinity)**

 **A rod of moribus, a mana conductive metal, that has an elder mind strider's essence infused into it, granting it a potent mind affinity. Running unattuned mana through the rod will attune it to mind mana.**

Instantly I figured out what this was. This was the matrix that was compelling Ruby to not know about the icy tower before. Without hesitation I took a brush out of my inventory and a bucket. I dipped the brush and without even paying attention I dragged the brush across the matrix's detection system. It was still technically active but it couldn't see. It was blind.

I grabbed the rod of mana and pulled it out and into my inventory. "Alright. That was the matrix that was compelling Ruby to not know about the tower. She can go outside now without my soul defending her."

"Good." Raven said approvingly. "And what about that one?" She said pointing a finger at the wall above the lab. My eyes widened. A conductive pattern was going from the matrix I had just destroyed to the other matrix.

I rushed over to the matrix and looked over it quickly. Oh no… oh nonononon. This matrix was specifically focused on the north-east, where the ice cave was. It prevented thoughts affiliated with escape or revenge… but it needed the detection matrix to discover those thoughts. Shit.

" _roooooOOOOOOOOAAAARRR"_

I stiffened. "That… that is what was keeping the beast in it's icy cave."

 ***Ding!* You have released Í̴̡̙̥̪̠̻̾̂̃͡ͅć̨͙͇̞̖͛͒̓͐̏̚̚͞m̶̢͇̱̫̫͙͆̎̏́̏́̚͡a̴̯̳̝͉̜͋́́̈́͂͠ͅñ̡̤͍̌̈̆̚͢ͅt̡̺̘̪͉̤̳͗̌̇̄͋͢͞ t͇̻̳̗͓̳̑̉̍̓͋͑͋̌̍̌͢ḩ̷̭͙͔̯̹̲̎̕̕͘͡ē̳͇̭̳͖͂̊̓̚ i̴̗͈̼̠̥̫͇̓̉́͘͡m̧̢͍͉͍̠̃́̾͌̽̌͢͠ͅp̺̝̯͇͚̃̀̍͋̎̿̕͝͠r̨̡̹̰̳͇̠̫̆̅̄̉̓͛̚͜i̵̢̨̨̲̪͕̺̒̌̾̽̑̾̄͆͘͠s̸̢̼̬̺̲͉͖̩̐͐̒̃̐̅͆õ̡͎͕͙͖̩̱̫̓͋̒͂͒̒̕̚͢͞n̢͙̜͇̬͌̍̉́̊͢ȩ̞̼͕̹̲̹̌̀̌̄̿̿̈̽̕͟ͅͅd̶̨̛̙̰͔̳̤̟̟͙́̈̀̕͟͡ ǫ̸͔͓̟̜̀̏͆͗̕n̢̻̗̝̘̭͎̊̎̄̾͑̃ę̸̦̼̼͎̂̋̀͘̚͞͡ (̤͎̞̻̥̓̔͋̒̊͑͘̕͠L̨͔̱͇̳͉̞̬̙̞̈́͐̉̈́̈́̎̈́̚v̷̳͙͓̖͒̎̅̎̉̌͑̈͟.̷̢̛̤̼̺̟̘͓͋̀͑̒͂̕̕̚͡ 9̶̧͖̝̝͙͓͌̑͒̔̽,̶̛̛̲̼̙̼̖̦͚̹̈̇̓̿͊͒̍9̛̯͎̰͔̌̓̌̉͗̈́̍̊̐͢8̨̼̫̯͚̳̇̀̌̚͘͟͞8̢̢̱̗͕̄̍̿̍͋͘͘)̵̨̛͎͕͚͇͉̜̱͙͗̍̌̿̕ͅ This is classified as a raid mob and vastly above your level.**

A massive snapping sound was heard from all the way across the forest. "Raven! Take us out now!" I snapped. Raven could seemingly tell the panic in my voice meant 'now' since I saw her concentrate briefly. A red portal opened but…

' _ROAAAAA_ _ **AARRRRR**_ _'_

A huge pulse of ice mana flushed over the tower. It was like an ocean's depths. The pressure of all than mana leaned down on me with crushing force. Raven gasped and her legs buckled as she fell to a knee. I heard a crumpling sound behind me. Ruby was unconscious probably. With Raven's concentration disrupted the portal collapsed.

Well… shit. There's only one thing left to do other than die… I gravely looked at my status screen and assigned my points. 500 points total in WIS and INT… and fifty to LUK. I'm going to need it.

[|||| == ||||]

" _So obviously we need to lower the budget for coffee and-!"_

" _NO!"_

" _What?!"_

" _Oh… oh no… Glynda I need to… this is not good. Not at all."_

" _Ozpin what's going on?!"_

" _An old one. Not a large threat for Salem but for us… there are enemies that required no less than an arch-wizard to face. One such enemy was just released."_

" _Oh.. oh dust… can… can you kill it? Can anyone else help?"_

" _Perhaps Abyss… or two maidens… is Amber nearby?"_

" _She's in Vale right now, yes."_

" _Get her now and the fastest bullhead we have and put it in the teleportation matrix to Shade. Time is critical here. I may not be up to the levels of the arch-wizards of old without the use of a relic but I am a strong wizard. I can fight."_

" _I'm coming with you."_

" _Glynda you-"_

" _I. Am. Coming."_

" _... Alright. Now get Amber. This is an enemy that may collapse whole kingdoms should we not be able to kill it."_

[|||| == ||||]

I poured my stat points into my WIS and INT hoping for the best. The moment I did I felt my soul twist and writhe in ways it shouldn't. Another change in my soul. Fine. I leaned on my steel will skill and pain resistance skills to keep myself conscious. I couldn't read the messages but while my soul warped I stumbled over to Ruby, who was shivering in the fetal position on the floor. She disappeared into my inventory. I then clumsily stumbled to Raven. I tripped but I was close enough to her to touch her. She disappeared into my inventory a moment later as well.

I collapsed onto the floor and waited for the horrible pain to end. I could feel Icmant and his colossal mana come closer but he wasn't hellbent to getting to me I think. Or he was slow. He was just slowly coming closer to the tower.

After the metamorphosis finished I felt a blaze in my soul. Not a fiery blaze but a powerful one. Before I even opened my stats sheet, though, I put on The Storm title. I was going to need it. Then I opened my stats sheet hoping to whatever gods are watching that I had the strength to beat this monster.

 ***Ding!* By reaching 400 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Prime affinity**

" _ **Wizards only ever specialize on one element. It is what they are best in without question. Thus why we have archwizards specializing in just one element barring the archwizard of soul, who none can claim to comprehend."**_

 **-Ventel, wizardess**

 **-4x modifier on your greatest base affinity.**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 450 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Selective memory**

" _ **A rare few remember only what they care to and forget the rest. A better trade off than remembering everything. I don't particularly care to know what I ate on the twenty sixth day of my tenth autumn either. I'd rather remember the beautiful women of Cassidy city. It's irritating that I remember one but not the other."**_

 **-Iruidil, scholar**

 **-Remember everything you have ever seen**

 **-Muscle memory is never forgotten**

 **-You may choose to forget whatever you don't care to remember**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 500 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Grand soul**

" _ **I once saw the souls of those that call themselves the enlightened. They are above even those of us that wield the higher souls. I fear what the enlightened call their master, however. For what a soul that individual must have to earn the love of that which is grand?"**_

 **-Pamels the viewer of souls**

 **-+250% WIS and INT modifiers**

 **-Your consciousness lies in your soul rather than a physical body. Skills and the INT, LUK, and WIS stats are based in the soul and cannot be lost except in death.**

 **-Affinities are four times as strong**

 **-Aura and mana may be used interchangeably in some spells**

 **-Anything that occurs inside your soul costs 25% less MP or AP**

 **-Replaces high soul**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 400 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Nature's wrath**

" _ **Dust is interesting. We know that mana focused in a particular way makes it but we can't say that we understand it. Especially naturally made dust. We cannot comprehend it no matter how hard we try. Yet… we can use it. Perhaps that is enough."**_

 **-Relkaskan, dust expert**

 **-Dust is 4x as powerful when used**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 450 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Foci**

" _ **A staff is a wizard's best friend. Lose it and you'll be a laughingstock. Don't have one and you're either incredibly powerful to the point of not needing one like the archwizard of soul or you're just an idiot."**_

 **-Magical foci are 5x as effective**

 **-Focusing attuned mana into objects is 10x as efficient**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 500 INT a new skill has been acquired! - World of mana**

" _ **Mana… it is such a small word but it is so powerful in reality. It is incredible."**_

 **-Ulerid the believer**

 **-Replaces flood of mana**

 **-10x mana capacity and regen**

 ***Ding!* By reaching 150 LUK a new skill has been acquired! - Pass it on**

" _ **I'm a lucky person. So are my friends. It makes me feel more lucky that my friends are lucky too."**_

 **-Minsk the well of fortune**

 **-25% of your LUK is applied to friends, family, and allies**

 ***Ding!* As your wind affinity is over eight thousand total your contracted wind elemental has become a lesser wind elemental! He may downgrade to a minor elemental should your wind affinity decrease.**

 ***Ding!* As your wind affinity is over sixteen thousand total your contracted wind elemental has become a common wind elemental! He may downgrade to a elemental should your wind affinity decrease.**

 ***Ding!* As your wind affinity is over thirty two thousand total your contracted wind elemental has become a strong wind elemental! He may downgrade to a common wind elemental should your wind affinity decrease.**

 ***Ding!* As your electrical affinity is over four thousand total your contracted electrical elemental has become a minor electrical elemental! He may downgrade to a petty elemental should your electrical affinity decrease.**

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Wizard; The Storm**

 **Level – 234**

 **HP – 12,032 (+30.08/min)**

 **AP – 120,000 (+6000/min)**

 **MP - 2,050,000 (+102,500/min)(½ due to mimic)**

 **STR - 204 (+515%)= 1254.6**

 **VIT - 188 (+540%)= 1203.2**

 **DEX - 275 (+545%)= 1773.75**

 **INT - 500 (+400%)= 2500**

 **WIS - 500 (+500%) = 3000**

 **LUK - 150 (+0%)= 150**

 **POINTS - 490**

 **Affinities:**

 **Air: 315 (+500) (x64)(190%)= 99,104**

 **Electricity: 189 (+200) (x16) (190%)= 11,825.6**

 **Heat: 149 (x16) (140%)= 3337.6**

 **Purity: 144** **(+100)** **(x8) (140%)= 1612.8**

 **Light: 135 (x8) (140%)= 1512**

 **Space: 125 (x8) (140%)= 1400**

 **Ice: 119 (+51)(+59) (x8) (140%)= 2564.8**

 **Consumption: 168 (x8) (140%)= 1881.6**

 **Unity: 107 (x8) (140%)= 1198.4**

 **Water: 102 (x8) (190%)= 1550.4**

 **Nature: 82 (+19)(+63)(+20)(+8) (140%)= 2150.4**

 **Motion: 81 (x8) (140%)= 907.2**

 **Life: 80 (x8) (140%)= 896**

 **Metal: 52 (x8) (140%)= 582.4**

I felt it without even trying. That sharpness. That cutting feeling in my soul. My wind affinity was massive. Gargantuan. And my mana… it was ten times what it was before. More, even.

I stood tall and smiled at the wealth of power that coursed through me. I'm getting closer and closer to Ozpin's level. If I spent every point I had I might even be AT his level… but no. I have other ways of gaining power. And points are precious. To only be used in emergencies. Like now.

I ran down the tower and in a burst of air mana I jumped high up to the top. Getting a handhold was easy enough. Then I looked out into the forest. Icmant was easy to see.

He was a demon, first of all. Clearly a demon with his blue skin, horns, and clawed feet. They resembled velociraptor legs. The first thing that really struck me, though, was that he was huge. Ten times taller than the trees and his height was halfway up the tower. And his mana… his mana was beyond mine by such an insane amount that he may as well have been a human and even I, with all my new power, an ant.

Obviously I observed him.

 **Icmant**

 **Title: Imprisoned one; High demon; Minor embodiment of ice; Tyrant; Elder one**

 **Level – 9,988**

 **HP – 697,600**

 **AP – [DENIED]**

 **MP - 379,760,000**

 **STR - 5379 (+900%)= 53,790**

 **VIT - 6976 (+900%)= 69,760**

 **DEX - 9,009 (+900%)= 90,090**

 **INT - 18,988 (+900%)= 189,880**

 **WIS - 9459 (+900%) = 94,590**

 **LUK - 129 (+0%)= 129**

 **Affinities:**

 **Ice: 78,282 (Innate)**

 **Corruption: 47,9042 (Innate)**

 **Abyss: 36,829 (Innate)**

 **Blood: 15,989**

 **Perks:**

 **Pure demonic heritage - You are a demon of the purest heritage. Certain boons and restrictions are granted upon you because of this.**

 **-x25 mana regeneration and capacity**

 **-Only up to four affinities may ever be acquired**

 **-All affinities are 10x as powerful due to the potency of your mana**

 **-Aura is impossible for you to acquire**

 **-The purity element inflicts 10x the normal amount of damage on you**

 **-Magical foci without a corruption element are impossible to use**

 **Wisdom of ancients - You have seen nations rise and fall. Technology come and go. Lands change. Cultures die out. People live and die. Through one way or another, though, you still live. Millenia have passed and you live still. The knowledge of old and present are available to you and through this you have learned much.**

 **-+1000% to INT and WIS**

 **-2x mana capacity and regen.**

 **Chosen of Othos - You have been chosen by Othos for one reason or another. Bear his strength with the might befitting your race.**

 **-1000% to all physical stats**

 **Bio: Icmant is an ice demon from the abyss. He has no objective in his half-life other than to destroy, corrupt, and turn the world to an icy grave while not dying along the way. After he sufficiently amuses himself that is. He was imprisoned by the ice arch-wizard Methanthelios with the help of the mystic mind order over three millennia ago. You have just freed him.**

I set all of my parallels but two to work on increasing my purity affinity. It was just two points below my heat affinity and while heat may be useful against a beast such as Icmant purity would be better. Especially with my eyes… I wonder if I can hide from him for thirty minutes while I raise my affinity to properly combat him?.

 **"̰̱͙̳͎̒̏͑̀̔͢ͅH̢̛̟̱͖̅̾̽̅̔̎͟͞ḙ̢̻̩̘͎̙̅̀͑̈̓̏̂̕͢ļ̸͙̥͈̣̳͉̼̲͆̽͗̄̉͘͜l̸̨̡̢̛̜̤̠͍͓̳̑̋̕͠Ǫ̢̫͍͇̹̖̝̤̦͛͗̓͐̇̆̓͊̕͞ Ḽ͚̭͚̳̟̫̄̑̽͘͢͡í̵̛̯̙̤̫̙̓̎̂̐̇̉́ţ̵͚͎̥̦͖͊͆́͊͝͝t̶̲̮̞̪̬̏͊̾͒̾̈͐͠l̶̨̖̥͎̜̜̑͒̅͑̎̒̒̐͝͝Ẻ̴̝̩̠̫͈̼̻̯͉̓͂̊͊͘ M͔̦̺̼̝͋̆̈́̐̂̔͡ͅA̶̢͖̩̬͇̫̪̣̓̋̿̈̐̀̔̿͜͞͞g̵͎͚̠̰̥͔͎͒͆̉͗̆́̅̄͟͜͞͞Ę̵̛̫̻̟̖̦͕͎̀̅̅̓̇͡ͅ"̸̢͉͔̯̲̹̠̤̼̠̋͐́̐̓̕̚͡͞͞**

Or perhaps not. Icmant turned to face me and a large and cruel smile spread across his face. It brought to attention that his teeth were VERY sharp and made of blackened ice with pulsing red veins faintly visible in them. The image sent shivers down my spine.

 **"̧̡̢̘̲̰̦̘̤͂͑̈͑̇̊̄̐̚͢A̵̳̪͉̫͚͛̈́͂̈͛̊͛̀̚ń̵̩͔̖͉͇̪̑̑̈́̎̂̅̄̀͝D̶̨̛̗͇͍͓̻̼̙̦̝́̒̃͐́̊̅͆ ẁ̴̨̡̜̯̻͙̣̀̀̔̋̾͑̅͘H̴̢͉̱͇͙̩̯̅͛̍̈́̏̐̈͗͟͠a̸͈͔̝̲̳̝̩͗̐́̏̅̏̿͜A̸̢̰͎̘͎͕̦̒͊̏͒̔̏̕͡t̵̢͖̯̝̬͔̙͓̉̇̀̓́̿̒̕͟͜ B̸̤̰͓̲̿̆͗̋͂͜ͅr̶͙̦̟̣̼͊̂̌̀͞͠ȉ̤͈̯̫̯͈̦̭̏̍͊͑̽̉͛̋͠ń̷̡̗͖̲̫̳̻̯͙͆̇͗̓͡g̗͉͈̭̺̪̐̅̈́̑͗͛̆͡͝S̶̡̛̲͚͙̦͍͆͌͊̇͆̇̕ ô̮̠͔̜̘̂͒̓͆͠͞N̡̢̢̩͉̥̫͈͚̽̍̋̎̂̚͡ͅë̢͈̱͓̳̟̮̟́̑́̍̊̀̂̅ͅ A̷̻͔͎͍̣̤̻̿̂͌̈̍͑̑͢͞Ś̷̠̮̘̩͕̤̰̜̘̓̓̍͋͊̈́͒͝ l̶͓͍̹̦͉̥̄̋̀͗̉͊̾͘o̸̭̻̟̮̫͕̰̳͗̃͒͛̋̉͜͜͡w̵̢̱͖̘̫̞̉̊̓́̓͌͋͟͞l̫̪͔͚͎̝͙̝̺̏͊̉͗̿̈́̐́͠Y͉̳̯͚̏͛̈́͛̿̏̾͘͜ a̵̛͎͍͕̦͗̀̉̍̀͜͡͡S̴̨̬̣̭͕̮̥̗̫͆̃͌́̚ Ỷ̶̱͉͓̝͉̰̙̤̜̏͆̓̒̕͞ṏ̸͕̝̭̲̪́̈́͋͜͠u̡̘̯̞̩̽̃̅̽͑̀ȑ̰̹̟̖̲̾̏̾͗͊ͅŜ͕̖̭̣̻̞̙̝̅́̏́̾͘ͅĚ̵̫͇̖̱̺̏͋̾̂́͐̕̚ͅL̸̤̻̺̠̉͋̊̑̔̃́̃͢f͎̱̩͇͚̖̭͖̀̑͛̀͘ t̶̡̡͖̣͖̹͛͋̾̃̅̚̚͘͢͠O̢̖̺͓͍̬͚̳͛́̓͆̅̓̽̽̕͟ ŗ͔̖̲̙͕̯͂͊͐̀̓̎̿̋͊ͅé̡̖̥̝̬̠̽̈́̀̆͆͊͗̍͘ͅv̴̢̧̰̫̪̱̒̾̀̾̅̓̚Ẹ̡̥͔̘̘̩͓̱́̍̄͋̈̋́̆̂͢͠ả̵̛̩͎̖͔̲͖̲̼͕̓̔̇̽̎̍͝l̠̪͖̟͕͒̎̌͗̿̄́͢͡ T̨̬̬̮̲͉́͑̓͒͗̇̾ȟ̴̢̨̹̼̥̲̗̿̉̑̀͌̀̉̂ȩ͇̩̲̻̝͚͆̋̔̈́̃̿͞m̘̪̘̜͙̞̰̜̓̽͑́͗͊͐͢͡S̠͇̬̲̫̫͎̣̤͚̆͋͐͐͘̚͞Ę̴͖̦̰̞͙̪̠̓̇͗́̈̆L̴̝̰̘̼͕̝͕̑̃́̈̈͞v̷̹͉̬̬͐̈́́͂͒ͅè̵̛͎̫̻͍̘̗͈͚͎̇̈́̕ͅṣ̶̢̡̡̩̼͍̄̂͐͛͟͝?̡̨̳̬̺͖̲̰́͛̊̀́̑̊̚ P̧̨̬̬̄̓̈́͊̆͢͠ở̱̲̲͇̂̌͋͂͂ͅẂ̴͇̟͎̠̰̜̙͚̈́͛͌̇̿͆͘͟͢Ę̵̳͔̞̦̗̄̏̀̓͊̐͜Ŗ͔̜͖̼̠͗̀͂̀͟͡͝͠?̣̻̺̘͔͔̣͓̈̍͋͌͛͞ Ä̹̥̤̘͔̟͆̂͐̅̄̄̾͢͜͞ B̬̖̫̦̲͉͊͊̎̈́̎̆̈͐͊̚Ă̢̫̳̰̟͎̦̅́̓͠Ṛ̢̧̛͖͆̃̂̈̓͜͞Ǵ̡̡̱̹͈̺̲̻͚̄̂͆̍͢a̦̱̖̙̤̩̪̘̎͐͐̓̑͐̊̓͛̍i̷̛̞̯̭̦͍̞͕͛̀̓͘͘͜͟͝n̙̟͈͚͈͉̰͙̥̓̔́̾̃͘ͅ?̷̡̹̫̯̩͕͇̌̀̓̅͘̚̚͢ F̯̞̫̙̙͕̈̎̅̓̈̇͞ơ̢̻͈͔̬̬̤̗̺͊̏͑͗̀͊̀͘͠ͅǫ̢̜̤̜̰̪͉̊̀̀́̇̐͑͘͜l͕̹͓͖̯̜͚͎̔́̽̀͊͌̎̅͌͌I̵̧͍̯̞̙̫̯͌̅̋͛̾͞͝s̢̛͚͙̣̐͂͆̔́͌͞͝͞ͅḩ̣͍̹̟̱̈́͐̓̔̚͡n͎̰̙͓̰̱̦̭̮̊̆̽́͛̊ͅE̬̳͎̟͈̭͒͆̉̃̋̚͟S̮͈͈̹͔̽͗̽̍͋̕S̵̨̝̳̰̫̲͔̜̊̑̈͊͐͗̇͒͡͝?̧̡̛̲͙̺̻̗̓̆͋̔͊̌͡"̵̨͖̤̤͍̝̟͓̀͊̍̓̎̆̍**

Icmant's words cut into my skull like glass. It hurt my mind to comprehend them. "Can you please stop talking like that?!" I yelled while amplifying my voice with wind mana. Icmant laughed lowly.

" **Consider it a boon, little immortal, that I will restrain my accent from my voice. Now… why do you reveal yourself to me?"**

I nearly sighed in relief that Icmant repressed his… accent. Now to stall. Stall him till the cows come home. Just five minutes would be enough to raise my purity affinity enough… not fast enough. I myself sunk into meditation and took one of my two parallels from the mimic, leaving just one to guard it. The parallel was to keep him as weak as possibly and focus specifically on guarding him from causing damage rather than siphoning it, however.

"I wish answers, great Icmant." Icmant's smile widened greatly.

" **AHA! A valuable thing, that. But of course, answers require recompense…"**

I looked sadly to the staff I held… damnit. I couldn't use it in the upcoming conflict… "I would offer the very staff of the fool who imprisoned you. The staff of the now deceased Methanthelios."

" **AHAHAHAHAH!"** Icmant roared with laughter. **"Oh that is good! I accept! Passit here, mage!"** I used some motion mana to make an acceleration on the staff and casted momentum on it. I reared the staff back (goodbye my sweet) and threw it like a javelin. It went flying the several miles to Icmant and he caught it between his fingers, which had long, spear-like nails.

" **Ah, yes. I remember this twig."** Icmant seemed to relish the staff before he bent his fingers and the staff bent a little. His eyes seemed to glitter as he slowly increased the pressure on the staff. Slowly it bent farther and farther until it snapped entirely. I was sad at losing my staff but… well it was a staff and this was my and my families life on the line.

" **You have five questions, little immortal. But first, your name, should you know it, how I was freed from my prison, and what of the puny mortals who poisoned me to docility."**

"My name is Mavros." I said as humbly as I could. Icmant nodded and leaned to sit back. A throne of black ice grew quickly to support him. He rested his head on his left fist and his black eyes glittered with some interest. "You were freed by my hand, though I admit your freedom was not my intention. The runic matrix keeping your cell's mental effect in place was destroyed by my hand. As for the mortals who poisoned you they are long dead. Their base is right over there if you care to destroy it." I pointed to the bunker.

Icmant looked pleased and waved his hand. I felt a practical river of mana exit his mand and flow towards the bunker. It was ice attuned for sure but there was a massive corruption element and another element which was probably abyss planted so deeply into it I doubt it could ever be seperated. Tainted ice mana, I decided to coin it.

Instead of just remming into the bunker, however, the mana flowed in through the entrance and I lost sight of it. For maybe five seconds the mana flowed until Icmant cut it off. The rest of the mana flowed into the bunker and black ice creeped rapidly out of the entrance. It grew hungrily with the mana and when the mana finally stopped the bunker was covered in a jagged, ominous looking field of black ice. I could feel the taint of it from the tower.

" **Move, mortal. The tower is next."** Icmant said calmly. He waved his hand and I turned my body to wind. I flew as fast as I could, which was extremely fast at my level of affinity, away from the tower to the hill.

I watched in awe as Icmant's mana rammed into the tower. A shield of silver purity mana and some odd white mana sprung up. Icmant laughed and the river of mana doubled in concentration. The shield buckled and shimmered. Some of the corrupted mana leaked through and finally the shield fell. Icmant growled in a satisfied fashion as the tower was turned black.

" **There. Properly defiled, as it should be."** He spoke. Then he turned to me. **"Your questions, little immortal."**

I gulped nervously. "Tell me all you can about the abyss and Othos." Icmant grunted in surprise.

" **And how would you know of Othos? Or the abyssal realm? Nobody in remnant knows of my realm and Othos' name is forbidden to be spoken of here unless you're alone."**

"I will tell you in exchange for two more questions." I said solemnly. Icmant snorted.

" **Almost admirable greed, immortal. You'll have no additional questions, as asking about both the Abyss and Othos is two. Now talk."**

"I know of Othos since I know you were chosen by him." Icmant looked to consider that and shrugged.

" **I suppose that's possible. His essence may still contain traces of his divinity. And the Abyss?"**

"I know of demons and Othos. I know only where you come from and your general intentions of destroying humanity." Icmant hummed.

" **Fine then. The abyssal realm was made by Othos for his pet serpent Ouros originally. Then after he and Althea conceived humanity in reconcile for the creation of the divine beasts and grimm individually Othos repurposed the Abyss for his new children, the demonkin. We are the grimm but greater. Stronger. We serve our god Ouros as his forces. The grimm are made to serve us and act as the deterrent for humanity through their queen until she rebelled."**

"Do you speak of the tale of two brothers?" I asked questionably.

" **Othos and his sister Althea, yes. You humans are rather sexist. How did you think the two made humanity and your spark of the divine? Magic? No. They fucked."**

I grimaced at his bluntness. And aren't they brother and sister? Kind of brings a new perspective on humanity… well it's better than the greek pantheon at least.

"What is the current state of Othos and Althea?" Icmant eyed me appraisingly.

" **A decent question, I suppose. That will be your third from your six questions. Three left. I can sense my master still hasn't revealed himself but still wanders. He left long ago on a journey across the adjacent realms when I was a whelp. Althea is still watching humanity and Salem…"** Icmant paused and closed his eyes. A grin nearly split his face then.

" **Something has caught her interest. Or someone. She senses that something is happening in this realm. A hero, perhaps. Or the cursed one has lived up to his potential after so long. Maybe a new age is beginning. Oh how exciting! Mayhaps a new order of heroes is coming to fruition."**

My mind raced. Althea, the brot-... sister of light is watching over humanity while her brother Othos is screwing around somewhere. But something caught Althea's attention. Let's think of something or someone that's bringing in a new age of heroes or something…

… What? Why are you looking at me? Oh… OH! Yeah so Althea's probably watching me and possibly the people I'm affecting. That's… interesting.

"I see." I said calmly. My mind was running at a million miles an hour but my voice was calm. Thank you acting skill. "Tell me about Salem. All you can."

Icmant shrugged. **"The bitch rules the grimm. She has the purpose of ruling over humanity and has a little fraction of the divine to do so. She is the oldest sister to us until she rebelled for reasons unknown right after Othos left. Certainly not for the benefit of humanity. But she doesn't venture to the abyss or tap to the affinity for the abyss so we don't care. A traitor's a traitor but Salem has no allegiance but to herself now and she still does her job. We don't care about her basically. She is stronger than I though."**

I frowned. That didn't tell me much other than that I'm facing a mini-Salem. Not as strong as she is but not really weak either. "Tell me of the full history of Althea and Othos. Their creations, subjects, and important actions." Icmant smiled slightly more.

" **There's a good one that I actually know well. I served as the libra of the frost clan for a time, you see. Hm. I haven't given the tales in some time. I'll give you the full one I suppose. It's not like there isn't some divine beast just dying to tell everyone. Fucking Oll."** Icmant spat the word Oll with venom. History, maybe? Not important.

" **In the beginning there was remnant. Just remnant and nothing but remnant and the mana and trees and fish and worms and blah blah blah. But then a collection of mana occurred. Given that there was an infinite amount of time filled with nothing but fish screwing and trees and plants multiplying across the land it doesn't matter how long it was. Mana converged naturally and the affinities were close enough to form an origin affinity, which was unstable due to the lacking of a vessel to reside in and broke to purity and corruption though the two are nearly exactly the same. Two sides of the same coin. The first elementals. Othos and Althea."**

" **The two were rather mindless at first, they admit. They frolicked and did just about nothing at all other than mature and grow in power. For you see, there were no other elementals to compete with so why grow up? Millenia passed and they matured and stayed together. They deciphered their creation and determined that they had no purpose. So they gave themselves one. They hated their lack of purpose in the world so they decided to give others a purpose instead."**

" **They knew the deer and rabbits and fish had a purpose. To multiply and die with some natural selection and evolution along the way somewhere in there. Everything had a purpose but them. They just existed. So they made beings of no purpose. The magical beasts and the grimmkind. Althea made hers, the magical beasts, first from the creatures she had seen in her travels and warped them to be better. More interesting and fascinating. Dragons from lizards, krakens from squids, Yetis and sasquaches from apes and so on."**

" **Othos admired her creations as well as felt jealousy towards her firstborn children for their exotic nature and made his, the grimm, in the image of hers with only a few differences. He made one original entity vaguely in Althea's image. He said 'you have looked upon all manner of beasts but you have forgotten your own visage, sister.' and made the lady of grimm. Salem. She's not really like Althea at all in power or looks but the message was clear enough."**

" **Althea raised the magical beasts as best she was able and Othos Salem. Everything was all bubbles and sunshine. Well for Othos and Althea. The magical beasts absolutely decimated the ecosystem of remnant. The grimm live off of mana but the magical beasts needed to eat. Althea sadly cut down the dragons, her favorites, to a quarter of what she wanted. It was all very sad until she got right back to being motherly and raising everyone."**

Althea liked the dragons the best? I have to admit, she's wise. Dragons are totally the best sort of beasties.

" **Now, the grimm and the magical beasts started getting into spats. The magical beasts would accidentally kill grimm thinking them food or a threat to dominance and piss off Othos. He knew Althea didn't mean to but he eventually just entrusted all the grimm to Salem, which she was happy for. I mean, if I had parents and they said I was in charge I'd be happy too. But Othos wanted some form of recompense for the grimm Althea's creations had killed. Althea agreed. She's sort of a softie although she acts the eldest."**

" **And then they fucked."** I sighed and Icmant chortled at me. **"You humans are so sensitive about that. I mean, Althea apparently took up on it last I heard but it's mostly you guys. Is it the brother sister thing? I know that doesn't really work with you humans."**

"No. It causes genetic deficiencies at a higher rate than the norm. The deficiencies are still rare. Not even a hundredth of the norm but still higher. It's also a sort of perversion of familial bonds for many." I said.

" **Whatever. You humans do what you humans do. You'll all die off eventually."** Icmant said callously. **"Now where was I? Oh yes! And then they fucked."** My eye twitched and Icmant was able to see it from his miles away and laughed at me.

" **Fine. You humans are so amusing. Anyways, they took on physical form first. Magic did that this time. But the shells of flesh weren't sentient. No spark. They were as the magical beasts were. Empty of a soul though they, as all things do, had mana. But the child? The child had aura. A spark of the divine. A soul."**

" **The two raised humanity and faunuskind, and I should say that faunus are just humanity that take more to Althea's side of the family tree since her form was a wolf faunus, to the thousands and left them with their knowledge of mana and aura to survive. They watched as they forged villages, towns, and cities."**

" **But humanity grew somewhat soft. They stayed in their cities and did very little. So Othos and Althea agreed that Salem should take charge of trying to destroy humanity with a set of rules in place. We don't know what they are but they're along the lines of staying only on the north-western continent herself and not spreading corruption to the other lands."**

" **The first human campaign was led by the archwizards of old. They failed obviously. Salem herself is as strong as a higher demon and her armies of grimm spread throughout the land. They had no chance but to reclaim their continent they tried and failed."**

" **The first archwizards were culled for but a single survivor. A mage with a semblance to remember everything. Althea and Othos made him immortal and constantly reincarnating as a record of sorts for Salem's defense and conquest after asking her if she wanted a sort of reward. Then the second wave of arch-wizards came into being. Othos made the demons and left and the archmage of ice and some of his buddies imprisoned me."**

" **Obviously the elder wizard, the record keeping guy that's immortal, isn't allowed to know about any of this by orders of Althea and Othos. Just saying. We don't really want the guy knowing about this. One time a divine beast was tricked into telling him and Althea struck the beast down herself and wiped the elder wizard's memory. So don't talk. The wizard's pretty weak anyways. Like my level but a little under me."**

" **Now… your last question?"** I frowned. I had just gotten the history of everything dumped on me. I kind of need a moment. Icmant had a moment of chill and lent me a few seconds to think.

I felt my purity affinity hit one hundred fifty finally and take place as a dominant affinity. Gem awoke too.

 ***Ding!* As your purity affinity is over two thousand total your contracted electrical elemental has awoken! She may return to inactivity should your purity affinity decrease once more.**

 ***Ding!* As your wind affinity is over four thousand total your contracted purity elemental has become a minor purity elemental! she may downgrade to a petty purity elemental should your purity affinity decrease.**

I hid my smile at the notifications. With my silver eyes I might once more have a chance. Just a teeny tiny one but still a chance. "Alright. I have my final question."

Icmant raised an eyebrow. **"Do tell. Your questions are surprisingly helpful to assess the current happenings."**

I looked as intensely at Icmant. "Why haven't the demonkind spread destruction across remnant yet? I know you desire to and you're clearly strong enough even you yourself are strong enough to cripple the world of humanity as is. So why haven't we been conquered yet?"

Icmant's eyes narrowed. **"What do you mean? There are at least eighty or so archmages in your civilization able to combat me on their own and plenty of mages that when working together could subdue me. They instead sealed me away to benefit the training of their ice mages. The ambient mana I emitted when separated from the abyss and corruption element made their affinity for ice rise higher… so what do you mean? If it is as you say… how has the human race fallen in strength that I am as a god to them?"**

"We are weak. Magic is a legend to many. It isn't understood." I explained. "So why has your race not invaded?" Icmant looked stumped.

" **... I do not know."** He admitted. **"A curious problem but not one that concerns me at the moment. Othos lives yet he wanders. Althea watches but has not designed to interfere in my release. I will return to my tribe after inspecting your kingdoms for myself. This information you brought me has proven useful. I hope mine will help you as well."**

Icmant's skin darkened and black and red tendrils of abyssal and corrupt mana, at least I think that's what they were, writhed under his skin visibly. **.**

 **"̴̫̱̖̲̩̻͚͊͑̅̄̐͜Ḅ̦̬̤͉͍͚̤̏͛͌̓͑̑̐̓͞͠u̴̡͇̳̫̯͑̀͛̋̌̈́͢t̶̡͚̦͚̲͓͈̘͊̄̌̈̒̂ ŷ̸͖̞̼̦̥̅̀͊̓̉̍̑͢͝ơ̢͇͍̲̖̽̉͛͊̾͗ͅu̷̢͉̠͔͚̻̲̓̂̿̌͟͜͡͝ ẃ̵̛̹̺̼͍̰̀̔͆̄̕̕o̴̢̡̞̰̜͍̮̐̊́̽̎ṇ̷̢̯̤̞̞̟̆̓̃̎̀͋͜'̧̲͓̮̺͔͚͔̿̐̆͑̀͐̚͠͝͡ẗ̛͈̜̭̞̀̊͑̈́͛͢͟ͅ b̸̧̡͓̬͔͌̀͂͆̒̒̿͠ͅę̵̻͙̙̀̿̂̉̓̓̐̔̚̚ͅ a̵̛͉͈̼̥̼̲̮͋̾̆̒̓͋̂͝͠b̷͉̮̗̥͓̳͒͆͛̌͝l̸̨̨͙͉͚̜̻̪̟͇͊͂̽͘̚͘͡ȩ̵̟̥̣̠̳̓̆̐́̓̕̕͝ t̶͕̘͈̟̞͗́͐̊͌̋͋̍̄̈́o̦̫͕̬͇͊͐̀̒̚͝ u̶̡̯̞̞̥͚̜̭̾̊͒̓̏͜ṣ̢̪͕́̀̽͗̔̈͒̍͜ë̵̩͔̬̼͓̼̱͈̭́̆͑̂͌̒͜͡ i̸͇͇͉̺̫̳̜͈̩̋͛͑̓͆̓͒͋͟t̴͎̲̘͓͍̼͉̹̉͋͋͂̄̑̉͡ͅ.̴̦̻̭̬̙̺̥̠͛̓̍̈̽̌̈́ Ǹ̢̺̙̯̗̹͎͍̃̾̄̀̾̓̅̀͢͢o͚̤͍̰̻̻̼̎͋͋̑̆͒͘͢͠͞w̶͙̥̤̺̦̝̥̓̽̾̐́ ď̢̥̼̪̟́̑̂̑̚͡į̶̣̲͍̖̰͐͒̎̓͛͌̉̉͞ͅe̶͎͉̟̰̽́̊̀͌͢͡,̨̯̪̰͓͓̪̱̹͉͛̄̋̎̏͘ f͚̜͓̖͕͍͎̿̈́̇́̑̓͘͢͡õ̵̢̭͓͇̟̦̱̠͌͊̌͋̆͗ͅo̷̼̥͉̦̭͈̪̣̪͛͌̇̑̆͆̄͊͟͡͝ĺ̷̼͕̳̖̓̉͊̓̅̀̚͟į͙̗̃̍̇̿͋̂͜͢͝ş͈̣̩̜̯͚̙̯̉̋̀̈́̏͞ͅḩ̴̮̻͍͎̩́̀́̏̓́̀̓̀̆͟ i̞̣̼̟̣̎̀͒̍̓̓̓͟͟ḿ̸͖͚͙͔̏̈́̔̃͋͢ṃ̵̨̻̗̦́̈́͂͂͢͠ợ̸̬̜̯͓͆̄̇͆́̈̍͐̇͜r̴̲̩̣͖̖̤̅̃̓̉͢͞t̴͍̤̫̬̠̘͖̜͓̺̔̿͑́́̾͆a̶̡̡̡͔̰̩̤͓̔̋̓̇̈́͐̂̓̀ͅl̬̲̘̭̹̏̇͌̎̑̚.̭͇̦̦̜͔̗͎́̀̆͐̃͝͞"̫̟̙̝͎͍̞̮̋̀̓̍͛̈͐͛̑͟**

[|||| == ||||]

" _Nearly there…"_

" _Ozpin why am I here?!"_

" _Amber… I'm sorry but you have to fight. I don't believe you can do much but at the very least you can support me. You mastered mana transfering, yes?"_

" _Yes I can do that fine and I expanded my mana reserves like you said. I even got those techniques to amplify my affinities. The first two at least. Attunement and dominant nature."_

" _Good. You keep them up full time?"_

" _Obviously."_

" _Good… Amber I'm going to have a rare moment of honesty with you. We humans are so very weak. Ants compared to the true powers of remnant. Salem is just a taste of what lies just behind curtains we don't understand. She is strong but there are worse than her."_

"… _You're kidding."_

" _If only. You forget that I was there Amber. I saw what she did to the archmages of old. I only hold the title as an archmagus because there are none left. I am truly just a wizard. In my several millennia of existence my growth has slowed to a fraction of what I wish it could be. I am a rather weak wizard even. To truly be a strong wizard you must hold ten times my mana though my affinities are rather strong for one such as myself. But the point is moot. I am weak. There are so many stronger. In my youth archmages had over a hundred times what I have. They were the peak of wizardry. Not I."_

" _Oh dust… no. Not even dust. Oh shit."_

" _Precisely. So Amber… support me as best you can. If I die, which is a good option here, try to live. Try to fight. Do some… some…"_

" _Ozpin?... Ozpin?! What's wrong?!"_

" _Something miraculous just occurred… but Summer is dead? No. But… Amber somebody with a purity on par with the strongest of elementals is fighting. Though their mana is somewhat small they are a wizard. Strong affinities… Who then…"_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	26. Chapter 26

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 26** = ||||]

I immediately activated my eyes. My purity affinity shot up in intensity. It wasn't my prime since the eyes were a modifier and not the base but Gem certainly benefited from the five hundred sixty thousand purity affinity I had. Her strength grew immensely. Her status designated her as a colossal elemental.

I released her and a huge huntress wielding a spear and a bow slung across her back formed in front of me. _"Hello again master."_ Gem spoke in a lilting, elegant sort of voice. I was surprised that she could speak but Icmant interrupted first.

 **"̤̺͕̱̦̪͔̯̃̊̔͑͟͠Si͇̇̆̄͑̏̏͗̈́̌́ͅl͔̳͍̅̎̂͐̃͋͝ve̒̓̕͝ṛ̮̹̱̺̣͕̬̅̊̔͐̆͝ͅ ȩ̛̻͔̤̮̱̭̯̻̦͆͂̇̒̚y̴̧̬͓̗̝̭̝̯̱̎̋̓́̇͌̌̓̎e̺̜͉̮̹͈̐̅̀̄̅͒͑s̵̤̳̘̥̹̻͔̠̣̾̒̅͗͋͊͡͞!̡̧͔̹̟͖̹̦̝̪́̽̾̇͗̈́ N̷̜̲̹̦͎̗͂̈́͒̉̓̈̕͡ỏ͓͎̪͓̬̘̀̊͝͞.̸̛͖̬̝̩͖̲̻̗̉̋̄̽.̧̛̩͔͇͙̑̈̆̂̓͆͊̓̉.̛̇ P̀̎̆r̠̪̣̦̝̊͌̓̀̅ȩ̸̫̞͖͉̙̩̝̝͙̿̌͒̐̃̃̐̉̚cṵ̜͈̻̲̯̑̓͊̎̃́͘͢͝r̜̖̖͖̤̜̖̲̿̐͋̾͑͂̉̕ś͓͈̭̙̭̆̃́̈́̄̓̇̇͞o̜̪̳̟̺̟͓͈̟̐̓̌̈͐̌ͅŗ̯̫͚͆̒̎̅̊͟ ş̢͈̖͎̟͗́͊̿͆̂͠͠ỉ̯͎̯̯̫̘̖͕͈͋̈́̔͗͊̈́̃ḻ̫̱̞͖̹̥̘̥͉̓̐̃̽͋͘̚v̸͇͓̤̍̇̈̉̎͊͢͡ͅé̗̤͕̘͍͛̇͊͂͋́͘͟͝͡ṛ̸̢̛̼̼̳͔̦͉͙͛́̌̄̅̋͘͠ e̶͇̬̺̝̳̯͎̲̬̽̾̓͑͑̉͐͛͒̚͢y̶̡̳͚͙̜̼͐͒̇̎̈̇́̏͠e̙̙̟̞̋̽̽́̒̀͟s̠͉̞̠͚̉͋̂̽̇̌͡!̛̳͖͉̭̫̋̀̀̆͗̿̓́ T̢̮̹̖̹̹͇̐̔͗͐͗̔̇́̆̈́ṟ̨̨͓͓͕̙̩̩́̍̾̔̄͌̆̍̊̚͢ủ̶̬̲̳̙͓̣̑̆̉͒̋l̸̛̟̹̪͍͍̉̿̓̂͆̈̐ẏ̴̛̖̘̭̹̠̓̇͐̈́̅ I̵̧̧͔̤͎̙̣͊̌̈́͌͡͞ͅ h̴̺̳̠͙͙͉̍̽̽̆͢͢͠͡ͅa̷̧̤̘͈͉͓̥̺͂̆̍̿̂͊͗v̨̛̝̦̩͉̝̏̑̓͋͛͜ȩ̵̜̤͍̮̫̏͒͊̓͑̇͋̄́̄ f̶̢̻͚̣̗̜̭̥͈̭̋̑̍̒̂͋̓̂͞o̸̡͍̱̪͕̗̅̉̅̑̔̇̌͘͟u̴̺͉̥̺̞͚̮͕͂̏̄̉̋͋͘̕͜ņ̸̨̮̬̬̹͉̀̈̌̓̕͠ͅd̶͖̝̟̦͍͔͊̐͗̆͠ ȧ̧̡̢̛̠͈̯̳̰͓͊̑̑̂͠ w͔̘̪̼̆̃̐̆͋̓̌́͋͢o̶͎̘̳̯͓̣͊̀̊́͂͑͗̓̉̕͟r̘̹̥̻̣̣̋̄͊͋̎̓̄͢t̞̥͈̼̙͉͈̥̺͒͂̑̅̋̃̑̄̚͜͞h̨̢̛̥̤̣̻̼̗̦̘̿̿̅̔͒͝y̧͖͙̹͓͌̌̓̋̓͛͐͝ o̴̘͇̪̝̟̥͋̎̈̉̃̑̚͟͝p̯̯̥̮̋͆̇̋̽̕͟͢p̨̤͎͕͍̩̂́͆̈́̇̎̍͡͝o͉͓͇̯̠̍̀̑̽̃̾̍̃ͅn̤̙͔͓͎̬͛̃̊̏̒̓̉ȩ̵̨̭̱̱̳̒͋̌̓͂͆͘͘̚n̠͉̻͓̥̏̒͗̉͠t̟͓̙͔̲̅̃̈́̆̌̒͊͡!̵̛̜̦͙̱͖́̾̄͘͞ Ỵ̵̛͔̼̥̬͔͇̲̓̽͋́̔̀̉̚͞ȩ̸̹̞͇̯͔͍͖̦̝̽̇͑̔̑̎̊͡t̡͙͚̗͂̓͌̈́͊͜ y̴̢͓̘̻̞͚̞̾̔͋̓̇̒̆̄̚͢͠ő̖̟̰̣͍̣͐͐̓͊̋̅͠u̢̲̥̟̹̥̹͈͗̑̒̇͆͛͐͑̕͢ a̸̧̦̫̬̘̭̣̖̝͇̽̽̐̓̄́ŗ̪̘̲͍̞͔̏͆̏͋̒͋͐͘ẹ̴̡̟̜͇͇̳̤̎̾́̊̒ͅ b̨̖̞͍̗͖̖͖̀̌̏̐̊͢͡ú̱̰̩̦̱̤̩͂̒̌͒̆̕̕͞͞t̢̰̤̫͓̤͙͚͎̔̐͋̾̚͜ a̤̮̘̱̣͓͊̇͗̊̏͠ ẁ̸̛̪͚͔̼͖̙̈́̒̾͛͆h̵̢̛͎̮̮̻̱͕̳̗͛͋̊̕e̶̛̱̦̲͍͍̩̾͑͊͘͘͝l̢̢̛̠̙̬̻͓̺͈͌̊̎̈́͋̅͞͠ͅp!̷̡̣̺͖̥͛̈́̉͐̔̚͞! Ņ͇͓͍͙̊͒͊͐̑͘͢ò͖͔͎͓̜͓̫̝̘̙͆̿̄͞͞w̸͖̲͔̠̺͕̎̎͛̈͐͑͞ f̩͎̩̮̻̯͑̆̈́̒̂͢͢͞i͎͙͚͙̟̒̀̈͛͂̆͘͜ḡ̰̹̒͌̀̌h̛͗̑̓̈́̕̚t̵̢̗͓̖̹̉̍̓̽͢͞!̋͊̊͋̇͂̕!̧͕͉̺̝͖͕̃͊̓͗̌̀̐͂͢!̡͓̰͉̯̋̇͋̌͑̆͝͝"̳̰̭̘͍̞͆͋͐̀̈́̂͌́́͡**

It was a little hard to decipher what he said but the roar that followed was certainly challenging. I formed a bolt of projected purity mana. It shined like a miniature star. I threw it at high speed and Icmant formed a shield of his black ice.

 **"̶̧̛̺̩͇̺͔̘̉̀̎̂͂̚͢͜͠͠͞Y̷͕͖̺̜̼̗̼̻̎̒̌͆͂͊͟͡ͅE̼̟̰͇̭̔͌̅͋̈͒̉S̰͍̹͙͔̰̅̊́̑̊̓̐̀͜͡S̸̼̣̥̙̟͚̠͋͌͊̉̍̍͋͆̆͗ͅS̴̨͚͇͉͍͈̝̲̊̿̍̅̓͛͛͜͡S̻̺̳͖̲̣̻͊̑̈̈̌͜!̵̠̺̺̼̫̯̗͛̊́̄̔̊̉͡!̸̛̬̤̹̜̼̭͚͇̾͋̀̌̐̅̚͟͢!̨̥̲̪̳̫̤̎̌̿̂͟͡ͅ F̤͚̜̹̦̱̜͕͚̉̿̀̏͋̃͗͟Į̤̞̠̬̟̘̭̳̏̾̌͐̾ͅG̷̛͎͙̙͖̣͕̺̭͓͊̄̍̆̌̀͘H̛͍̘̱̗̬̣̯̱̀͆̓͌͐̿̓͘Ţ̷̖̤͓̩̠̟̐̆͆̀̂̎̑̕ͅ M̷̧̠̲͓̮͔̘̍̐͆̐̊͢E̷̻̲̟̝̺̋̆͛́͗͆̒!͖͓͇̺͑̉͑̇͑̆̿͜͜!̤̟̗̞̌̾̀̉̓̂͛̂̕͜!̡̼͓̝͖͓̳̌͒̀̐͗̚͢͝!̧͚̠̝̳̟̔̉̇͊̓͐͋̄͠͝  
**

I released my aura and mana freely from the net system. Like a whirlwind of light my pure aura beamed out from me. Even with my muted affinity for air it impressed onto my purity mana, being my prime affinity. I couldn't use it on it's own but I felt faintly that I could form my purity affinity to act like it. I did so and swept my hand. A hurricane-like gust of wind swept through the clearing that glowed faintly with purity. It ran into Icmant and his skin steamed as he roared.

I continued lobbing purity constructs and Icmant roared as he charged at me, blocking where he could with his icy shield. The shield hissed and melted where it was hit by my purity mana but it regenerated with Icmant's mana.

I jumped upwards when Icmant came close and readied the all too familiar beam attack I used with ice and heat. I shot a beam of purity but Icmant raised his shield and blocked it with a laugh. He jumped and came rocketing to me. I changed to air with a purity affinity and blew away. I'm glad that still works. I can express my wind affinity a bit though it was at maybe half it's real strength. That was still stronger than what I had before. My dodge didn't deter Icmant though. In fact it made him more eager to fight. He shot off a pillar of ice at me again with a roar.

We played this game of cat and mouse with me striking back at him and him pursuing me. Eventually, though, Icmant grew tired of it. I had landed plenty of hits on him and brought him down roughly forty thousand HP but still he seemed fine.

He threw out his hand and a massive amount of black snow flooded over the whole forest of ice, which was tens of miles wide. I had to fly into the air again as I watched the snow flow and settle. The landscape… the trees and… well everything was destroyed completely.

Gem took the liberty of engaging him directly now. She landed without theatrics on the ground and struck at Icmant. She only reached up to his waist. Icmant moved a leg and low-kicked at her. Gem dodged and Icmant formed a battleaxe of ice with a bladed shaft. The blades blunted under his touch as to not hurt him. An armor of his black ice spread across his body as an armor to make up for his shield. So it was a battle of mana. He knew I would lose… But I have a little trick for that. I drew rose eclipse from my inventory.

Icmant struck out at Gem in sweeping patterns. Gem was weaker than him and smaller by far so she dodged entirely whenever she could and deflected whenever she had to.

Seeing a small opening in Icmant's stance Gem struck out with a half step. He roared as the spear pierced his armor and pivoted with a sweep of his hand. Gem moved to the other leg and slammed the spear into the back of his kneecap. It barely pierced before a flurry of ice spikes shot out from Icmant's back at Gem and she had to retreat, taking a spike along the way. A sort of hiss was heard as the spike went straight through her. It came out as a blackened spike but with no red tine. So only corrupt mana hurt her.

I was busy with a bullet. I had made a few out of moribus for extreme situations where an enemy was weak to an element and this was most definitely a serious situation. I infused as much purity mana into the moribus bullet as I could. Icmant sensed my infusing and looked at me curiously but Gem saw my intentions and a series of jabs towards him distracted him from my works.

I focused almost single-mindedly on the bullet only occasionally dodging the occasional attack from Icmant. A parallel assisted me while two were meditating on purity and for the mana boost and the rest were drawing unity mana from the mimic. I had a guess that the unity affinity was drawing my purity and wind element together. If it was high enough I may be able to use wind more strongly. It was kind of working I think. Unity hadn't risen high enough to work that way and I didn't want it as a dominant affinity so I wouldn't draw it too high as an affinity. For now, though, it was fine to raise it.

When I was finished with the bullet I removed the magazine and the loaded bullet and replaced it with my purity bullet. I took aim. I wasn't great with snipers but I knew how to use them at least. Icmant was moving fast, almost to a blur with his high DEX, but he wasn't too fast to comprehend.

Gem took a little initiative and moved into an ice spike. Icmant grunted in surprise and looked to me in caution. In his lapse of attention Gem stabbed down hard on his foot and drew her bow. Icmant roared and tried to tear his foot out. Gem shot an arrow fit to bursting with purity mana and hit directly into Icmant's helmet. Hes head reared back and the helmet lost most of it's face portion.

Smiling at the clear opportunity I took the shot. The bullet flew at it's normal insane speed right at Icmant and into his forehead. A shattering and a blast of black ice from the back of his head signalled the bullet passing through.

Icmant screamed and the waves of mana pulsing off of him increased to more that triple what it was before. My breath caught but I forcefully calmed it. His corrupt mana was strongly repelled by my far more potent purity mana. 

**HP – 460,364/697,600**

 **"̶̨̛̜̻͈̗̠͔̭̜̈̓̈́̚Ÿ̧̫̼͙̣͈̪͔́̒̓̾͑̚͜O̶͎̦̖̣̣̗͚̻̱͌̊͒̿̀Ű̵̧̦̳̰̜̗̱͋̓͌̓ D̴͖̰͎̩̲̥̺̄͐̓̈́́̃͜͜͞͝Ȁ̸̰̳̬̭̜͛͋̓͌̚͠ͅR̨̹̰͙͔̺̉̃̑͛̚E̴̠͔̻̺̩̤̪͐͆̐̓͒?͍̘̻̹͈̱̽̂̆̀̅̚͜͜͟!̰̜͎̟̮͙͐͒͊̀̾̆̔͆̕?͍̩̖͉͇̝̯͒̈̂̃̅̾̕͜͝͞͠!̮͉̫̼̠̞͈̆͋̊̆̕͜͡͞ D̛̫̳̩͓͈̤͓͗͆̃̍͘͜͞Ḭ̴̡̛͇̬͖͙̱͖̌̾̆͛̾̿͘͘͢E̶̼̬̤̻̫̾̇́̐̈̎͐͞ Į̶̮̥̤̰̳̦͇̰͋̍́̿͘͠ͅM̵̡̡̧͍̬̭̥̟͇͂͆̒̎̇̾̏́̄͠M̧̢̛̟̞̝̼̯̀̈́̊̄̈́̀̋O̭̱̤̺̬̽̎̈́̃̒̀̚R̷̙̞̪̜̙̃̋̽͌̆͗̋͂́͡T̵̡̳͔̙̤͈̤͎̩͂̀̓̉̇̍͊̀͝Ą̵͖̬͕̳̆̔̍̒̆͋̀̚L̡͔̝̫͈͔̊̓͒͐̔̃̋̚ Ṡ̢̬̺̩̣̭̖͖́̑̿̑́̌̅͛͜͞C̢͇̪̦͖̺͓͆̆͗͑̂̈͘̕͢͞Ụ̸̢̼͖͙̗͓͍̮̉̄̓̕͟͞M̵̖̣̯̲̽̍̐̓̾͂͜͠!̡̘̭̭̭̻͈̳̬̯̏͆͗̆̔̌̀̑͠ Y̞̖̘̠͙͙͙̑̉̎͌̔̄̚͜͟͠Ǫ̷͎̰̘̼̹͊́̆̉̌͢͠Ų̨̻͈̟̈́̾̃͑͒̏̿̉ A̰̤̹̟̝̞̺̯̮͌͆̀̄͊͑̏̕͟͞Ņ̣̘͍̙̟̙̫̇͌̓̊́͗͐͝͝D̸̨̫̱͙̤̦̣̬͕͐̃͆̀̽͊̈̀͊͝ W̸̨̯̜͖̜̘̎͊͆̎̀̂̆͘͜͠H̸̡̛̺̩̤̦̼͓̻̍͗͛̓̍ͅͅĄ̵̼̗̩̟̲̺̳̝͑̓̌̏͂̀̆̓̕͝Ť̴̳͇̱̜̥̼͓̗̮̿͒̽̀̍̽̕͟͝͝Ȩ̟͇͕̟̇͐̈́̽̿͞V̵͉͎̜̞͚̤̹̜̆̿̅͛̔͐͌́̕͢͟Ę̛̞͈̪̣̳͈̥̾̊̑̋̒̑̕R̸̲̝͎͖̜̪̯̠̺̜͌̐̔͒̅̆̀̀̕ S̘̣̘̱͎̓͌̒̓͂͜͞P̵̧̡͖̭̜͈̥̬̍̌̓̿̊́͑͆Ą̸͉̭̫̖̰͇͂̀̌̉͐̇́̽͛͆͜͢W̸̝̘̘̰̦̙̹̯̻͔̾̔͛̈̇̏́́̕N̡̢̘͎̟͋͂̌̽͝ Ỏ̧͇̦̠̙̳͊̊͂͂̀̓̚̕͟͝F̸̢̯̪̯͚̄̑͒́̊̔̚͜͡ Ỹ̸̨̺̣̬̻̐̅̑͋̑́͒̚O̶̧̱̹͈̝̭̓̑̈̀̓͟͞U̶̳̟̞̝̤̹̲̞͂͌̅̾͡ͅR̡͓̺̦͕̟̼̈́̽͛̊̍͟S̴̢̡̠̞̗̪̦͋̾̇͆̈́̑͆͝ Ẅ̢̢̦̫̜̤̟̰̭̻́̂̏͒̔̾̍̈̂R̺̳̘̓̓́̾͊́̾̽̚͟͢͢͞I̴̛̙̱̤̣̪̠̟͕͐̎͐̅̂͘T͇̼̬̬͙̟̹̅̾̈́́̋̏̂̋H̷͖̺̱̔̑̆̇̿͟ͅE̷͎̲̥̜̳̣͑̎̈́̔̽͗̂̆ͅ I̶̡̭͉͔̱̱̎̈́̋̾̿̇͡N̷̜̤̫̙̺͉̦̓͌̋̊̇͘ T̴̡̨̡̧̛͇̻̯̦̪̰͑͐̌̀̈̔̏͆͛H̶͓̼̪̰̻̩͔̠̍̏̒̾͐̿Į̵̢̘̹̣̮̟͆̈̈͌͡͞S̢̡̧̱̗̮̯͓̝̆͂̑̀̑͟ P̧̢̩̜͈͚͒͂̅̂̈̎͒͢Ả̢̡͖̥̹̯̦̫̄̍̔̇͗͢T̢̙͕̘̜̈́͋̾͌̀̄͒̂̍͗ͅͅH̸͓̙̖̭̮̻̬̅́̍̓͆͛̚͜͜͞Ḙ̸̻̮̹̥͓̈̌͊̂̀͡T̨̺̣̤̙̟͓̟̊̊̑̑̓̅͢ͅI̸̧͖̻͖̮͔͑͂̋̄͗͋͡ͅC̷̮̰͕͉̯͋̋̐̈̆͌̚͝ R̙̦̠̲̬̜͕̀̓͗͊̅̿̓̈̍͡E̖̺̱͇͈̣͑͂̽͑̈̌͐͌̕͜͟͠A̶̖͙̟̮̟̪̮̲̖̳͛̆̀̀͝L̳̯͇͎͖̜̹̟̠̪̔́͑̈̑̉Ḿ̶̡̭̺̭͚̻̺͖͓̅͒̑͘ W̶̖͈̜͕͎̤͖̦̪͚̽̓̄̓̓̃̕I̡̪̰̼̺͗͌͆̒̓̕͝͡Ḽ̷̛̝̖̬̟̝̄̇͛͗͢L̵͎̳̠̲̫̗̙̮͛̂́̔͗͐̕͢ F̡͓͕̱͎̓̔͌͋̀͗R̡̞̪̼̤͐̋̊͒͞ͅĘ̪̺̣̘̺̯̩͍̏̿͊̍͑͟E̡̢̼̗͍̣̦̻̗̿̄̆͑̏̀̚̚Ž̷̠͖̼͂͑̄̿͐̚͜͝͡ͅĘ̸̻̰͎̙̳͛̈́͆͗͗́͌͟ I̸̥̟̫̻͚̟͓͉̤̾̓̔̔̐̀͘̚Ṇ̨͖̹̣̔̔͊̏̄́̓͘͡ Ą̨̤͖̳̥͔̯̀̏͗́̋̊͗̐͒̕ W̴̢̡͚̗̹̗͓͒̃̓̐̂͋͂̀͋̃͟ͅO̳̼̯̪̲̲͕̝͂͒̃̌̈́͆̕͢R̨̙͉͔̭̜̘̒̃̆̀͢͝͞͞͞Ľ̡̩͔̜̫̈́̆̂̉̿͞͝D̰͙̘̘̬̯̒́̊̽̓̿̐͘̕͘͟ O̼̬̭̻̪̩̬͈̒́̀́̓̓̄͑͘̕F̶̧̣͇̫̝̘̭͊̾̏̄͌̉̌̍́ C͕͖͖͇̝̮̫͑̾̍̈̃̀̚͡Ớ̷͈̝̠̬̰̣̝̍̈̐́͐͗L̵̯̗̜̗̭̫̱̀͌̋͗̽͒͊D̡̪̜̫̲̞̭͐̀̔̉̌̒̕͡!̵̡̫͖͎̺͚̇͗̏̂̅̅͡ͅ!̶̛̼̳̠͙̺̓̌̽͗͟!͕̩͕̫̤̹̥̏͛̇̌͗͐͌̍̀̔͟͢"̸̲̯̱̰̖͕̦̩́̊̀̍̉ͅ**

I hissed and resisted clutching my head at his screaming voice. I had to make another bullet. It would take three to disable him and one more to kill him. How sad that I only had enough mana for one more. That bullet and the time spent flying had taken half my mana… well it seems like I'm running. Sorry remnant. It was nice knowing you.

A chitter was heard and I moved my head to the sound. A bullhead?! What the hell?! It had fired at Icmant at least. His armor had reformed and defended him from all but a few of the bullets. He roared though whether to me or the bullhead it was unclear. Then a massive storm of black ice in a blizzard of razor proportions of sharpness flew from a savage wave of his hand. Both of us then.

I tried to escape but I wasn't fast enough. A shard of sharp ice rammed into my face. My aura repelled it but it's speed took a hefty price. So did the many others that stung my body.

I turned to wind and escaped swiftly. Bruises and very light cuts littered me.

 **AP - 19,364/120,000**

Five sixths of my aura gone in one attack… fuck. And I'm at half my mana too. This better be the fucking cavalry… or actually I had Raven in me! She could send me mana! I focused all my desperate need in a tiny piece of aura and sent it across the link. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Almost immediately a packet of aura and mana flowed across filled with hidden worry, some apology, and frustration. Thank you Raven…

I looked to the bullhead doors that opened to see - holy shit the cavalry has arrived. Ozpin and a woman with brown hair jumped out. Ozpin brought a canister. Probably coffee. I instantly observed her stats. I don't need her life story right now.

 **Raven Branwen**

 **Titles: Maiden of Fall; Traveller**

 **Level – 201 (1005)**

 **HP – 6696**

 **AP – 10,320**

 **MP - 301,600**

 **STR - 52 (+260%)= 187.2**

 **VIT - 186 (+260%)= 669.6**

 **DEX - 120 (+260%)= 432**

 **INT - 377 (+0%)= 377**

 **WIS - 258 (+0%)= 258**

 **LUK - 12 (+0%)= 12**

 **Semblance: Procrastinate - You can temporarily make injuries, fatigue, hunger, thirst, and other status conditions obsolete until later. Severity determines aura cost.**

 **Affinities:**

 **Electricity: 4238**

 **Earth: 4192**

 **Ice: 4108**

 **Wind: 4169**

 **Fire: 4088**

 **Nature: 4011**

 **Water: 4000**

 **Lightning: 36 (+1060)**

 **Light: 28**

 **Perks:**

 **Maiden of fall - You are a maiden. One of the heirs of the legendary women blessed with powers by the wizard. Whether this power is a blessing, a burden, or a tool is decided by you and you alone. No matter your decision you are worthy.**

 **-1000% to MP capacity and regeneration.**

 **-Mana and aura are unlocked.**

 **-Nature, fire, water, ice, wind, lightning, and earth affinities are increased by 1500.**

 **-Luck increased by 100 in fall. No limits on your total affinities.**

What the hell is she doing here?! She's way too weak to get involved in this BS! Dear dust I hope Ozpin knows what he's doing.

"Use as much mana as you can." Ozpin said swiftly and commandingly to me. "I'll back you with my own reserves. I have a mage in the bullhead who can support us if needed. Go." He put a sticky note - wait is that actually a… yeah that's a pink sticky note with a shared soul space runic matrix on it. Ozpin's I suppose. I sensed a matrix for transferring mana in the space that was funneling mana to me. I see I'm not the only person who thought of that.

"This is the best option." I said calmly. "Gem, my elemental, is working hard to keep Icmant at bay but this gun is the best way to damage him. Throwing mana won't work. His reserves are over a hundred times what I have. Combined we reach a single percent of what he has but it won't work. I can, however, use your stores. Together along with the maiden we may be able to win this." Ozpin nodded seriously then he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Abyss?" I nodded. He gritted his teeth but said nothing for a moment, seemingly in thought. He seemed to swallow his anger then and looked piercingly to me. "We will be talking about this." I nodded, knowing I was in trouble. Damnit…

"Can you use your time affinity to slow Icmant?" I asked. Ozpin nodded.

" I am. He is countering my mana with his far more potent mana. It's too thick for my mana or spells to properly work. Your purity affinity with the use of your precursor silver eyes, which I should add I thought were an illusion of a boy having dreams and being cocky and we will be talking about how you acquired those eyes in the first place, is the only thing capable of harming the demon."

I nodded and loaded the bullet to the gun. I aimed at the best chink in the armor but paused. "Can you use a sniper rifle?" Ozpin nodded.

"I trained in one, yes." I handed rose eclipse to him.

"I'm only trained in it a little bit." I explained. "I'm by no means trained in it. Simply able to hit a target. Not truly aim. I'll prepare my bullet instead. Wait for gem to make an opening and fire at it." Ozpin nodded and aimed down the barrel of rose eclipse with a strangely practiced ease that looked out of place on him.

"What can I do?" Amber asked.

"Nothing." I said honestly. "He's simply far too strong for you… well you can use your reserves of mana to help mine. Please do, in fact." Amber scowled but transferred mana to me along with Ozpin and Raven. I was receiving plenty of mana by now.

Ozpin saw a gap in Icmant's guard and fired swiftly. The bullet tore through his armor and Icmant's armor once more. The shattering was weaker this time from the entry but still plenty strong. We could do this… but Gem looked to be weakening from the hits. I channeled some purity mana to her from my pool. It took fifteen thousand for her to be back at full strength. I could handle it. So could everyone else backing me.

"Can you handle Icmant if he gets loose from Gem?" I asked. Ozpin seemed to consider it.

"Yes but I will have to speed myself up with my time magic. That will cut into your supply." He decided. "It's more efficient to use your elemental, who is doing quite well by the way. What rank is she?"

"Colossal." I said. He raised an eyebrow.

"Only a few times have I ever even seen a colossal elemental… I saw a gargantuan elemental of light once… They take the form of butterflies of a sort. Or moths. Same thing, really. I prefer butterflies as I don't really like moths but they're probably moths since… well light."

"Interesting. I need to get a heat elemental but I don't know where to get one and I'm not yet powerful to summon one. I can summon an ice and nature elemental now so I should eventually acquire one." Ozpin looked to me incredulously.

"You're twelve." He said disbelievingly.

"Fifteen technically if we're going by physical body." I said. "Though I'm thirty one by life experience." Ozpin sighed.

"Fine. But even so you're beyond prodigies… you're on the level that almost none hope to reach. At your current pace you'll be an archmage by the time you're twenty." Ozpin took a sip of his coffee holding rose eclipse in his right hand.

"… I think Althea's watching me since I'm doing so well." Ozpin choked on his drink and coughed for a few seconds.

"Wh-... where did you hear that?!" He said quickly.

"Althea's watching humanity and rather interested according to the demon." I said. "He thinks there's something about to happen. A new order of heroes or a turning of an age. I just can't think of much going on that's not related to me. I know of several heroes that are coming to a blossom but I'm right in the middle of it… though I really don't want to be I'm not exactly capable of just stepping out at this point." Ozpin looked to me with that piercing stare and sighed.

"No… I suppose you're not… Althea if you can hear me you're a bitch. I want Abyss as my apprentice. Don't elect him as your champion or something." I chuckled at that. I wasn't going to be his apprentice. Not a chance in hell. But Ozpin isn't a huge threat to putting me under his submission anymore. We're roughly equal at this point after my little points dump.

But I'm going to be working my ass off to solidify my information network when I get back and training my purity and wind affinity. Demons and Salem are seemingly the only true threats to me at this point though I'd rather be prepared for anything. Demons can be hurt through wind as well as purity. I'd rather be prepared for magical beasts and powerful humans as well as demons.

I passed another bullet to Ozpin. He took aim and fired nearly instantly. Icmant's shoulder bone cracked and he screamed once more in pain. His legs quivered.

 **"̜͔͖̖̦͖̫̹͗͑́̃̒́̓͟͜A̷̡̲̲̼̤̠͗̓̍͋̽̓̈͛̎̚ c̨̧̹͖̱̤̝̋̉̒̂̀͘̚͞u̶͇͇͚̻̜̓͋͒̃̌̑̎̓́͞r̴̢̭͈̜͓̟̈̿͌̓́́̈̉ͅs̴̺̬̗̞̥̳̮̬̒̂̐͑̎͋͘͢e̺͈̰͍̙͑̉̇̌̔̌̾͋̊̃ u̸͓̘̬̫͍̮̰̽̑͑̿̍͠p̡̛̟͕͙̳̋̍̇͆̈́́͛͜͡ơ̙̦͉̩͔̠̠̗̜͋͑̾̚͢n̛̹̺̗͉̹̺̈̐̽̈́̂̽͜͞ y̼̰̬̹͔̲̳̑̂͗̀̇͛͋̃͘͜͜͡ò̡̖̖͓̯͚͊̔́̉͗̚͞ų̛̬̖̫̘̐́̓̏.̴̤̱̰̹̰̳͐̄̈́̏͌͛̈́̚͞ͅ Ä̧͙̙̦̦̑̾̿̽̄͘͘ c̴̢͉̟̮̦̦͑́͛͌͂͌̔̅̕͘͟u̘̭̹̬̳̹͋̿̀̿̂̃͗̓͠͠r̲͉̳̲̘̪͉͑̐̾͒̏ͅs̲̣͕̫̆͐͒͘̕͢ͅͅè̮͕̼͙̯̤̙͐͋̔̾̎͗͋ ų̰͚̱͓̪͑̌́́̆͘p̳̬̲̜̬̙̈̇̎̾̆̈́͆͂͛́o͙̝͙̜͗̓͋͜͠͝ņ̷̧̟͙̆̈͂̀̾̀̀͟ ỳ̶̜̺͖͍͓͇̟͍̗̌͊̋̓̔̅͒̇̇o̺͓̱̦̹̹͎̤̳͙͗͑͗̂̓́̀͂͋̚u̢̝͙̻̲͎͚̙̮̺̔̿̏̓̆͋̍̐̕͞r̴̢͚̘̟̮͉͑̀̎̏̈͘͝ f̞̥͔͚̹͊̍̐̐̃̾̕͜ą̴͔̟̺̟́́̎̅͢͡m̵̰̳̺̟̹̥͙͈̅̉̅̈́͂̈́̽̎̉̕͢͢ḯ̷̢̧̺͓̯̟͎͔̥̒̽̿̐̿̒͞l̵̡̠̱͈̳̗̐͆̅̇̀̈͢y̷͕̗͎͇̤̼̏̀͐̕͢͜͞͡͡.̝̬̬̤̦͈̱̲̭͆͆̍̇̀̚͜ M̷̨̞̣̱̖̲̤̃̾̚͘͟͡a̢̢͓̭͚̩̻̠̥͛̇̅̿̐y̴̢̧̝̞̪̖̻̅͌̈̽̃͟ y̢̤͍̬̹͑̃͐͒̈́̓͛̀o̡͙̤̱̳̦̦̫̍͆͛̐͒̀̾͊͜͞ͅu̵͙̯̦͉͗̀̽̕̚ͅͅ r̜̦̘̤͎̟͎̮̋͆̏̔̏̔ǫ̰̠̺̣̤͛̍̊̎̿͌̍̎̚t̵̼͈̭̯͚͂̈́͊͗͋̚͡ ỉ̴̛͚͕͙̮̜̝͎̇̎̂͐͂̚͢ǹ̸̦͓̤̠̘̻̘̪͋͛̒́̒̉̑͜͢ t̳̲̪̬̬͖̰̎̽̐̈́̚ḧ̵̛̜̟̥̰̲͙́̀̀̌͋̐͢͞e̸̮̫̟̺̥̯̋̐͂͂̏̔͊̅͟͠͞ a̛̬̯̹̯̹͎͂͂̅̌̈̈́́̏̚b̵̧̥̞̬̠̲͍͚̮̯̉̈̐̿͐̈́̈́̕͘͡ý̸̢͚̬̬̲͙̣́̒̃̓̋͢s̡̛͔̘̤̟̝̓͗̆̀̆̃͊̽̋͜͢ͅs̴͙͓͔͕͔̤̪͕͇̪͒͋̾̂̄̀̈́͗̕ t̸̢̮͇̪̓̌́̿̕͟͟͝ͅǫ̵͙̹̘̞͍̬͈̲̋̆̄͆͐̆͐͜ b̸̡̗̮̖͕̰̄̾͋̋́͢è̠͖̠̳̮͔͂̍̿̾͞ͅ t̴͉̙̲͕̹̣͙̱͔̓̎͌̿͊͆̋͝͝ͅo̢̙̰͍͙͉͋̇̓͑͋̔̔͆̂̏r̸̳͉̲̬̺̀̊̀͊̀̃̊͠͝t̢̖̗̱͔̘̉̈́́̑̓̑̏͘̕͠u̷͎̰̼̫͂͋̊͆̾͜͡͞r͇͓̥͉̲̖̦̓́͂̾̆̔e̛̝͖͇̭̜͌̍̏̊͌̏͂̾ͅd̶̤̰̹̝̫͇̒̋̍͐̊̒͞ b̶̧̰̠̺̼͋̈́̔̓̆̾̾y̙͙̟̦̿̎͊͑̎̈́̆͗̅͜͡ m̢̻̗̞͚͉͙̲͍̠͋̀̆̋̇́̍̆͠ý̤͕̩̪̯͆̀̀̄̚ b̷̛̥͉̬̩͎̈̾̈̈́̿̀̎r̟̙͚̙̹͒̌͌͐̽͑̀e͕̰̜͇̤̥͗͑̇͗̉̎̍͌͜͠͞t̵̛̤̪͖͉̮͕̫̳̽̈̄͑̐̈́h̡̬̯͔̪̱̱̳͆̎̅̂͠ͅr̤̙̳̭̞̞̖̀͂̊͌̑̀͒̋̏̕͟͜e̯̰͕̫͙̳̜̝͑͐͑̒̏͐́ñ̫̮̟̠̰̭͌̉̇͐̄̓̀͢ f̬̰̮̼͐̆̂͌́͆̚͢͡͞ó͚̙͎͍̦̺͆̑̋͢͡r̶͕͚̪̣̻͒̌̏̊̆͢e̡̨̨̪̯̣͒͐̀̽̑̔̇̽̆̓v̨̺̳̹͚̠̼̈́̓́̀́̈́̈̒͜ę̡̝̬̜͈̖̒̉͛͗͌̂̋̚͟͡r̶̨͕͎̼͊̒͑̆́̃̂̚͢,̵̢̡͖̼̱̱͎̘̣͓͑̀̀̇̄ ļ͚͖̯̬̮̇̋̾̋͠͠ȉ̸̛̳͕̱̘̩̮̱̒͗̓͒͜͝͡ͅt̰̝͖̞̆͋̈́̌̌̐̿͐͢͢t̷̡̞͓͎̮̙̫̗͑́͒͠͝l̴̡̮͚̰̣͕̳̾͗̿̽͛͆͜͠͞͝ę̶̡͓̣̟̮̙͇͗͆̌̅̅͒͘ͅ ẃ̵̢̢̛̛̛͓̭̹̺̬̥̳̔̽̉̃i̶͔̙͕̓̎̑͐̀̆̀̓ͅͅẕ̢̯̖̝͖̎̒̃͗̓̋͢͡͞a̧̛̛͖͙͚̬͎̺͕͕͈̎̓͐̈̊͑͒̕ŗ̵̭͇̙̜̟̹͙̔͆̃̓̕͢d̴̡̫̫̝͚͍̘̒͑̋̌̈.̢̹̻̳̭̯̠̥͈͊̌͐́̊͟͝"̴̡̳̱̞̖̘͗̏̇̓̐  
**.

I saw Gem take advantage of Icmant's moment of weakness and throw a jab. But he was not as unprepared as he had seemed. He snatched towards Gem and got a hold on her. He threw her carelessly to the side and she hurled away. In a roar her channeled nearly all his mana in a huge ice beam. Ozpin grabbed Amber and I and I watched as time slowed to a crawl. Icmant moved at roughly… half the speed he was at before.

I turned to wind and flew away from the blast site. I could see in the distance though… for miles upon miles upon miles black ice sprung out from the black snow. Even into the desert ice sprang up. Incredible… but he's no great fighter. He's powerful but clearly unskilled. My eyes and rose eclipse make the fight rather unfair, though.

Raven's and Amber's mana finally wavered and cut off entirely. Not that she had much. A twentieth of what I have isn't really important. Ozpin's mana held strong though at a sixth of what we had. Well that wasn't really strong. For as unexciting as the battle was for us it was incredibly draining.

I handed the final bullet to Ozpin. Icmant tried in vain to get up. It just occurred to me that he was a huge load of XP… "No." I said. "Let me do it." Ozpin eyed me curiously but handed me the gun.

I took aim and smiled slightly as I pulled the trigger. Icmant's head exploded into a mess and I got just the message I wanted and more.

 ***Ding!* You have killed Í̴̡̙̥̪̠̻̾̂̃͡ͅć̨͙͇̞̖͛͒̓͐̏̚̚͞m̶̢͇̱̫̫͙͆̎̏́̏́̚͡a̴̯̳̝͉̜͋́́̈́͂͠ͅñ̡̤͍̌̈̆̚͢ͅt̡̺̘̪͉̤̳͗̌̇̄͋͢͞ t͇̻̳̗͓̳̑̉̍̓͋͑͋̌̍̌͢ḩ̷̭͙͔̯̹̲̎̕̕͘͡ē̳͇̭̳͖͂̊̓̚ i̴̗͈̼̠̥̫͇̓̉́͘͡m̧̢͍͉͍̠̃́̾͌̽̌͢͠ͅp̺̝̯͇͚̃̀̍͋̎̿̕͝͠r̨̡̹̰̳͇̠̫̆̅̄̉̓͛̚͜i̵̢̨̨̲̪͕̺̒̌̾̽̑̾̄͆͘͠s̸̢̼̬̺̲͉͖̩̐͐̒̃̐̅͆õ̡͎͕͙͖̩̱̫̓͋̒͂͒̒̕̚͢͞n̢͙̜͇̬͌̍̉́̊͢ȩ̞̼͕̹̲̹̌̀̌̄̿̿̈̽̕͟ͅͅd̶̨̛̙̰͔̳̤̟̟͙́̈̀̕͟͡ ǫ̸͔͓̟̜̀̏͆͗̕n̢̻̗̝̘̭͎̊̎̄̾͑̃ę̸̦̼̼͎̂̋̀͘̚͞͡! You gained 78,426,897 XP! You leveled up 229x**

 ***Ding!* Through killing a creature of great power and corruption affinity you have unlocked a new stage in your silver eyes.**

 **Precursor silver eyes (Rank 2) - You've proven skill in your eyes by killing a creature of great evil. Power has been unlocked through it's death. None have passed this final stage of the precursor silver eyes.**

 **-Looking at any being with a corruption affinity may deal damage should you will it.**

 **-+300% WIS and +200% INT**

 **-Purity mana may or aura will be made if aura or mana are channeled through your eyes. This mana can be used by you or to further damage the corrupt via eyesight.**

 **-Your eyes may be 'flared' to multiply your purity affinity by 125x. No other affinities may be directly used in this time. All mana and aura is purity attuned during this time.**

I sighed as if in relief and hid my elation at the boost in power. Ozpin kept his eyes locked on Icmant's body before he frowned. "We should burn the body. I don't believe that he would fall into the wrong hands but he is certainly not something to risk. Would you purify him?"

I nodded and the lion's portion of Ozpin's remaining mana flowed into me. I walked up to Icmant's corpse and placed my hand on him. The purity spell was pretty simple. You just actively searched for corruption affinity and destroyed it. A simple and easy spell.

My mana flowed into Icmant and without his being actively fighting there was just his innate affinity, which I tore through easily with my high affinity for purity and the mana I had. I channeled a little back to Ozpin, Amber, and Raven. Finally… the part I've been dreading came to place.

"So Abyss." Ozpin said calmly. "How did a demon escape from a prison - one of very few in remnant, might I add, and how did you get those eyes?"

I sighed. Obviously my acting skill is getting a workout.

[|||| == ||||]

"… _Do you think he's going to be okay?"_

" _Judging by the fact that we're still alive? He's alright. I just hope he will stay that way."_

" _Yeah… what do you think… IT was?"_

" _Something powerful. Far more powerful than you or I."_

" _At least he has rose eclipse with him."_

" _That will help him for certain."_

" _Uh-huh. My weapon is awesome… but Abyss needs a better one."_

"… _Your brother fights things beyond what anybody should do. You yourself have grown in strength so immensely simply keeping up with him… Ruby, I do not think you will spend your life fighting grimm."_

" _Bad guys?"_

" _No. I think you will delve into places like this. Places that are difficult for even the mightiest of huntresses to delve. I don't think you realize how strong you are going to become, Ruby. Even with just that weapon alone you prove deadly to any huntress. I don't know if Abyss could survive more than three shots of that weapon. Besides that you are so so strong for your age. You are unskilled but in body you are stronger than many. You are proficient in three weapons unlike the one or two that most would pursue. You will surpass me before you finish beacon even if you slow down."_

" _And what about Abyss?"_

" _He has already surpassed me by far. Do you see me out there fighting the beast?"_

"… _No… do you think I'll be able to stand with him when the time comes? He always has this feeling like there's a goal he's striving for. Do you think I can be with him? Not even to help but just to be with him?"_

" _I truly wish I knew, Ruby. I believe so but I cannot say for certain… perhaps if you were to become a mage and worked hard to hone your powers than maybe. But Abyss grows at a rate beyond anybody else. Exponential growth, even. I can't give any advice other than to grow as strong as you can. Otherwise you will be surpassed."_

" _I don't want to be left behind."_

" _Nobody does. Work hard and you may find yourself standing beside him. Slack and he will try to pull you to his standards or you will fall."_

"… _I want to grow strong like Abyss. Eclipse Rose is a start but I can do better. I can become a mage like my mother and grow strong enough to help… I don't want to stay behind him or get put in here whenever something dangerous comes along…"_

" _Actually… I think I know a way to help you with that. Ruby, what do you know about the maidens?"_

[|||| == ||||]

Talking with Ozpin was tiring. Very tiring. I lied about just about everything. Icmant was released because of a trap at the icy forest set by the archwizard of ice with a long name (Lie), I was there searching for ice magic books which I didn't find (Lie), I was the only one there (Lie), and the only unexpected thing at the forest was the extreme concentration of ice mana interfering with my spells and Icman's emergence (Lie).

Ozpin didn't know a thing about the managuard or the tower of Methanthelios. He didn't ask about that at all. I said that Icmant had let that flood of snow out but that it had only destroyed the ice trees and a little building made as a trap by Methanthelios.

The only thing I was honest about was the precursor eyes. My purity affinity, which I had gained from Summer during our time sharing souls, worked with the eyes to supercharge them to what I had now.

Ozpin was skeptical about it but he couldn't really refute me on anything. He had no evidence otherwise and I was a good liar. He eventually let me loose and I made a portal to the apartment.

With a groan I walked over to Raven's room, which had a table in it. Mine and Ruby's didn't. I sat down tiredly in a chair and released Ruby and Raven.

They looked around, getting a sense for the new environment, and Ruby ran up to me and hugged me. "I'm glad you're safe." She said into my shirt. "Sorry I couldn't help with the thing."

"Don't worry about it. I don't expect you to help with that kind of guy."

"Who was it?" Raven asked as she sat down.

"His name was Icmant. He was a middle-level demon. He had an ice, corruption, abyss, and blood affinity. He also had a massive amount of mana but no aura. And by massive I mean more than a hundred times what Ozpin has. I pulled out some stops to have to get to even the level where I can struggle against him. Apparently aura is a human thing, though that makes me wonder how the mimic got aura. It's not my problem, though."

"What was the fight like?" Ruby asked. "Why did you need rose eclipse?"

"We didn't immediately fight at first." I explained. "First we talked. He asked me about some things and I answered. We ended up with me asking six questions for my helping him. I had to give him the arch-wizard's staff in exchange for five and my answers counted for the sixth. First I asked him about something I've heard about a while ago. Othos and the Abyss."

"Othos? And the Abyss?" Raven muttered. "I've never heard of either of those."

"Othos is the name of the dark brother." I explained. Raven's eyes widened. Ruby looked puzzled. "And the Abyss is Othos' personal realm, which supposedly holds demons and his pet serpent Ouros. I don't know about Ouros. He seemed like a footnote more than anything."

"What do you mean with dark brothers?" Ruby asked. Raven sighed, reluctant to put me on hold.

"Remember what I told you about the maidens and the relics?" Ruby nodded. I looked to Raven piercingly. I had told Ruby about the relics but not in detail. The brothers of light and dark weren't important so I had only mentioned them. Ruby probably forgot. "The brothers of light and dark made the relics. They're gods." Ruby made an 'oh' sound and quieted.

"Yes, well I learned quite a bit. Othos made the grimm and Althea, his sister, made the magical creatures."

"There's a sister?" Ruby asked.

"The story of two brothers is wrong. There's the light sister and the dark brother. Anyways, they're incredibly strong purity and corruption elementals. Althea made the magical creatures and Othos the grimm in the image of her creatures. The grimm and the magical creatures didn't really get along well so they came to a compromise of sorts. They conceived humanity in physical forms."

"Wait… they… you don't mean magic, do you?" Raven asked off guard.

"They made physical forms and did that together." I said. Ruby looked confused but didn't ask. Raven looked uncomfortable. "Anyways," I said, "they made humanity and the faunus, which are just more on Althea's side of the family tree, and Althea and Othos began watching humanity. But then humanity got lazy and weak so they dropped Salem, the first grimm, onto humanity with some rules. She stays on the dark continent being one of them. The archwizards of humanity raided the continent for their land back and got destroyed but Ozpin was spared and cursed to reincarnate."

"Why Ozpin?" Raven asked. "Did they say?"

"His semblance is photographic memory. Salem asked that humanity never forget her conquest as a boon for killing the first circle of archwizards. Othos and Althea cursed him as a record keeper of sorts. Ozpin must have misinterpreted something they said as 'kill Salem' since he's fighting against her now."

"That's… Kinda sad." Ruby said in concern. "We should tell him." I snorted.

"We're not allowed. For some reason Althea and Othos want him in the dark. I don't know why but I'm not going to tell him at risk for myself." Raven shrugged. Ruby looked disappointed.

"Now, that's about everything but there's a few points here that need addressing. Firstly is the Abyss. The demons are strong enough to easily crush humanity and they yearn for destruction but for some reason they're not kicking out weak little butts. Secondly is the weakening of humanity. Why are there no mages? Why is magic so scarce? And finally is the most interesting piece of information. Althea is watching humanity now. Closely and with interest. Call me self absorbed but I think she's watching me. Icmant thought that perhaps there's a new age of heroes emerging or the cursed one, which is probably Ozpin, has lived up to some sort of potential. Ozpin is still sitting on his hands playing chess with Salem so I think my actions have alerted Althea and she's watching me."

Raven frowned. "That is… not great. Catching the attention of gods doesn't seem like a great thing. Freedom is hard to obtain under the eyes of a god."

I nodded. "Maybe she's benevolent? I think it's better to just focus on the here and now than gods and conspiracy theories right now. But back to the fight. Gem, my purity elemental, fought with Icmant and showed me a weakness, where I shot it with purity infused bullets. But making just one of those suckers took half my mana. So then the cavalry showed up. Ozpin and Amber dropped by."

"What?!" Raven said sharply.

"Ozpin took control and shot Icmant - since he knows how to use a sniper better than I do - and supplied me with mana. Amber helped. I used his mana to make the third and fourth shots needed to kill him. Ozpin took me in for questioning and I lied my ass off. He knows nothing other than that I have precursor silver eyes."

Raven leaned back and frowned. "… So what now?"

I smiled a little. "We have a far more treacherous and evil enemy to face… school. I'm going to be working on my information network and draining the mimic while you finish with Roman. Then there's the mistralian regional tournament at april, which all of us are taking a break for, and finally summer, where I plan on venturing into forever fall. I'm going to put out feelers for the managuard too. Using that address and the name and information we already have. I'll cast the net wide just in case. I'll put my best operator on it."

Raven nodded. "I've got a side project of mine going on. I may have to take a few trips around. I'll keep the empire first but I have some moe work to do. I'm also going to be upping Ruby's training."

"I'm going to finish sketching the drafts for your weapon. I'll try to get it before summer." Ruby said. "And do you mind if I keep this glove?" She held up the inventory glove.

"Go ahead." I shrugged. Ruby smiled.

"Great! Um… how many days until school?"

"Three." I said.

"Great… wait, what time is it?" I looked towards the clock on the wall.

"Uh, one in the morning… I'm just gonna go to bed." I said. Raven made a noise of agreement and Walked over to her room.

"Goodnight."

Ruby skipped off out of the room. "Goodnight Abyss!"

"Goodnight Ruby." I said. I blinked to my room and got out my journal of the expedition… I have a lot to write down… and experiment with. It's good that I don't need that much sleep.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Ozpin… you didn't ask him."_

" _How he became so strong?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Glynda… whatever he's doing is working. And if I knew I might want to stop him. It's better to let him grow strong and hope for the best… if we make an enemy out of him I don't believe we would survive. He is too crafty. Too strong. Too cunning."_

" _You don't want to stop him since we need him but you wouldn't approve of what he's doing?"_

" _Yes. Remember that I have lived a long life. I have seen so many magic users attempt to gain power through some depraved mean. I hope that Abyss is not one of those people but truly… I don't want to know."_

[|||| == ||||]

"So class! Good to see you all back! Now for the question that's been stewing in us all…" Bella stared at me. "What in the name of dust and all it's parts is your family into?!" I smiled my calmest smile as Ocean, Cesium, Kerrigan, and Bella stared at me.

"We know Roman well. He backs our company, nature's bounty. I'm sure you heard about it. We made a bit of a splash."

"Yeah no kidding." Cesium deadpanned. "I know red sap is expensive but your company's now THAT huge, right?"

"It's a monopoly on it." Kerrigan explained. "They are the only people who can make and export red sap industrially. There's also the promised yield of new crops they're going to farm, the almost entirely faunus labor force, and that they've taken horrible land and made it prime for growing. Not to mention Abyss' uncle's power."

I nodded. "Now… how were your assignments?"

"Recruiting was fine. A little boring and frustrating but we got it done." Cesium said.

"Bouncing was… very boring." Kerrigan muttered.

"Sneaking around was pretty fun." Ocean said with a smile.

"I enjoyed dismantling that drug dealer." Bella said with a wide smile.

"You mean his operation?" I asked. Bella said nothing. I shrugged. A little creepy but that's alright. "And how about the rewards?"

"My family is confused but happy. Thanks." Cesium said with a smile.

"My family wants to set up an arranged marriage between you and my cousin Opal." Kerrigan said stoically.

"I like the new poisons. They're interesting. Especially #5435b. The cardiac contractions are still confusing though. I'm trying to replicate it with the mistralian moth venom." Ocean said happily.

"Dear god Qrow is incredible in bed. He has some serious moves." Bella sighed happily. "We've had three dates so far. It's been awesome." A silence was all that was heard after that.

"Bella I know this class focuses on information but please know when to not give us information." Cesium said with a grimace. "Also, isn't Qrow like fifty?"

"He's forty seven." I said. "Bella is thirty nine. Not that big of a deal actually." Bella shrugged with a smile.

"Thanks kid. You just made my whole year with that date."

"You can thank me by keeping your bedroom activities vague. I don't need to hear about my almost-an-uncle and his sex life. I'm not really sensitive to that stuff but my uncle and teacher going at it is a bit much for me."

"Yeah yeah. Anyways, have you got the assignments already?" Bella waved off my request easily. Kerrigan scowled at her. Ocean ignored her details. Cesium looked resigned to it. He probably heard plenty of stuff in the slums that was worse than anything Bella could cook up.

"Sure. Actually this is a group thing so you can talk about it between yourselves if you want." I took four packets out of my inventory and passed them out.

"Bella. You have an address and a name. They're a black ops research operation that Vale had twentyish years ago. I want a list of so-called sites and their locations. Don't dig too deep or you might disappear in the process. And take everything you learn with a grain of salt. Don't tell anyone anything. Even Qrow. Actually, especially not Qrow. And you can't know why." Bella frowned.

"You just run across the oddest stuff. Fine. I don't really have anything better to do. Just fill me in eventually, alright?"

"I'll be sending you on a summer assignment to learn everything. I'm planning on pulling back the curtain for everyone next year and a little more the year after. If everything goes well I have a very special… reward at graduation." I received some very curious looks but everybody kept their mouth shut.

"Next is Cesium. You and Kerrigan have the same assignment this time. I provided samples of some… things. Get a whole laundry list of data on them. Convince a chemistry guy to do it maybe. If you need a few resources… well I'm pretty flush at the moment."

"Ocean. This is sort of a… personal assignment from me. I'd like to know Yang Xiao-Long's typical schedule. If you don't want to do it you can help out Bella and I won't judge you any differently." Ocean shrugged.

"I'm fine with it. Yang messed with me a few times. Do you mind if I mess with her and her life a little?"

"Don't ruin her. Here's a little tip. She takes meticulous care of her hair. Her shampoo must be expensive. It would be a shame if someone were to add a bunch of purple food coloring to it." Ocean grinned. What have I unleashed upon Yang? Something not my problem.

"Everyone's got it?" A round of nods went through the room. "Great. Oh, and Cesium, you mentioned that you got some enemies in the slums, right? Get me a list and I can handle some of them. The reward this time." Cesium nodded with a grin.

Bella clapped her hands. "And now… has everyone been practicing their aura sensing?"

"Of course." Kerrigan said

"I've tried." Cesium said.

"When I can. I haven't made much progress though." Ocean muttered despondently.

"Huh… well we're going to be learning all the secret routes around signal today. To help move around easily and unseen. I'm going to show you how to bypass the emergency alarms too. Let's go!"

[|||| == ||||]

 _"Roman."_

" _GAH! Why is everybody sneaking up on me?! … Well hi bosslady. Have a nice trip?"_

" _Somewhat. Mostly no though."_

" _Ah. A shame. If it's any consolation Neo and I were kind of bored here so you weren't the only one suffering."_

" _Fine. I'll clear out a gang for you. That should alleviate some of your boredom."_

" _Alright. We've only got like seven small gangs left anyways. Them and the AK gang. Robo-nerds… anyways, we've got Vale in ou-your. Your pocket. Or Mystic's…"_

" _I have a person for you to find."_

" _Oh?"_

" _Her name is Dianthus Null. She stays in Atlas. Find her."_

" _I'll get on it."_

" _I expect results by July."_

" _I can do that. I have some buddies in Atlas that know the going ons. Can I contract the Granite family too?"_

" _Yes. I'm going to eliminate the blooded grimm gang."_

" _I'll send in some guys to sweep the emo gang in an hour."_

"… _Hmph. It's good to be back."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Roman." I called, dressed as Mystic. "What's the issue?" Roman spun in his chair with a smile.

"Hi boss. This came for your kid." He tossed a letter towards me that I caught. I flipped it to the front and my eyes widened.

 _To Abyss Mavros - From Pyrrha and Leonidas Nikos_

"Oh Roman you beautiful bastard." He looked fake offended.

"My mother was married mind you." I chuckled at that. This is going to be a good day.

 **AN: That is the ending segment… or close enough to one for me anyways. Perhaps I'm getting a little lazy with them.**

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	27. Chapter 27

**AN: This used to be a beast of a chapter with a length of 13k. I split it into two. It's not action packed except for a tiny fight scene that's really more of a beatdown to highlight just how different Abyss is from your average huntress in training. I think we need a break from that stuff since the icy forest arc. Next chapter is that fight scene I think.**

[||||= **LEVEL 27** = ||||]

"Can't you just… I dunno…. Do some rune stuff?" Ruby looked at me hopefully. I looked to her sadly.

"No Ruby. Homework has to be done. Runes only work so much…. Actually I could do a compulsion rune." Ruby shivered.

"Nope! Never mind then. I'll just fill this out…"

"Good enough. Personally I just ignore half my homework and rig the grades." Ruby looked to me with a betrayed expression.

"What?! Why am I working on this boring math work if you can just rig my grade?!"

"Firstly, it's easy for you. Just time-consuming." Ruby pouted but didn't refute that. If you sneak in yourself and change it yourself then fine but just know that you might be expelled if you're caught." Ruby sighed and got back to work.

"Ah, changing your grades to get out of homework." Raven reminisced from across the room. She was currently cleaning blood off of her blade into a small basin since she had just gotten back. "Summer and Tai actually did their homework. Qrow and I just changed ours every end of quarter before the teachers changed it. We bribed and blackmailed a few times. Oh there was also a few times we were able to threaten a student who had access to the mainframe into changing them for us."

"Is it a universal thing?" I asked. Raven shook her head.

"Only among those who are more intimately affiliated with the underworld. Beacon doesn't mind it too much if you're subtle, actually deserve it, and use your free time well. My team used our time for extra combat training so they even looked away a few times. At the end of our fourth year we were beginning to work for Ozpin… or, well, Summer was. It was enough that we were given some leeway without even trying that hard. It's very easy for a teacher to click the wrong button when marking an assignment missing. And grading essays is so subjective."

I nodded. "I just blackmail my math teacher now." Raven laughed.

"That was the one class that Summer hated. She despised math so much that she actually got cloak and dagger with her math teacher. It was amusing but she actually did get her math grade good without spending all her time studying."

"Am I the only one who actually likes math?" Ruby complained.

"Qrow is alright with it. Tai loves math." I said. Raven nodded agreement.

A moment of silence rang as I finished writing my letter to Pyrrha. Ever since getting her first letter over three months ago we had struck up a correspondence. Pen pals, basically. Pyrrha was… well she was awesome. She was nice, smart, surprisingly funny, and not super lonely or anything. She doesn't have many friends apparently since she's far and above the best at sanctum, which was Mistral's equivalent to signal.

"Is that your secret long distance girlfriend?" Ruby asked mischievously.

"It's Pyrrha, yes." I said, ignoring the secret girlfriend part.

"Have either of you confessed your undying love yet?" Raven cut in with a hidden smile. Ruby's grin said that she was going to say the same thing. "Of course not. We need some guy or girl to try to date one of us. We'll let it stew for a while before we burt into the other's wedding and proclaim our mutual love."

Ruby giggled and Raven rolled her eyes. I smiled just a little at their antics. "And what about you two? Is your secret project coming along? Or finished the schematics for my weapon yet?"

Raven shook her head. "Roman found a lead but following it is taking some digging."

Ruby smiled brightly. "Almost. I'll have it ready for the Vytal festival so long as you can get the infusal thing down. Have you managed to get that down?" I grinned slightly. Getting down infusing an element into an object permanently was difficult. Doing it on it's own put roughly one hundredth of the affinity infused into the object or weapon. However… with runes…

I had constructed a rune to contain affinity and push it into a weapon. It held the attuned mana inside the rune, where the weapon would lie, and push the attuned mana into the object. I had so far managed to infuse forty two percent of my attunement into an object. Mostly I used my wind attunement, which I had grinded through my parallels immensely along with my purity element.

 **Affinities:**

 **Air: 527 (+600) (x64)(190%)= 137,043.2**

 **Purity: 216 (+200) (x16) (140%)= 9318.4**

 **Electricity: 214 (+200) (x16) (190%)= 12,585.6**

 **Consumption: 210 (x8) (140%)= 2352**

 **Unity: 198 (x8) (140%)= 2217.6**

 **Ice: 174 (+51)(+59) (x8) (140%)= 3180.8**

 **Metal: 157 (x8) (140%)= 1758.8**

 **Heat: 149 (x8) (140%)= 1668.8**

 **Space: 146 (x8) (140%)= 1635.2**

 **Light: 135 (x8) (140%)= 1512**

 **Water: 102 (x8) (140%)= 1142.4**

 **Nature: 82 (+19)(+63)(+20)(+8) (140%)= 2150.4**

 **Motion: 88 (x8) (140%)= 985.6**

 **Life: 80 (x8) (140%)= 896**

 **Plasma: 32 (8) (190%)= 486.4**

Swift had grown to a greater elemental and gem to a minor elemental. If Ruby asked for a spar now I just sent Swift to do it now. He was a huge serpent normally. He could change his form if he wanted to but apparently that serpentine form was the most comfortable for him. I made him shrink a little since he didn't fit anywhere otherwise.

Unfortunately the mimic had died. Being so weak for so long had made his soul fade a little. Losing hope of escaping just made him irretrievable. I had siphoned a lot from him though. Unity made my elements more easily mesh with each other. I could use that frostfire spell easily that I had discovered in the tower. I hadn't had much time to focus on the new spells sadly but I had gotten that one down along with a few others.

The plasma affinity was something I had tried to get for a while. Lightning was composed of eighty/twenty composed of electricity and plasma with plasma guiding the electricity down a path. Plasma was stronger on it's own but it was REALLY expensive to use. You needed a massive affinity to use it.

But lightning wasn't my end goal. Water, lightning, heat, nature, and wind grants the storm affinity according to the primer's section on affinities. Storm makes using any of it's component elements quite easy since it's compounded with the other elements to support it. In other words, it was my ideal affinity. Strong and versatile. The only issue was that it was an absolute bitch to raise and get, which wasn't a problem for me since I had nine free parallels meditating full time on it.

I had only gotten plasma so far and I was focusing on acquiring lightning at the moment but compounding affinities is REALLY hard. The affinity, I'm pretty sure, starts with the affinities of both the elements added together or it had better be since this is way too hard for an affinity starting at one.

Luckily I had a nice little surprise. My 'The Storm' title changed for me.

 **By acquiring an additional facet of a storm your title has upgraded:**

 **The Storm**

 **-Reduces mana costs of air, plasma, and electrical magic by 20%**

 **-Increases air, plasma, water, and electrical affinities by 50% (After modifiers)**

 **-Increases mana capacity and regen by 25%**

 **-can be upgraded by acquiring additional facets of a true storm.**

I love the upgrade and I have a suspicion that it will become truly insane when I get my storm affinity.

With subI things had toned down a little. Bella was having a horrible time getting information on the managuard but I have a suspicion that my selective karma skill was playing a part in her getting good results. Well in information and her dates with Qrow. Apparently nothing had been horribly unlucky between them. Qrow was stumped by it but Bella took it as a sign that I was doing something. I mean… I sort of was.

Anyways, Bella had found a few sites. Site hellscape (fire), site windswept (probably wind), site waterlogged (water it think. It's underwater), and a site cavern (probably earth). Hellscape was far in the north of Mantle by an active volcano. Waterlogged was north of Menagerie but there was nothing there due to 'a massive shark-like entity'. Windswept was in Mistral's southeastern part around some steep cliffs with high winds. Cavern was underground in northern Mistral.

Bella hadn't stumbled across trigger words like magic yet but I think she either thought this was all a crazy sham or something. She collected the locations since I gave her nice dates with Qrow (I made a portal to nice places).

The other members of subI were just fine doing as they did. I hadn't had much to do for them so I often had them work with Roman. They had warmed up to him a little and Roman started trusting them to do more important things.

And finally… finally! Roman had conquered the entire Valean underworld. He seemed kind of scared I was going to make him the criminal boss of the world but I laughed at him. I didn't want him to ba that big of a target to the criminal underworld. I told him to fill out Vale. Get all the crime here nice and stable. World domination was for nature's bounty, which he was focusing on now. I did some of whatever he really needed me to be it making land fertile or growing more trees. I was working on making a tree with a purity affinity and results were looking good so far. Sometimes they died though or didn't produce sap. So I was working on fixing that and optimizing them to make the most sap and grow the best.

Raven was still working on her little project and, having more free time, was making Roman's empire better. I think she has well and truly thrown her hat in with me. If she was just being hired she would only be doing her job and then screwing off. But nope. She was with me through and through.

Ruby was working hard on becoming stronger. I think the icy forest gave her some perspective on things. A little bit of Raven rubbed off on her. She respected strength more now and worked towards it. I made sure she didn't hurt herself. She was also in on whatever Raven's little project was. It makes me curious but both Raven and Ruby agreed to keep me in the dark.

Some things were moving on without me but I was alright with that. In just one week we're going to Mistral anyways; Raven, Ruby, and I. Pyrrha actually offered for us to stay at her house. Well… me, Ruby, and my aunt, whose name I was skirting around.

I have to say that for the first time in awhile even the pessimist in me wasn't speaking up. Everyone was happy, nothing horrible was happening, I wasn't stressed, I was growing stronger by the day with my training and researching of things from the icy forest… Life is good.

[|||| == ||||]

 _Dear Pyrrha,_

 _It's good to hear from you. I heard a bit about you at sanctum. Sort of like you're the anti-me. You're being top of the class in combat and a prodigy and blah blah blah. I'm sure you hear enough of that already._

 _To answer your question I'll be attending the Mistral regional tournament. I believe there's another up-and -comer, Arslan Atlan, there too, right? Is she not enough of a challenge? If not I'll be sure to give you one. Though you may want to keep training. I sure haven't._

 _It's nice to hear from somebody on something personal for once. I've had plenty of people send marriage letters or something ridiculous like that. Being unknown was nice. Well, relatively unknown. I hope to hear from you at the tournament. Perhaps we should meet up beforehand? I don't know my way around Mistral. I briefly visited wind path but didn't get a chance to go underground, where all the fun was. I had to leave within an hour. I've heard good things about the city though._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Abyss Mavros_

 _Dear Abyss,_

 _I would love to escort you around! Mistral is a wonderful city but it does take some experience to get your way around. Not exactly a tidy place. The lower parts of the city are rather dark and sketchy though. There's nothing really good down there for anyone unless you're intimately involved in crime. I've never been there._

 _The upper city, though, is beautiful. Mistral is built in plateaus so you can divide the districts and their wealthiness by how high they are with Haven at the top. The culture is diverse as well but you can generally classify it as western or eastern with eastern being sushi and noodles and plenty of plays for the upper classes. Western is more along the lines of marble pillars, philosophy, and political ideas._

 _I can't say I'm much for philosophy myself but the fighting style of the eastern culture is something I'm very well acquaintanced with. I had to learn a little of each to better combat them for the tournaments. Not much but I know the absolute basics of them. I myself learned my clan's style, the spartan style, though I altered mine to better suit me. I've altered the style again recently but I'll keep that as a surprise for the tournament. I'm extremely excited to fight you with it. It's something like the exact opposite of your style… and with more explosions._

 _Sorry if I went off on a little tangent for combat. I just really like fighting! I'm all for meeting with you before the tournament. It actually takes about a week for the tournament to go full cycle with four days of preliminary matches, two days of cutting down the real competition, and the final day is the final matches. At the end of that last day is the first two matches to determine who will be fighting in the final match and then the big match. Everyone in Mistral sees it. Classrooms still in school normally put their classes on hold to see it televised._

 _With that said, finding lodgings is very hard due to Mistral having the most popular and competitive tournament scene. If you don't have any perhaps you might want to stay at the clan holding of my clan? Well, since clans were abolished more than a half century ago we aren't really a clan but we kept the compound. Since some of the complex bills that were passed state that we don't have to pay taxes on it so we stay here. We have a few guest rooms and somesuch if you want to stay. It would give us more time to get to know each other properly. My father is also eager to meet you or your uncle. Not for some convoluted business reason, I can confidently say. Let me know if you're interested._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Pyrrha Nikos_

 _Dear Pyrrha,_

 _I would love to stay at your home! I wasn't too concerned about finding a place to stay but a hotel room is… well it's kind of a boring place to stay. All the tourists would be there and people might give us issues for being faunus and then there's just figuring… actually it just occurred to me that we don't need to figure transport out. Being able to teleport regardless of distance is my most useful facet of my semblance. I suppose I can tell you that. It makes class field trips almost bi-weekly. I have this lovely deserted island - well several of them but … well I'll keep my semblance mostly a secret (But I'll give you this. You're not the only one who can make explosions in their fighting style)._

 _To get to the point, yes I would absolutely love to stay at your home for a week. Seeing Mistral with you also sounds fantastic. However, I'll have to leave your father disappointed. My uncle isn't coming with me. He's quite busy. And no I can't teleport back and grab him for a minute. It's part of the intricacies of my semblance. I'll fill you in after the tournament if you tell me about yours._

 _If I were to come over I would have my aunt, adopted sister, and myself over. My aunt takes care of me more than my uncle, though. She's from my sister's side of the family by the way. Is that alright? Be a few I assume you have enough but I don't want to impose._

 _Ah, you like talking about your fighting style, right? Well I just told you that I have the ability to pretty much travel as I please, right? Well I also happen to have a lot of time off at signal. If your school doesn't mind me dropping by once and a while I could fight you. I also have a lot of pull at my school (not company power. I earned my power at my school first. Then the company started) so I could stop by and have lunch with you sometimes or something. I have my own friends at signal but making a new one is always nice._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Abyss Mavros_

[|||| == ||||]

We took off for Mistral the day before the tournament. Schools lent a week and a day off for those competing in the tournament so I was fine. It didn't really matter to me. I could lose a week of school unexcused and be fine at this point. Pyrrha had school two days before the tournament began though, and she was actually studious.

Raven changed from her typical armored dress to a grey duster that cut off at her knees and very dark maroon leggings with a black long-sleeved shirt. She kind of looked like Yang after volume 3's timeskip. Mistral was apparently somewhat chilly so she dressed appropriately.

She could have worn an illusion cloak but we all agreed that it would be weird. Especially since she would have to wear it all the time. She was rather unknown outside of Vale though so she would probably be fine. If not we can cross that bridge.

Ruby wore her normal clothes of red and black. Since she wanted to fight Pyrrha she obviously brought brought eclipse rose. She always wore a bandolier around her waist and basic runed body armor when sparring so she brought that too. It wasn't a real huntsman's outfit but it was enough for now.

Raven and Ruby packed two suitcases and their weapons in cases to travel. They weren't going to spontaneously make their suitcases appear so they had me take them into my soul space. It wouldn't look out of place if I were to make them appear. I'm not really famous but someone in a crowd would know me if asked.

I myself just wore a dark grey hoodie and a very dark purple shirt with my symbod of a pit on it but simplified. It looked like a purple circle with grimm crawling out of it. The one I had made up and put on Jaune in a simple hunter symbol. I was planning on putting it on all my gear. Ruby had actually finished my weapon, which I had in my inventory. I'm not going to reveal it before the tournament though. I want it to be all dramatic. I'm going to be using my mechashift shortsword/halberd and fake dustcaster first.

For my hunter attire, however, I would wear that. Just not yet. Who wears huntsman attire on a plane? Oh right. Summer. I didn't know any better…

As for the flight I had been given some crap over being a faunus by security and being accused of a white fang sympathizer, which I sort of was, but Raven unleashed her most powerful attack, her glare. We didn't get anything after that.

It's also good that nobody noticed that Raven was… well Raven Branwen. She's not that famous I suppose. It's easy enough for her to travel if she wasn't in her huntress outfit. It's like seeing your teacher at the supermarket. Also, she's with me and Ruby. We both look a lot like her with our dark hair. I especially look like her since I have a similar skin tone as her.

We got into a taxi easily and that was that. I already had Pyrrha's address so it was easy to get there. Travelling was really quite easy in remnant. So different from earth.

"So this is the Nikos clan holding." Raven said curiously. A white marble wall up to her forehead blocked passage from us to the holding and two dark wooden doors stood blocking the entrance. Not huge doors or anything. I glanced at the buzzer and microphone next to then and rang it. A moment passed of nothing. I waited for a few seconds and wondered if I should just teleport in.

 _*Crackle**Crackle* "Hi! Uh…. who is this?"_ A young feminine voice asked curiously.

"It's Abyss." I said.

" _Oh! Abyss! Whoa your voice is deeper than I… wait you're outside… Sorry!"_ The voice cut off and I rolled my eyes. I wonder who that was? I could hear the door open and close a ways away. It creaked a lot. My ear flicked in irritation. I actually put a rune on all the doors at the apartments and the Xiao-Long household to keep them from creaking. I just hate the sound with my sensitive hearing. My parents were the same for the brief time I knew them. I put the errant thought out of my head as a pattering of feet came to the door.

The door clicked twice as Pyrrha unlocked it and opened… with a very loud creak. Pyrrha looked out with a nervous smile and bright green eyes on a pale face. She wore a casual long shirt and red leather jacket, which I didn't expect actually, and black sweatpants. Yeah she definitely changed in the years leading up to her time at beacon.

Pyrrha took a moment to take us in. Raven tried to be as un-intimidating as possible, wearing a patient look on her face. Even so she was tall. Pyrrha was slightly taller than me too, which irked me a little. I was taller than average even… well we're teenagers. Girls are naturally taller than boys at this time anyways.

Ruby, being tiny and sweeter than honey, wore a happy smile looking up at Pyrrha. It seemed to actually put her at ease.

"It's nice to meet you in person." I said calmly to Pyrrha. She blinked twice. It occurred to me that I could observe her but I can't help but feel that it would be more fun to fight her without knowing all of her weaknesses. She wasn't digging into me for my fighting style, after all. I should do the same.

"Oh! Yeah, definitely. I've got stuff planned out and everything to get to know each other better. Um… come in! I know Abyss but I don't know your names. You are…?"

"I'm Raven." Raven said easily.

"I'm Ruby! Ruby Rose. You're a lot taller than I thought you'd be." Ruby said innocently. Starting a conversation for her? You're so socially competent! It makes me want to shed a tear.

"Oh yeah! It's really useful. It helps a lot in fighting too. Aren't you in signal?" Pyrrha waved us inside and we filed through. She walked alongside us as we talked.

Ruby nodded happily. "I use a scythe, shorsword, and sniper." She looked down a little more sheepishly. I'm, um, sort of a prodigy. I suck at using dust though. Abyss is great at it and auntie is good at it."

"I only recently started trying dustcasting. I'm also terrible at it." Pyrrha said understandingly. "Instead of raw dustcasting I had to find a way around it." Ruby looked interested.

"Around it? You mean like some sort of easy way to do it?"

Pyrrha smiled slightly mischievously. Oh she was definitely different from canon. "You'll see when Abyss and I fight. We agreed not to reveal much until the tournament." Ruby sighed.

"Dangit."

"I myself am bad at normal dustcasting." Raven said, trying not to lurk into the background. "I have to use my blades to use dust. Even so I can't do half the things Abyss can." I shrugged. I had grinded dustcasting for a year with a few parallels and boom. Level eighty or so. I was at ninety seven now. My passive skills also helped.

"So other than combat what do you do for fun?" I asked. Pyrrha perked up a little more, shedding some more of that nervousness. We reached the front door

"Recently it's mostly been combat but I've tried some cooking and a lot of reading. I'm not good at cooking really but I wanted to try something creative. As it turns out I'm not quite the kind of person who's good at experimenting or feeling things out. Repetition, memorization, and practice is what I'm good at. That's why i like reading. History, specifically. I read a lot of that before going to sanctum. I've had a lot less time on my hands with school and keeping up training."

Ruby nodded happily. "I've barely had any time either. Schoolwork takes a ton of time for me and Abyss just… well he rules the school. I'm pretty sure he has all the teachers in his pocket through blackmail or they just don't care about him since he does so well."

Pyrrha looks surprised. "Blackmail?" She looks towards me. "Really?"

"I never claimed to be an honorable warrior. Besides, I earned that blackmail fair and square. I know the subjects and do the tests and classwork. I ace them all. With the teachers who just don't care anymore she just means Qrow, the combat teacher. I fought on even terms with him, a veteran huntsman in his own right, for about thirty seconds and beat any students he throws at me. I'm allowed to just walk out sometimes." Pyrrha looked vaguely surprised at the ending but frowned.

"I don't know about blackmailing the teachers. If you know the subject it's alright I suppose but you still shouldn't."

"It's not always blackmail." I explain. "In subterfuge and intelligence, or subI, I actually do work hard. It's the only class truly useful to me besides when I spar with Qrow. And Bella, the teacher of subI, nearly admires me for setting her up with Qrow."

Ruby whirled to me on that. "What?! Uncle Qrow is dating and I haven't met his girlfriend?!" I smiled lazily and nodded. Ruby looked angry.

"Oh I'm going to give it to her. And uncle Qrow for not telling me." Meanwhile Pyrrha seemed to be considering whether it was okay for me to blackmail the teachers.

Glancing at the stairs showed that there was a basement and upper stairs. I flashed mage sight to get a feel for the house. Three stores of a ground floor, bedrooms and such, and an attic. The basement was rather large, spanning under the house but also under the yard quite a bit. The attic had a small library too.

A masculine voice came from an upstairs. "Pyrrha? Is Abyss and his family here?"

"Yes dad they're here." Pyrrha called back. She glanced at us again and seemed to realize something. "Wait, where's your luggage?" Raven and Ruby looked to me and I took out Ruby's suitcase.

"Hammer space. Well, actually a pocket dimension but close enough." Pyrrha looked at it in surprise but then looked off to the side with a slightly jealous expression.

"That's so useful…" I chuckled.

"My semblance is amazing, yes. But it took a lot of dedicated practice to get better at. It's not all-powerful either. Simply very flexible." Some of Pyrrha's irritation disappeared at the mention of hard work.

"Well that's understandable." At that a large man came walking down the stairs.

"Ah so you're Abyss!" The man held out his hand and I shook it firmly.

"Good to meet your sir." I said with my spymaster smile. He raised an eyebrow and looked to Pyrrha.

"I like him. When's the wedding?" Pyrrha turned red in embarrassment and Raven and Ruby looked to have received a sign from heaven. A glance was shared between them. I'm certain they were planning my demise judging by the smirks on both of their faces.

"We're planning for September." Raven said. Mister Nikos' eyes glittered

"It's a nice empty space and gives them time to get to know each other." Ruby agreed. A large smirk spread across Mister Nikos' face.

"Oh dust it's universal." Pyrrha whispered. I made eye contact and gave her my saddest, most resigned look. I don't think I could have expressed camaraderie in misery any better.

"How about on Vytal? I hear it has some lovely scenery." Mister Nikos offered.

"That sounds lovely." Raven agreed.

"Can I choose Abyss' outfit? I don't trust him to pick something decent." Ruby said.

"Absolutely." Raven agreed. Mister Nikos made eye contact with Raven.

"Call me Leonidas or Leo." He said with his grin. "You two should as well. You'll be staying here about a week. You, future step-son, should call me Leo."

"Thank you Leonidas." I said as irritatedly as I could convey. I was going to say Leo but I'm not giving now. He laughed at me. Pyrrha glared at her father but she was too embarrassed and un-intimidating for it to have any effect.

"Oh that's good! I'm going to like having you all here! Ah, come on. I'll show you all to your rooms." Leo led us up the stairs but paused. "Uh, where are your suitcases?"

"Abyss has a sort of pocket space." Pyrrha said. Leo raised an eyebrow to me.

"Sounds useful. Hm." Leo dismissed it and continued onwards. "On the left there it my and Helen's room. My wife. She's not here right now. She's supposed to arrive in a month or so. Emergency huntress mission. Across the hall is Pyrrha's room. I was tempted to put Abyss in there but a pregnancy isn't what I have in mind for her future."

"Dad!"

"Heh. Kids stay there and there. Right next to Pyrrha's room. And you… what's your name?" Leonidas looked to Raven.

"It's Raven. I'm Abyss' aunt." Leonidas nodded.

"You'll be in the room next to us. Dinner's already being made in the oven. Come on down soon enough. About fifteen minutes should do it. We're having chicken casserole."

"Thank you." I said gratefully. I doubt it's as good as what I can do but food tastes better when someone makes for you. I got out Ruby and Raven's gear and handed it to them. Ruby accepted it with a smile and slid into her new room fo the week.

"Thank you." Raven said. She glanced towards Leo. "We won't take long." And she retreated into her room.

"I'll be down in a minute." I said.

"Of course." Pyrrha said with an honest smile. Not even any nervousness this time. I suppose she's comfortable with her first impression. Good. Those are always the hardest.

I walked into my new room and got out my suitcase, which I had only bothered to pack because using my soul space all the time makes me seem like I'm showing off. I saw happily that I had me own bathroom and put my toiletries in it. Done. And… what now…

I couldn't think of anything that I didn't need to do later and walked out easily. I flashed mage sight and saw Pyrrha and her father talking in a living room downstairs on a three sided square of three couches. I didn't want to eavesdrop or lip-read with mage sight and just walked downstairs to them normally.

"That didn't take as long as I thought it would." I started as I walked in. I took a seat on the unoccupied couch.

Leo looked away from Pyrrha to me. "Ah, good for you to join us kid. We were wondering about your aunt. We never heard about her from all those interviews and stuff you and your uncle had to do. Your sister, I think, was mentioned, but what about Raven?"

"Raven's not really a public person." I said, meaning to explain this with as little lying as I could get away with. "She's sort of Ruby's aunt. Her partner had Ruby but after her death Ruby's father wasn't really in a good place to take care of her. So I did. Raven met with me a few times a week for some personal reasons and she and Ruby just sort of drifted closer together. Ruby immediately claimed her as her aunt and Raven went along with it after a while. Now Raven lives in the same apartment as we do and we do most things together."

Pyrrha frowned and Leonidas looked disapproving. "Her father is fine but he just… couldn't take care of her? Why?" Leo asked.

"Ruby's father isn't really… an emotionally strong person." I said with a frown of my own. "He was married to Raven before but had a rather nasty divorce. Then he married Ruby's mom and she died. That's some complex family business though. I'd prefer if you don't dive into that. Raven might be fine with telling you but Ruby would be uncomfortable with it." Pyrrha nodded understandingly.

"I'm alright not knowing the details. On to more pleasant topics though, do you have anything in Mistral that you want to see?" She asked.

"Nope. I'm completely fresh to the city." I said with a small smile. Pyrrha smiled back.

"That's fine! I'll just show you everything. After the tournament's preliminaries, I mean."

"Are you worried that we'll face each other before the championship?" I asked. Leo snorted.

"The only high profile people in the tournament are you and Pyrrha. They're probably sure that you're both going to go straight through the competition so they're going to hype a match when they're certain you're going to fight. It earns them more publicity for that final match and raise prices. The selections for who you fight isn't randomized so you'll meet in the finals probably. Unless they're being stupid, which I doubt."

Pyrrha bit her lip and looked somewhat conflicted. "It works for me I guess. It may be a bit biased on the popular ones going to the top but it's what people want. On the other hand I would prefer a randomized tournament but that doesn't work economically." I nod. The tournament was there to make money and spread the glory of Mistral or whatever they cared to call it. Making it completely fair doesn't work.

"Not much is very fair no matter how you cut it. There's semblances that are unfair in an arena setting, families able to offer training, the wealth to get better gear, and all the small stuff. Fairness is a luxury most can't afford. The kingdoms especially so." Pyrrha sighed resignedly and nodded. Leo looked to me approvingly.

"I've said the same thing for years, kid. Anyways, we've practically been grilling you. YOu have any questions of your own?"

"Yes actually." I said. It's nice of them to not make this conversation them asking and me replying. "How did Pyrrha get so good in the first place? I have my semblance helping me out quite a bit but Pyrrha doesn't have any blatant semblance. Is it one of those ones that's hard to see or just immense talent or hard work?"

"All three." Leonidas said with a smirk. Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "Alright. So she's mostly hard working but everyone calls it talent. Sure she's talented but she's talented because she's hard working. Not just talented. Her semblance is also powerful and subtle the way she uses it. However, she prefers to not use it whenever possible since my little girl's a stickler for fairness."

"If you don't face someone on equal terms can you really say you beat them?" Pyrrha asked to either of us.

"Absolutely." I said.

"You sure can!" Leonidas said with a grin. The two of us locked eyes and had a mutual moment of sneaky people meeting another. I like this guy. Pyrrha shook her head in disappointment.

"If you're not bringing your full might against an opponent can you really say you're not insulting them?" I asked Pyrrha. She frowned, sensing a trick question, but nodded anyways. "Well dirty tricks make you stronger. So if you're not cheating you're not trying." Leonidas grinned.

"I like that one. Helen is the one who rubbed the whole honor thing on Pyrrha. I've only seen her cheat a once before when she needed to win a bet no matter what."

"It was important!" Pyrrha protested. Leonidas scoffed.

"Anyways, I totally cheat all the time. Not so often in an arena since I don't really need to. It's more trouble than it's worth when I can just fight somebody but in a real fight I'll absolutely be unfair. I pulled a height advantage on Ruby all the time until she finally figured out how to combat it."

"I did the same on Pyrrha." Leonidas smirked. We shared another bonding moment while Pyrrha leveled an angry look towards her father. When he's not teasing me I actually like this guy a lot. He's like a fatherly and less gruff Qrow.

"That's it. I approve. You can get married. Do you have a dowry already or do you need some time before the wedding?" Leo teased. I lost all joy on my face.

"And just when I was starting to like you…" Leo laughed at my expense again. Pyrrha blushed again and I stared him down more.

"Oh are we teasing Abyss again?" Raven walked into the room and sat down beside me.

"We were discussing how cheating is fair play." Leo said mirthfully. "He and I agree that dirty tricks are fair. You?"

"Dirty tricks are a staple of fighting." Raven said in a tone that suggested she was nearly offended somebody could disagree with her.

"Exactly!" Leo agreed. "Oh! Pyrrha once fought a guy that specialized in fistfighting and had to be convinced that she was allowed to use her weapon! It was almost admirable but god that was stupid."

"Abyss once teleported out of a fight between us and waited for me to get bored and walk out of the arena, which was a forfeit. Technically he didn't lose since the rule was to not touch the arena outside the circle." Raven said with a smirk.

"Pyrrha was challenged to a fight right by a lake by a guy with a water based semblance. She was well within her rights to say no since she could only lose reputation and all but she agreed because 'he challenged me fairly so I should accept fairly!'" Leo shook his head amusedly.

"He opened a portal to the ocean and dumped a load of saltwater on me in a spar to get my eyes irritated. Then he fought me while I was blinded."

"Oh that is good! Pyrrha was challenged by five guys, one after another, with the intent for one guy to say he had won against her. She beat them all one by one."

"Abyss poisoned me a few times before a fight."

"Pyrrha apologized in the middle of a fight with her cousin because he challenged her while she was in high heels and she kicked him."

"Good one. Abyss made a portal to his friend Kerrigan and claimed that since he could summon him into the arena with his semblance that it was fair to let him fight for him. This was based on the semblance of one kid that let him summon items or people that he's touched recently to him. Signal had to make a rule against summoning people. Then Abyss summoned a motorcycle and attempted to run his opponent over. Last I heard he brought in a turret."

Leonidas looked stumped at that one. "… Alright. That wins it. Summoning a vehicle to fight a guy? That takes it. Pyrrha is honorable. She doesn't do dishonorable things. She's not chivalrous. She's not going out of her way to be honorable. But that? That's fair but dust it's unfair."

"He doesn't know how to drive." Raven snickered. Leo chuckled at that.

"It only makes him more dangerous."

"Why would you do that sort of thing when you can simply beat them?" Pyrrha asked me in disbelief.

"The poisoning thing was for Ruby. She was feeling down and I felt like she really needed a win. But everything else… well I just get bored of doing the same thing all the time. I need to mix it up a little sometimes. I don't know who's motorcycle that was though."

"Did they ban using the turret?" Leo asked.

"They said you can't bring in fortifications you didn't make yourself. So I made one out of some wood. But they gave up on that one so I switched it up again and used whole braces of grenades and just chucked them at my opponents with a pin pulled. They just took their hands off me entirely and hoped I would get bored and stop summoning things… then I summoned saltwater through a portal and flooded the arena. The arena is waterproofed so nothing was damaged but I received a personal threat of 'disciplinary sparring' from Qrow, the teacher of signal's combat class."

Raven was holding back laughter while Leo was nearly howling. Pyrrha laughed with him but more tame. "Please never come to sanctum." Pyrrha said half-pleadingly. I laughed with them this time.

"I think I'll definitely spend some time at sanctum." I laughed.

 ***Ding!*** I blinked at the sound. Was that a notification? I didn't get those that often. "Oh the casserole's ready." Leo said. He got up and walked to the oven with a broad smile on his face. Huh. His oven sounds like a notification from the gamer power. Weird.

Dinner passed easily after that. Some anecdotes worked well as an icebreaker. I'm glad that everything went smoothly meeting the Nikos family. Ruby came down not long after dinner started and merged into the conversation pretty easily.

It was an hour of talking later that we all broke off one by one to go to bed. First Raven then Pyrrha and Ruby and finally Leo and I seperated. It was a good night and a promising start to a friendship.

That casserole was pretty good too.

[|||| == ||||]

" _For the tournament this year we have four main competitors predicted to reach the finals. Kerrigan Granite, Arslan Atlan, and the two main events Pyrrha Nikos and Abyss Mavros."_

" _What's the relationship between the two?"_

" _Well miss Nikos is the nearly undisputed champion of sanctum, having beaten much of the competition there. Not many, if any, can compete with her there. Besides that she's the maker of her branch of fighting, the achilles style, which has had praises lauded on it from professionals that experience it. Mister Mavros, on the other hand, is something like signal's champion. He's competed with Qrow Branwen, veteran huntsman and member of the now disbanded legendary team STRQ in signal's arena though details about the event are vague. He's also made his own style, the sting style, from the ground up though it is claimed to resemble several styles focused on weak points."_

" _So there you have it, folks. Two heavyweight champions, prodigies amongst prodigies in both their schools, coming head to head in the greatest youth tournament in Mistral. We can only wait excitedly for that final showdown. Will both these champions hack and slash their way to the finals or will the unexpected happen? But on to other matters, what about Kerrigan Granite and Arslan Atlan?"_

" _Both are the runner-ups in the tournament for their schools unofficial position as champion. Kerrigan Granite is supposedly a good friend of Abyss Mavros though details are once more scarce regarding signal. Arslan Atlan is a self-proclaimed rival of miss Nikos' and bitter enemy, as stated in an interview last week."_

" _Interesting! Let's make sure to keep an eye on each of these four promising hunters in training! Eyes around the world are watching as the throw-down is coming to a head."_

[|||| = **LEVEL END** = ||||]


	28. Chapter 28

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 28** = ||||]

I had made breakfast and been immediately delegated for making food for everyone for the whole week. Leonidas had claimed it as my 'rent'. Raven and Ruby jumped onto that ship immediately and Pyrrha had refused to speak up for me, avoiding eye contact with me when I looked to her.

We had left early for the first round of the tournament and went to a sparring center that was contracted out to pit applicants for the tournament against each other. I finally reached the front of the line for the competition with Pyrrha just chatting about whatever we wanted for ten minutes or so.

The clerk lady didn't look up at us before she handed me a ticket. "You're at room seventy eight. Your opponent will be Almond West. And you, miss…" She glanced up at Pyrrha and her eyes widened. "Miss Nikos?! Uhm, r-room seventy nine. You'll fight Berry Halls. Uhm… wait, you're Abyss Mavros! Are you two dating?"

"No. We're just friends." I said calmly. The clerk lady blinked a few times, possibly making sure we were real, and I walked off, dragging Pyrrha along with me until she got to walking herself. Now that someone had finally pointed us out we were gathering some attention. I flashed mage sight and found the rooms we were to go to.

"Do we change to our combat outfits first?" Pyrrha asked me. Why I would know I can't imagine but…

"The matches are private. The real question is… do we need to?" Pyrrha considered that for a moment.

"No. But shouldn't we deal our full strength against them to honor them or whatever you said last night?"

"Pyrrha this isn't going to be a match. It's going to be a spar at most." I deadpanned. "You've fought against plenty of top quality huntsmen at sanctum. Most of these kids are just hopefuls or guys that have gotten private training assuming that since they had a tutor or were trained by a family member that they're great at fighting. Getting through the first rounds won't be a challenge and it won't be a place you need to show off either. Just do what you normally do. You don't need to go through any special effort."

"Well… alright then." Pyrrha shrugged it off. "But… where's rooms seventy eight and nine?"

"Right there." I said. Pyrrha looked at the two rooms across from each other. My opponent, Almond, was already in there swinging her legs on one of the large benches on both sides of the room while playing a scroll game. Berry was checking his weaponry and putting on armor in the other room. "I'll see you in a few minutes." I said.

I walked in and Almond tapped something on her scroll and put it away. She had brown eyes and curly brown hair with freckles and leather armor. "Nice to meet you! I'm Almond… West…" Almond looked at me and her face fell slowly to something similar to horror or fear. "Um… you're here to say hi, right? And not to kick my butt?"

"No I'm here to fight you." I said with my spymaster smile. Almond looked really nervous.

"Oh shoot… Just don't actually hurt me, okay? Please?"

"Oh you'll be fine." I reassured her. "I'll promise to just disarm you if that makes you feel better." Almond looked somewhat relieved.

"That does, thank you. Want to just get right into it or do you need to change?"

I drew my weapon and stepped into the ring with a hint of amusement on my smile. Almond blinked.

"Uh, yeah. I guess you don't really need to stress about fighting me that much…" I really didn't. Almond was level one hundred eight and not as skilled as using her aura as I was by far. Her highest physical stat, dexterity, was only at six hundred twelve. Even if she actively enhanced herself with aura, which was draining for most people except Raven or others with rather large auras. Almond only had about four thousand AP. She was average. I was just crazily strong for my age.

"Ready?" I asked. Almond nodded nervously and drew her weapons. An unfolding buckler from an armguard and a machete. "Go." I ran at a slow pace for me but to Almond it must have been fast. She swung at me with a rather well done swing and I parried calmly. "Keep your knees bent or you'll hurt yourself or fall." I instructed.

With a smooth movement i slid into her guard and slashed upwards at her wrist, throwing her shield up. She was too tense with it, expecting a blow on her shield rather than from around it. I then grabbed her wrist with my off hand and twisted it harshly but her grip didn't fail. Maybe I was being too gentle… to stop that I swiftly kicked through her overly straight knees. Almond yelped and fell to her left, dropping her machete in the process. I took a half-step back and levelled my sword at her throat. "Are you done?" I asked. Almond looked at me with an open mouth.

"I could barely see you!" She said in some awe. "What was that move with my shield and wrist?"

"I batted your shield in an upwards slash. You were expecting an attack from the front." I explained. I held a hand down to pull her up, which she accepted. "Then I grabbed your wrist and twisted. I'm a fair bit stronger that you so I capitalized on that." Almond looked to me with wide yet confused eyes.

"Why not break my aura?" She asked honestly.

"Because I don't need to. It was easier to disarm you." It really wasn't. I could break her aura in a single strike but that would just be mean. I should use skill, where the playing field was just slightly more even.

"Whoa… alright then… Um… bye." Almond said somewhat dazedly.

"Nice to meet you Almond." I said. I just walked out easily. Then an instructor walked in scribbling on a clipboard.

"Alright I'm here to judge your…" He looked up from his clipboard. "Oh did you fight without me?" I nodded.

"I disarmed her." He frowned.

"You'll have to do that again in front of me. Sorry kids." I shrugged and looked towards Almond. She was at three fourths of her aura from that strike to her wrist.

"Care to go again then?" Almond nodded with a little more confidence this time. I walked into the ring and readied myself. Almond drew her machete and seemed to consider unfolding her shield from an armguard but didn't.

"Start." The instructor said. Almond took the initiative this time and ran to me. I looked at her curiously and readied a throw out of the ring.

Almond stabbed at me and I moved to the side and grabbed her blade, pulling her forwards. Almond had a look of surprise but planted her feet and let go of her blade. I raised an eyebrow and flipped it to my off hand. I guess I'm dual wielding now.

Almond punched at me with her shield arm and her shield also unfolded as she punched. I smiled slightly. That was smart. I was stronger than her so she shouldn't use her own strength. However, being hit hurts.

I blinked behind her and kicked the back of her right knee. She gasped in some surprise and I put her machete to her throat and my shortsword to her back. "That was pretty clever." I praised. "But not quite enough. Good job though. Creative problem solving is a valuable skill." Almond laughed nervously.

The instructor clicked his pen and scribbled on his clipboard. "Okay and faunus kid wins… Abyss Mavros… do I know you from somewhere?"

"I'm somewhat famous." I said.

"He's signal's champion." Almond said as she got up and dusted herself off. The instructor peered at me.

"Huh… well alright then." He looked to me. "Be back here tomorrow to fight and advance through the matches." He looked to Almond. "Sorry, girl. Tough luck facing a champion in the first round. Have a nice day you two." The instructor guy then walked out, probably to another match.

"Nice meeting you, Almond." I said.

"It was nice meeting you too!" Almond said with some cheer. I walked out first and could hear a clashing of weapons in Pyrrha's sparring room. I didn't want to see her fighting yet, which come to think of it might be a little hard with our fights being televised all over the place…

A short series of thumps could briefly be heard and some mumbled voices I didn't pay attention to. Then the door came open and Pyrrha came out. "It went well?" I asked. She nodded happily.

"You were right. It wasn't all that hard. Berry was pretty good though." I smiled somewhat.

"I fought Almond before the instructor came and had to fight her again." Pyrrha rolled her eyes at me.

"Well what did you think would happen? That you fought and people just knew who won? Well actually with us people might make those sorts of assumptions."

"It's biased, yes. Anyways, you mentioned knowing some of the places around Mistral that are nice to see?" Pyrrha's eyes brightened.

"Yes! There's this lovely restaurant dad got reservations for tonight. It's one of those towers on the second plateau so you can see for miles in just about every direction!"

"That does sound interesting." I said honestly. "Anywhere else?" Pyrrha froze.

"Uhm… no." She looked down sheepishly. I rolled my eyes.

"My what a terrible host you are, not amusing me every moment of the day."

"Sorry…" Pyrrha said, not getting the joke.

"I'm messing with you Pyrrha. It's fine. I actually know a place to go." Pyrrha looked up to me.

"Really?! Where?" I grinned and used mage sight to get a location and made a portal. I walked on through and waved Pyrrha through. I was met with the sight of eastern style roofs and kids in classrooms looking bored. I sure wasn't though.

Pyrrha emerged through the portal and blinked at the sensation. Yeah, walking through those takes a little getting used to. "What? Am I… is this Sanctum?"

"Yup." I said happily. "Mind showing me around?" Pyrrha looked around as if to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"Um, what's the time?" I used mage sight and found the watch of a grey haired kid in a classroom.

"It's three fifteen pm." Pyrrha smiled.

"Then we get to see combat class in ten minutes. It might give you some perspective into who I fight most of the time. Um, we're at the northern building… so we cross campus to the southern one."

I looked at her quizzically. "You have more than two buildings?" Pyrrha thought about it for a moment.

"Sort of. The southern building is only for sparring and the eastern one is for clubs and electives. The northern building is for academics. But the southern building is small and the eastern one isn't often in use."

"Signal only has a lower building and an upper building for the fifth through eighth grade. Then there's the upper building that has the sparring rings, upper year electives, and upper year classes. It's all divided except for the occasional lower signal student that has a talent for something and gets to go into an upper year class. Ruby makes weapons in the upper year building, for example. Our two buildings are somewhat bigger than yours though."

Pyrrha smiled and nodded. "And here we are." I looked at a somewhat small one story building that couldn't hold more than five sparring rings of a decent size. Pyrrha walked right up to a set of double doors and walked through them. I followed after.

Inside led right to an empty sparring ring and a raised podium with a chair. For the teacher to spectate probably. "There's nowhere private for the teachers to watch?" I asked. Pyrrha shook her head.

"No they just set up a plastic table and set some chairs out if they want to watch. Or sit with the students. Do you have a teacher's platform of some sort?"

"They have a sort of opera seat in the wall. Our ceiling is a bit higher." Pyrrha looked to her school's walls and tried to imagine it.

"I don't think that would work here. The wall is too short."

I wasn't able to draw any more comparisons since the bell rang for a moment. I could faintly hear shuffling and talking as students moved from their classes. "Do you want to just sit in the stands and watch or be sneaky about it?" Pyrrha looked to me curiously and I rolled my eyes and made a portal to her living room. I pulled her through and sat on her couch. She sat down, still confused, and I moved my portal over to the TV, almost like we were watching a movie. The portal at signal moved up high where nobody could see it.

"Oh! Yes this is far more comfortable than answering everyone's questions about why we're there." Pyrrha said happily.

"Huh? Are you kids home already?" Leo's voice came from the other room. What was over there? A garage or something? Leo peeked his head out and looked at the portal, where class was just starting. "Did you sneak into sanctum and plant cameras or something?"

"It's a portal that Abyss made." Leo looked at me and the portal and his eyes widened.

"Do you mean we can throw popcorn at them in the middle of the fights?" My own eyes widened.

"I like the way you think." I said. He grinned.

"Make us some popcorn, kid. I'm going to go get your aunt. She'll love this."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Lilac! What was that?!"_

" _There's something in my hair!"_

" _What in the world could-"_

" _There's popcorn in my hair!"_

" _What the-... where is that popcorn coming from?!"_

" _It's raining from the heavens!"_

" _We're under a roof, Lilac!"_

[|||| == ||||]

"I feel evil…" Pyrrha said glumly. The rest of us, even Ruby, had a grin on our faces. The car was a little cramped with all five of us in it, having only five seats, but Ruby was tiny in-between Pyrrha and I.

It might be a little bad for the more formal clothing we were wearing. Not suit and tie types but a dress shirt for me and similar clothes for women on the rest. Just nice clothes… that were getting a little ruffled but whatever.

"I feel good about myself. Messing with children does that to you." Leo joked.

"I never considered such a wide range of options for portals before." I said in wonder.

"You can use them to take out the trash in moments." Leo said in fake envy. "Or to wake up late and go to school in moments."

"I already do that one." I said. "The trash is a good idea but I actually live in an apartment in vale. Not patch." Leo raised an eyebrow.

"Is there any limit on distance?"

"No. Just a standard amount of aura for any distance so long as I've seen the location with a few exceptions. I sort of have a range around me of a few miles where I can sense the space if I focus."

"Looking into the girls locker room?" I rolled my eyes.

"I can see under clothes. Why bother?" Leo narrowed his eyes into the rear-view mirror. "Don't look under my daughter's clothes until you two are married."

"Wait, have you?" Pyrrha asked with a blush.

"My sight is determined by diameter. I can't see in a half circle or something. I see everything and focus on some things to get a clearer picture. It's what I use for short range teleports, which is just me switching my space for a different one."

"So you looked a few miles away to sanctum… and with Pyrrha so close to you…" Leo turned his head a little to look at me in the corner of his eye.

"I don't pay extra attention to anybody. Also, I see EVERYBODY under their clothes. I see far more that I don't want to see than anything I could be bothered to want to see.

"You just kind of get past this sort of thing." Ruby cut in. "Privacy isn't really a thing at the apartments."

"You get used to it or wait until Abyss is asleep." Raven said with a small smile.

"What have you been doing?" I asked with suspicion in my voice. Raven said nothing but her smirk spoke a thousand words.

"Well I'm going to take pity on you. It sounds bad at first but thinking about it that is pretty bad." Leo said grudgingly.

"I didn't ask for a first hand look at the contents of the sewer system." I said honestly. "Or to know how many spiders there are in the space between the walls." Pyrrha looked to me like I had said something horrible. Leo chuckled.

"Pyrrha's scared of spiders and centipedes. Millipedes are okay for some reason." He said.

"Millipedes are herbivores. So long as they stay away from me I'm fine." Pyrrha defended herself. "But spiders and centipedes exist only to be horrible. Like wasps."

"That's true." Ruby agreed.

I hid a smile, deciding to mess with Pyrrha. "But if you're scared of spiders why are you fine with the daddy long-legs above you?" Pyrrha's head snapped upwards and she leaned hard on the car door, like she was staying as far away from it as possible. She realized she was being messed with by everyone's laughter and my smirk.

"Not funny." She muttered vainly. A tiny smile was creeping onto her face though.

"The only notable thing in your house is a few abandoned bird nests on the roof and a little hiding spot in your basement. Other than that you're fine." I assured them.

"Hiding spot?" Leo asked. He very decidedly did not ask about whether I had seen under his bed.

"A little nook behind some bricks that was sealed up a while ago." I explained. "Nothing there but a few old soiled books and a really old oil lamp. Well there's also a sewer entrance but it's long sealed up." Leo shrugged it off.

"Sounds interesting but we're here." Leo pulled up to the curb of a rather nice looking tower with a small canopy proclaiming it as 'the tower'... is this like Mistral's equivalent to the club?

"Excuse me!" Leo called to a well dressed young man in a cap. He turned and looked at Leo expectantly. "I'd like this valet parked."

"Of course sir." The man said with a professional smile. He grabbed a small notebook from his pocket and a golf pencil and scribbled down the license plate and presumably Leo's appearance or something. "Your name?"

"Leonidas Nikos." The man nodded and jotted it down but paused for a moment before starting up again. He glanced inside the car though. The windows are rather dark though so he couldn't see anything. Leo and Raven got out of the car. The rest of us followed suit. The man's eyes widened at Pyrrha exiting and nearly bulged out of his sockets when he saw me. He took a moment to compose himself once more before speaking.

"I hope you have a nice time sir." The valet said in a slightly strained tone… Oh dust is it a faunus thing? "But we don't serve-"

"My apologies do you not serve champions in this establishment?" Leo said in a perfect charismatic smile. The man's smile strained slightly.

"We do sir. However, the business-"

"Is there something wrong with my fame?" I asked with a quizzical expression. "I was under the impression that an establishment wouldn't discriminate based on publicity." The man's expression darkened. Ah, yes. The burdens of fame. I do hate them so.

"No… sir." The man's words sounded just venomous enough to offend me but polite enough to be civil. "We don't-"

"I'm certain it's not your fault this establishment is biased towards the… well known." I said honestly as I could manage. "I do, however, quite want to enter, being a formal event. If it will change this establishment's policies I'm quite I can quote you by name, being forced to turn aside some customers. It's tragic, really." The man closed his eyes and seemed to think about this.

"Just enter." He gave in resignedly. Make me not your problem. Good enough. I made sure I was out of direct line of sight of everyone that mattered (Raven and Ruby could see) and put myself under an illusion cloak to hide my ears.

"Nicely handled, ki-wait where the…" Leonidas squinted at my ears, or where they were. "Nice… how did you do that though?"

"My secret faunus tricks." I joked. Pyrrha looked as closely as she could at my ears. "It's not even my most impressive though." I made eye contact with Pyrrha and blinked harshly as I altered my illusion cloak. When my eyes opened my eyes were purple. Pyrrha jumped in surprise and looked closely at my eyes.

"How did you do that?" She asked impressively.

"Contacts and slight of hand." I lied. Raven rolled her eyes and Ruby looked at me in deadpan.

"Some slight of hand." Leonidas said

"It's actually just reaching into my hammerspace and releasing the contacts on my eyes." I lied more plausibly. "A little trick I picked up." Leonidas nodded.

"I figured." Leo said with a shrug. "Now come on. They have some amazing breadsticks here." I shrugged and walked on with the group. Pyrrha looked curiously at my head, where my ears were hidden under an illusion, and shrugged it off. Nobody immediately jumps to magic. I love abusing that fact so much. Seriously, making a natural disaster as a semblance? I still can't believe people bought that even though they didn't really have a choice.

We walked in without issue, given that I didn't have my ears showing. "Reservations under Nikos." Leo said to the man at the desk. He nodded and typed something into the terminal he was at.

"Top floor west side. Lovely sunset tonight, sir. And a full moon too." Leo grinned.

"That's why we're here. Come on guys." We walked along after Leo and came to some stairs.

"Wait how many floors are there?" Ruby asked. Leo grinned.

"Thirty eight. Most of them are reserved conference rooms for business guys. Only the first two floors and the top floor are for people dining."

"So… do we have to climb all the stairs?" Leo smirked and started walking. Ruby and Pyrrha groaned. At the second floor he took a left to the middle of the room, where there was an elevator. "There's no elevator on the first floor." He explained. "What did you think we were walking forty flights of stairs? In formalwear? Not a chance."

We filed in pretty easily. Nobody was getting in with us so it wasn't crowded or anything. "So Leo," I started, "why did you choose this place if they don't accept faunus?"

"I didn't think of it actually." Leo shrugged. "I'm kind of blind to the race divide stuff. Mistral isn't horribly racist but the neighborhoods are pretty segregated. I don't have many faunus friends and when I do meet with those friends I normally meet with them in some bar of their choosing. Besides, your eyes really grab people's attention. I didn't notice your ears until yesterday's dinner."

"Fair enough." I say dismissively. "I don't really have a problem with the race thing normally. It's actually more useful for me to be a faunus than otherwise. The better hearing is useful pretty often and it actually earned nature's bounty the approval of the white fang and a lot of trust with faunus. Jacques doesn't care if you're the devil himself if it earns him profit too. He tried to hire my uncle actually."

"Who's Jacques?" Pyrrha asked curiously.

"CEO of the SDC, remnant's largest supplier of dust with some very controversial labor practices. He's also an A-hole in person. According to my uncle at least. I'd say he's a pretty sound source of judgement."

"That sounds like about everything I've heard about him." Leo commented.

"People got the right impression of him for once, though I'm not sure if the whole labor standard is true or not."

"What's it typically like, being a faunus?" Pyrrha asked.

"A difficult question." I stalled. I tried to come up with a few differences. "Some things are super annoying while some things you just can't imagine being even a little irritating. Creaky doors, for example, are a huge pet peeve of mine. I fixed all of the doors at the apartments for everyone on my floor because when they creaked I could hear it from all the way in my room."

"Should we fix ours?" Leo asked with a frown.

"It's a little annoying but it's not horrible or anything. It's like you have a lot of neighbors who like yelling. Not pleasant but not something you can't ignore. Bright lights are another thing. Or a sudden change in lighting. Sensitive eyes. Anyways, I can't imagine being too hot or cold being one of the things that doesn't bother me. Maybe that's a vacuo thing though. I'm not often too hot or too cold. I can't do something like wear a parka in the desert but I could sit in a hot room with a coat on and not notice it."

"What about the racism and stuff?" Pyrrha asked. The elevator opened, geez that was a slow elevator, and we filed out. Raven spotted the table and walked to it. The rest of us followed.

"It's not a big deal for me. Sometimes there's some people who act like asses. A guy pretended to trip and spill his drink on me in the cafeteria a few times but I could see it coming from a mile away. I tried to get it through his head through spars but he kept at it. So I planted contraband in his locker and tipped off a teacher. He knew it was me of course but he had no evidence. I made sure not to actually do anything myself. It was all done by third parties."

"That can't have earned you any friends." Ruby said, sitting down in her seat. Then her brow scrunched up a little bit. "Wait was that that Borlos guy? The one that was expelled for having contraband in his locker?" I nodded.

"I didn't earn any friends for that but that's fine. I don't have a large social circle. I know people who instead have their own large social circle and have them owe me favors or work for me."

"You said this guy got expelled? For trying to bully you?" Pyrrha frowned.

"It wasn't just the soda." I explained. "He did plenty of stuff. He was a known racist, he had a massive amount of disrespect for plenty of people, and the soda thing wasn't the only incident. Normally when someone messes with me I spar with them and utterly humiliate them. That wards people off. But Boris didn't get the hint that I don't tolerate that stuff. In hunter schools, or at least signal and beacon, students are expected to solve their own issues. So I tried the usual message and it didn't take. So I moved to an extreme. Now nobody tries to mess with me and I don't randomly lash out or anything."

"Yeah that sort of stuff happened all the time at shade." Leonidas said easily. Pyrrha looked wide-eyed to him. "What? You're supposed to be huntsmen. An adult. If someone is messing with you you defend yourself. How much did this Boris guy mess with you anyways?"

"Let's see, there was the soda, a ton of so-called harmless pranks, and he publicly called me slurs and names after pretending to do the soda thing. After that I planted the contraband through a third party. My best friend actually."

Cesium had gotten the contraband and Ocean had planted the evidence after breaking in. She got his locker code and just opened the locker at a time when not many people were around. Nobody was paying attention to her and the cameras tapes looped at that time. Cesium made sure she was untouchably innocent. They had enjoyed it.

"I… guess that's alright." Pyrrha admitted. "But couldn't you have tried something else before jumping to extremes?"

"The world's not so black and white, Pyrrha. Boris was not a good person. He used what power he had to lash out. Hurt others, discriminate, and bully. Back then he was a schoolyard bully. Now he's not my problem." That didn't appease Pyrrha. Goody two shoes to the core, this one. "Signal trains hunters. Boris was not going to become a hunter. A criminal if anything. With signal free of him they now have a chance to recruit somebody who actually will be a huntsman or huntress and do as they do."

"But still, expelling someone because they messed with you." Pyrrha scowled. "Couldn't you have just blackmailed him?"

"I could have. Blackmailing him would only be temporary. He would have had time to spread rumors, strike back, and poison others who are secondhand racists, the ones who mutter discontentedly about me being a cheating faunus or something or other, and strike back. Rot spreads. I cut off the head of the snake. Now there are no problems."

"I doubt I would be so forgiving." Raven said. "You took all of that and didn't outright frame him?"

"Going to extremes immediately makes you seem unstable." I said. Raven frowned at me. "Raven you absolutely were unstable. Summer told me about the time you beat a guy that couldn't take a hint in the lunchroom." Raven winced. The tables were far apart so nobody could hear what we were talking about. Otherwise there might be some uncomfortable questions.

"Okay yeah that's farther than I've seen." Leonidas admitted. Pyrrha looked wide-eyed at Raven.

"What for all the dust in remnant could make you do that in a lunchroom of all places?!" She asked with a slightly raised voice.

"A message needed to be sent. He was getting grabby. I gave him a warning." Raven defended.

"Yeah that's not really the best reason I've heard." Leo said disapprovingly.

"Let's stop the dogpile on Raven." I said soothingly. "The past is the past. She did worse anyways."

"I did?" Raven asked questioningly. Leo took a drink of water. Ruby noticed that she had water and did the same. Oh I love my LUK stat.

"Yeah. Like sleeping with your whole beacon team." I said nonchalantly. Ruby choked on her water and dropped the glass on the table, where a little spilled out. Leo calmly finished his drink. Pyrrha had a malfunction and stared blankly at Raven.

"Really? That sounds interesting." Pyrrha looked to her father with that same blank expression.

"Goddamnit Abyss." Raven sighed wearily.

"But… but mom… and uncle Qrow was in your team." Ruby said dazedly.

"Qrow and I did not sleep together. We aren't depraved… he was in the bathroom with Summer while I was with Tai…" Raven got quieter as she went along. "Then Tai, Summer, and I… beacon was an interesting experience." Leonidas snorted.

"Two teenage girls in a dorm with two teenage guys? Brother or not that's bound to end that way. I was in a team with three girls. Pearl, Oria, and Helen. It's pretty common in huntsman schools."

"Mom is pure. Mom is pure. Mom is pure." Ruby repeated to herself, trying to bleach her brain.

"That sort of stuff is common?" Pyrrha repeated questioningly.

"Yup." Leonidas confirmed. "Except in four guy teams or four girl teams… well I've heard rumors actually but nothing concrete."

"I think it helped that Summer was an extraordinary open person." I said.

"She was. It got her into a lot of trouble." Raven agreed.

"Excuse me?" A waiter came to the table. "Are you ready to order? Or would you just like drinks?"

"I'm ready to order." Leonidas said. "You all ready?" I glanced at my menu. Eye for detail kicked in and I comprehended everything on the page easily.

"I'm ready." I said.

"Ah, yes. I'm ready to order." Pyrrha said, still dazed from the conversation's temporary adult theme. Was this not normal? It seemed like with Leonidas it would be.

"Yup." Ruby said.

"I'll have the Mistralian steak and the Vacuan nights mix." Raven said, putting her menu down. The waiter scribbled that down and looked up.

"The signature burger please with onion rings. And a coke soda." Leo said. Wait didn't that have blue cheese on it? Well fine. I won't judge. The waiter continued scribbling.

"The basil pizza please." Ruby said, still recovering somewhat. We don't actually have pizza that often do we? I should try to make that.

"With breadsticks or fries?" The waiter asked.

"Um, breadsticks."

"I'd like the lobster platter." I said. I don't get lobster often. It's expensive and I cook for a whole clan. If I get hungry I'll eat something I have an avatar make in my soul space. I eat a lot, after all.

"… The pork thigh." Pyrrha said. "Sorry for the pause. I was wondering if I should get a burger instead." The waiter nodded understandingly.

"It's no problem miss Nikos. Enjoy your night. Food will be here soon enough." Pyrrha blinked at the waiter's knowing her name.

"Are you still not used to people knowing your name?" I asked. She shook her head. "It's weird at first. I got used to it after two months of it. After the finals it'll get worse. If we compete next year then it'll be even worse." Pyrrha's smile turned more to a grimace.

"That doesn't sound too pleasant, strangers knowing my name off the top of their head."

"It's not. I'm pretty well known in Vale. Not a household name but even in Mistral, where nature's bounty doesn't even have much of a presence besides places the first harvest will export to, some people know my name or face. I think that's the tournament though. Maybe the white fang publicizing me."

"Yeah… still doesn't seem much like something I would enjoy." She said with a frown.

"Yeah. It seems like it wouldn't really suit you." I agreed. Actually I know it wouldn't.

Dinner went pretty easily after food arrived. We talked about the matches, Pyrrha and I comparing Almond and Berry. Ruby had showed Leonidas rose eclipse. It was apparently the deadliest weapon he had ever seen. He looked at me like a madman when I said I built it and Ruby in some slight fear when she said she planned it. Raven looked at him like she was used to this.

I think Pyrrha is slightly afraid of what my weapon is. Ruby lauded it like a piece of divine work. It was only medium mythical rarity. Don't worry about it. Ruby gave all sorts of vague capabilities that only made Pyrrha more afraid. I assured her that I wouldn't rely on my weapon. Skill would be the determining factor. She seemed reassured by that, though she asked to see my weapon at work in a place where showmanship didn't matter. Leonidas asked if my weapon was in my pants and Pyrrha scrambled to take it back. It was funny apparently. I was too busy glaring at Leonidas to laugh.

We didn't talk as much when food came. The lobster had so much delicious butter. I stole a few slices of Ruby's pizza and Raven's steak since neither of them could completely finish theirs.

The setting sun was also beautiful to see. The distant mountains snow capped peak reflected the dying sunlight so well. I made sure to remember that one. And now I could with my selective memory passive.

The night ended with a confused valet seeing my lack of faunus ears and a quiet drive back to the compound. Mistral is a really nice place.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	29. Chapter 29

**AN:**

[||||= **LEVEL 29** = ||||]

"Let me guess… It was somewhat boring and you crushed the poor fool you were paired with." Leonidas said dryly. He took a quick bite of his turkey right after. He really had made me cook every day…

"Yeah that sounds about right." I commented.

"She tried her best." Pyrrha mumbled.

"So just like the last three times then." Leo observed. "They have a free for all tomorrow. That release five people into the arena and just one comes out."

"That actually sounds worth watching." Raven said. She had been along with me the second time to see what it was like with the preliminaries. She was as disappointed as I have been. "I'll be sure to watch that."

"It takes place in the actual arena this time." Leonidas grinned. "I'll show you and Ruby there. Abyss will be thrown into the free for all and basically have to handle the five guys himself. Standing out means they'll focus on him first. The same goes for Pyrrha."

"I'll be sure to cheer for you!" Ruby says happily.

"Should we announce some sort of declaration of rivalry? Make the end more dramatic?" I asked Pyrrha.

"That does sound interesting." she said thoughtfully.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby cried dramatically. "I will fight you… For your heart!"

"For in the arena is the only one of such lowly birth as I may earn your favor!" Raven smirked.

"May we meet in glorious battle in a duel of star-crossed lovers! Believe it!" Leonidas grinned at us.

Pyrrha was just used to it by now and only looked irritated. I had grown more numb to it than I was before. That didn't stop my ear from twitching in irritation. Ruby and Leo had honed in on it as a signal that their teasing was working. Controlling my facial expression no longer worked as well.

"You three all suck." Pyrrha muttered.

"Yeah yeah. I mean we all know Abyss has already seen you naked." Leo jabbed at her. Pyrrha's eyes narrowed and her lips pressed together. Oh I want to see this.

"If that meant we were dating then should I be concerned about you stealing him away?" absolute silence reigned as everyone stared shocked at Pyrrha. She had never jabbed back like that before.

She blinked and seemed to realize what she just said. "I mean-! I, um, sorry!" Her final apology was barely heard. Ruby and Leo busted into laughter, more from the unexpectedness of it than good humor. Raven snorted at the insinuation.

"I win!" Leo laughed happily. "Pay up! She cracked!"

"Just one more day…" Ruby mumbled. She dug around in her pocket and withdrew ten lien, passing it to Leo. Raven scowled and handed over a twenty.

"You bet on me?! What am I saying. Of course you did." Pyrrha rolled her eyes and got on with her meal.

"Raven bet you would hold out the week to day seven or beyond. Ruby bet for days five and six. I got the rest." Leo smiled happily as he pocketed his newly earned funds. "Thank you for being unused to teasing sweetie." Pyrrha ignored him, refusing to speak.

"Are there any bets on me?" I asked.

"None that you can know about." Raven said.

"Can I get in on it?" Pyrrha asked curiously. Leo smiled proudly.

"I'm so proud of you right now." He said happily. Pyrrha rolled her eyes.

[|||| == ||||]

" _So the bet?"_

" _Umm… You're not going to like this actually."_

" _We're betting on whether Abyss will beat you, corrupt you, or break you."_

"… _Huh?"_

" _Look, my brother is… Being around him changes you. How you see things. How strong you are. How much you value things versus other stuff."_

" _I… I don't understand."_

" _This is more of a warning than a bet. My nephew has strong morals… Very strong morals. Greater than even I hold mine and I went so far as to abandon a road of life for my own path."_

" _His morals… Rub off on you? I don't get it."_

" _Pyrrha a few years ago I was a near helpless girl who didn't know a thing about the real world. Now I'm practically an expert in weapons design and supposedly at the level of a beacon student. But that's more of a side effect than anything. I used to hear the word hero and think of me bravely slaying Grimm. Now I hear the word hero and I think of good-hearted men and women dying for others."_

" _O-oh. That's… pessimistic."_

" _You still don't get it. Abyss is like his namesake. You get to know you, and he leaves a mark. You so much as look into him and he sees absolutely everything. You've seen that piercing look of his. Like he knows every single thing about you - and he does! He knows everything! He keeps an eye on everyone and everything and… And you haven't seen him angry."_

" _He… he can't be that bad."_

" _In a mission of sorts Abyss and I encountered a threat that knocked me out and held me hostage. I escaped and Ruby stayed back while Abyss and I attacked. He didn't kill the threat. He left it to slowly die off in pain. Not because he was cruel but because the moment it even considered attacking Ruby it stopped even being a person in his eyes. It became a thing."_

"… _I think I'm starting to see where you're going with this… Is this something along the lines of 'don't make him mad and know the risks?'"_

" _My nephew should terrify you. Completely and utterly. He still makes me afraid of what he could become sometimes. He is one of the few things I can readily admit to fear."_

" _But even with big bro being scary and strong and for most purposes all knowing he isn't… He isn't a terrible person. Whether he's a bad one is… he's like a force of nature. He can cause chaos and panic in moments. He can creep up on you in seconds and cause ruin, but it isn't that he's evil. He is. What he does is just something that… Is."_

" _Abyss should scare you. You should remember that if he ever truly marks you as an enemy you will die. He might slit your throat when you sleep or eviscerate you in the middle of a crowd. Like a storm he's unpredictable."_

" _A storm… That seems like a good way to define him… but you're not painting your family in a good light. I get that he's terrifying beyond comprehension but what about the good things? I don't believe anyone could be that bad with no good side."_

"… _His friends. He only cares about one class in his schedule. Subterfuge and intelligence. Ocean, Kerrigan, and Cesium… they met with me once. They wanted to see me because I'm his sister. They… He terrifies them. They fear him but they can't help but love him. He gave Cesium wealth and safety. He gave Kerrigan and his family sanctuary and happiness. He gave Ocean a real home in his class. And Bella… He's still working on her but he already gave her somebody to trust. Now he's giving her the truth."_

" _The… never mind. I think I get it now… Sort of. Abyss is like a storm. He's unpredictable. He might be loud and you can spend the whole day constantly knowing he's there. Or you could simply look up one day and he's there. It's hard to not fear his power when he's mad but it doesn't matter because he isn't hurting people because he's bad. It's just how he is."_

" _You're scratching the surface but yes. My nephew is incredible, terrible, and so much more. A pit far below the ground to limitless depths and far into the sky to be nearly unreachable."_

"… _Okay… I think I get it. I'll be careful."_

" _For your sake I hope you are. Don't hold back against my nephew. Fight like your life depends on it whenever you fight him. For all you know it does."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Welcome! To the ANNUAL MISTRAL REGIONAL TOURNAMENT!" The crowd roared approval and cheered and screamed in glee. When they settled down a little the announcer started up again.

"For our first match of the day, the very first match of this tournament… we're starting hot with, you all know it… A FREE FOR ALL!" The crowd roared approval a little more.

"First is the only, the first… Capricorn Jel!" Applause rang out as a large kid dressed in simple yellow armor, clearly sixteen or seventeen, walked out with a charming smile on his face. Some ladies screamed and he threw them a wink. They laughed like they had won the lottery. He stood tall and confident at his gate.

"Second is the beautiful… Shine Serpesta!" A slim girl with twin swords on her back and bright green armor walked out with a mischievous look into the pit and stood in front of her gate.

"Third is one we have straight from the jungles of Northern Vacuo! He's rough, tough, and prepared! Give a hand for Munsell Seabrick!" A youthful looking kid stride out. He actually wore combat armor camouflaged different greens and kept an assault rifle on his shoulder. He grinned confidently and sized up the other two.

"Forth is someone that nobody could have expected! Out of the blue with a flash and owning all the spotlight… Honeydeewwwwww!" A short, fey-like girl with pigtails skipped out laughing and a chorus of 'awww's and coos greeted her as much as applause.

"Finally, and really we spoil you all, he's straight out from nowhere and has dominated every scene ever since! We have a champion here today straight off the bat! Do I even have to say his name? Enter… ABYSSSS MAVROOOOSSSS!"

I walked out with my calm smile with a little more excitement than usual. I wasn't really excited. In fact I actually kind of dreaded heading out there with all the noise.

I was dressed in actual huntsman attire though it looked almost like I was a special operative. A simple black long sleeved shirt with my emblem of the abyss - my emblem - on my right pectoral. I had a bandolier over my left shoulder down to my right waist with a holstered pistol.

My pants were similarly plain. The only notable thing about them was that they had a lot of pockets if you looked closely.

The only really notable part of my outfit was a dark purple sort of half cape coming down my right shoulder with a hood. It's only use was fashion. Or, more specifically, to seperate my fashion from military to a professional huntsman. I had my hood down and I doubt I'll often use it.

This was one of two outfits of mine. Normally I won't be using the cape but when I preferred to be flashy or travel light I would be using it.

As soon as I walked out my applause drastically overshadowed that of the other competitors.

I could very faintly hear some boos but they were so small and such a minority that a normal person couldn't hear them right next to them. People were here to see a fight. Not preach racism.

"Now for what is undoubtedly the best part! I'll quit stalling and say the words everyone wants to hear!..." The crowd was roaring with cheers now.

"Oh sorry am I supposed to say something! It seems I need to be reminded." A chant broke out. In a jumbled mass that somewhat blurred together you could hear the word fight.

"What's that? Fight who? Are you sure?" The air was thick with the vibrations of so many roaring voices.

"Oh all right. COMPETITORS! FIGHT!"

Immediately Honeydew raced towards the immediate right, where Shine was. Munsell and Capricorn looked at each other and seemed to hesitate, choosing between fighting me or each other. They shared a look and decided mutually to attack me.

I myself began strolling casually towards the middle. I drew my weapon and twirled it lazily.

Munsell aimed at me and began shooting. I looked in his direction and used aura enhancement on my dexterity only. Eye for detail kicked in and I could see the bullets coming at me. I also had prediction showing me where they were going and instinctual alerting me to danger.

Some swift swings of my sword that some use of my acting skill made look casual left sparks in the air around me. Not a single one of the bullets hit me. Munsell unloaded his whole magazine at me while I sliced all of his bullets with ease.

The whole arena died down to a silence. Munsell looked at me in shock as he lowered his assault rifle.

I hit the middle of the arena and all eyes were on me. Even the other contestants were only shooting glances at their competitors.

I smiled pleasantly at Munsell for a moment. Then in a blur me left arm shot to my holster and drew my pistol. I leveled it to Munsell and slowed myself so everyone could see me as I pulled the trigger.

I'm not actually great with pistols but with prediction and this pistol I don't need to be. A pistols bullet wouldn't actually hurt anyone with aura that much. I could take bullets from an average pistol all day and not feel a thing myself. But this pistol was made by me.

The pistols barrel had the rifling that rose eclipse had. It shot at Mach 6. But that, while surely VERY damaging, wasn't the selling point of the pistol. The bullets were the real treasure.

Putting wind affinity is an object was like an acceleration spell with a few extra side effects normally. Any motion is done faster, the object cuts things easier, air resistance is nullified, and the object is silent if you shoot it or throw it really fast. But I didn't like that. So I used runes to change it.

The bullets all had a matrix to contain the wind attuned mana and it was VERY good at it. The bullets could be individually stuffed with maybe three million wind attuned mana each. When they land the matrix shatters and all that wind mana explodes outwards violently to make, you guessed it, a shockwave.

These bullets had three hundred thousand mana in them and still they caused enough force to throw a person halfway across this arena. I had tested in my soul space with a sack of ice. The three million ones? Well… They destroyed about half an apartment buildings worth of ice.

I had made some specialty bullets for Ruby of course. Ice could be used to make obstacles, wind to push people around, purity to annihilate Grimm, and consumption gave the bullets a sort of acidic blast that ate at the place around them.

I kept them from being too powerful (Except for twenty 3 million purity bullets because screw Grimm. Purity does jack against people) so she wouldn't hurt herself or others. She was getting better at using them.

With that said… my bullet went straight for Munsell and hit directly at his sternum. A huge boom echoed out and he was thrown back into the standard arena forcefield, where his head cracked against it. His aura was at roughly five percent.

"A-and Abyss one hit KOs Munsell. I… Um…"

"Quiet please." I call out. The announcer shuts up. I turn to the remaining three competitors. "I think it's pretty clear that my gun can shatter any of your auras easily." I say easily. Silence is my answer.

"So come at me with your swords and such. If you don't…" I clicked the safety on my gun and holstered it. Every eye was on it. I could see far in the stands Jacques Schnee was in the VIP section with Weiss and Winter. Winter was looking at my pistol grimly and Jacques with greed.

"Well?" I asked the competitors. Nobody moved. I sighed and drew my pistol again. I took out the magazine and put it on my bandolier. The moment I did Honeydew sprinted towards me. The others followed suit, apparently in agreement that I had to go.

I kept my calm smile on perfectly and met Honeydew with a half step. She whipped her arm out and there was… A whip. Huh. I grab the thing, which costed a little of my aura, and pulled her behind me, tripping her in the process. She probably had a counter to this but I was fast.

A round of some more cheers began slowly but picked up quick. The audience stopped being so stunned and began cheering me on while the announcer prattled on.

Shine and Capricorn engaged me at the same time. Capricorn used some sort of pneumatic fist and Shine her two swords. I parried the swords and dodged Capricorn punches. I could have knocked them out any time but I restrained myself to the level of speed they had and matched them with skill.

For five minutes I blocked, dodged, parried, and occasionally countered as the three desperately attacked me. None of them had semblances that could really oppose me. Capricorn could charge at extreme speeds towards someone, Shine could shoot low powered lazer, and Honeydew lasers, which was ironic to say the least. Honeydew managed to tap my wrist and I felt a presence on my mind. Steel will resisted her easily, which was impressive judging by the shock and awe on her face.

I knocked out Honeydew when she was surprised by my steel will. I parried one of Shine's swords to the side and tore the other from her grasp after a well aimed side-kick to the stomach. I then stabbed at her chest hard enough to drain her aura to a fifth of what it was before throwing her at Capricorn. He side-stepped her and I threw her sword at him. It wasn't really intended to hurt him but it sliced his shoulder and he winced. I darted a slash at his side and finished him with a snap kick to the chin and ajab with my sword to his throat.

The crowd roared approval and I threw my arms out, urging them onwards. After a moment of that though I stepped out, offering a helping hand to Capricorn and Shine along the way. Honeydew had gotten out of dodge and Munsell had sneaked out somewhere in the fight.

As soon as I stepped back through my gate the applauding crowd stopped being so loud and the announcer began announcing the next fight I could hear two voices. One of which was rather familiar.

"We need that gun, Jacques. Atlas lives off it's technological and industrial edge. You know this as well as I do."

"Obviously. I'll produse more. Make them standard fare for atlesian soldiers."

"What?! Dust no! A gun that powerful in the hands of an average solder?! Manic! No. In the hands of the specialists and high class personnel. We make absolutely sure that the blueprints stay only with Atlas. If he keeps one and gives his uncle one fine but we NEED a monopoly on that sort of firearm and who knows what else nature's bounty has in store? That was pistol Jacques. If they applied whatever tech they had in that bullet to a sniper round what could it do?"

"Fine fine. You'll be owing me another one for this."

"I'll lend you the firearms for your security personnel. It'll deter white fang raids."

"A good start. We'll talk later. If this Abyss is anything like his uncle he'll be casual, brusque, and carefree. You're none of those things in business. So don't talk."

"Fine."

I blinked into the room after that. "Are you gentlemen done scheming?" Jacques jumped slightly and Ironwood whipped out his hand cannon and took aim at me. I also saw Winter Schnee with him slashing with her rapier towards my neck. Not too fast but enough to rest it by my neck. I suppose it makes sense that she's with Ironwood. That she's already his right hand is surprising though. She can't be much older than twenty two or three by now.

I threw my right hand out and grabbed the barrel of Ironwood's hand cannon while ducking. My leg shot out and kicked his right kneecap hard enough to make him fall down and his grip loosened slightly. I tore the gun from his grasp and brought him to a sleeper hold in my left arm but not enough to knock him out. Just make him struggle a little. The hand cannon, and I checked the safety to be on, was pointed at Jacques. I twitched my left fingers and a knife emerged from my soul space to Ironwood's neck.

Everything came to a rapid halt. Winter's eyes widened at the position I had Ironwood and Jacques trembled staring down the barrel of a gun. Ironwood grunted and struggled a little and I tightened my hold. He stopped resisting then.

"I-ah… hello mister… Mavros." Jacques stuttered out. "Ah, would you please put the gun down?" I rolled my eyes, which Winter bristled at, and tossed Ironwood away. He stumbled once and stood gracefully. I tossed him his hand cannon back and he caught it with a little surprise.

"It was on safety by the way." I told Jacques. That didn't seem to reassure him. "You want the blueprints to the gun." I said bluntly. "You can't have them."

Ironwood gritted his teeth. Jacques looked like he was about to speak but I interrupted him with a cold look in my eyes. "A deal with the SDC is paramount to making a deal with Atlas. I'll be talking to general Ironwood first." I looked back to Ironwood again. "Why would I bother giving you the blueprints to the weapon?" He took a moment to calm himself and stood straight.

"You just assaulted a general of Atlas and held the CEO of the SDC at gunpoint. You'll be facing charges for life. Not to mention that you know how to suppress your aura, a skill reserved for specialists and special operatives. It's illegal for a huntsman in training to know how to do that."

"It's illegal to learn in Atlas, Mistral, and Vale. I learned in Vacuo. In addition, you assaulted me first. I defended myself and as I said before, the gun was safety on. If it was off you would be even more at fault for pointing a primed firearm at a minor. And the camera caught everything." I said bluntly with a wave towards the locker room camera. "Do you have anything important to say or are you going to try to stall again?" Ironwood gritted his teeth again. What a bad habit.

"What do you want for it?" Ironwood spat.

"Nothing." I said with the same bluntness. "You can convince me to not spread the blueprints, though. Oh, and I made this gun. I own all rights to it. It's my personal gun and I'm the only one who knows how to make it. Don't bother going to my uncle. He doesn't know and he won't pull the 'I'm your guardian' card."

Ironwood growled. "What. Do. You want?" I looked at him stoically.

"You approached me. I'm not giving the blueprints to you. You have nothing I want and seemingly nothing to offer me." Suddenly something occurred to me. "Actually you do have something I want. You have a contract over one professor Poledina. The one working on project P.E.N.N.Y." Ironwood's eyes grew to the size of the moon.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS?!" He yelled.

"I want professor Poledina's contract." I continued, ignoring him. "I have research materials I need studied and I want him on it. I don't want him connected to Atlas and… you know what? I'll just offer him a job directly. I can't believe I never thought of this sooner." I shook my head.

"I'll give you this gun." I took out my pistol and removed the magazine, putting it in my pocket. "If you escort me to professor Poledina. If you reproduce the effects of the gun I'll not press any charges and let you do whatever you want with it. Otherwise I suppose I'll give the blueprints to professor Ozpin. Probably with a sample. It make this deal more valuable for you, you see." Ironwood looked at me with pure hatred. Jacques couldn't suppress the smallest hint of admiration in his eyes. That and fear. Lots of fear and confusion.

"… Fuck you." Ironwood said to me.

"Is that a no?" I said with a tilt of my head. Ironwood glared at me as hard as he could and drew his scroll with hands shaking with anger. He tapped a number on speed dial and brought it to his ear.

"It's Ironwood… yes I'm fucking angry. You're being transferred. We're selling your contract to Nature's bounty. They have me… actually scratch that. Abyss Mavros has me by the fucking throat… You can forfeit but… just talk to him." Ironwood tossed the scroll to me.

"-I'm not working for that company! I have to make Penny! I can do it I swear! Just give me some-"

"Mister Poledina." I greeted. He fell silent. "You'll be continuing project Penny. Don't worry about that. Ironwood will be transferring all of the data on that project with you. We at Nature's bounty already know how to imbue aura into objects and have them keep the aura." Ironwood looked to me in shock and Jacques in surprise. Winter looked almost horrified. I actually could imbue my aura into things. It was just aura transferring. My higher soul handled the rest. I haven't bothered to try it with a grand soul. I suppose it'll simply be better. And I really would offer Poledina everything he needed.

"… You're serious?" Poledina asked in shock.

"That's all I can say with Jacques Schnee and Ironwood in the room. We actually know quite a bit more than just transferring aura to objects." I said, as though transferring aura to objects was a trivial thing. "Ah, we made a homunculi once. That doesn't really matter though."

"Doesn't-!" Poledina cut himself off and was quiet. Good. I had a little more to say anyways.

"After completing project P.E.N.N.Y you'll have other work to do but I assure you that it will be quite original and rather ambitious. I'll give you the details when we come to that though." Poledina was silent.

"Alright. Prove that you're being honest and I'm in."

"Good. I'll drop by to retrieve you soon." I turned from the scroll. "Where is Poledina located?" I asked Ironwood.

"An Atlas blacksite. Three hundred miles east of Atlas underground." He said bitterly. "I'll escort you after the tournament." I nodded.

"Ironwood an I will drop by in three days." I informed him. "Do be prepared to leave by then. I'll hire whoever you have need of. Money is no issue so long as it's reasonable."

"I… okay." Poledina said in a slight daze. He then hung up. I tossed Ironwood's scroll back to him.

"A pleasure doing business with you general Ironwood." I turned my gaze to Jacques. "I do hope you enjoy my uncle's soft-heartedness more next time you meet him. He calls me when there's a genuine problem. So don't be one." Jacques paled slightly and nodded. No wonder. I just threatened to get rid of Atlas' biggest advantage, being their military technology, pulled the name of what was obviously a top secret military project out of my ass casually, and all of this was done in a few minutes.

Jacques, Winter, and Ironwood filed out of the room, Jaques being last. "Oh, and Jacques." I called. He looked back to me. "In your right coat pocket is a slip of paper with my scroll number on it. Should you wish to negotiate an equal deal, alliance, or something or other with Nature's bounty I'll negotiate. I'm also willing to offer you my talents and the talents of people many are scared to name for a price. Should you have a truly serious problem and wish to strike a deal to be rid of it my scroll will be open." Jacques reached into his coat pocket and retrieved the paper I had blinked into his pocket. He stared at it for a moment before nodding slightly shakily. Well I certainly left an impression. Before I teleported to Pyrrha, Ruby, and Raven, who were waiting for me at the garage, I heard a voice.

"Father?" A feminine voice asked confusedly. Another one spoke next.

"Did something of note occur?" Oh is that Weiss and Whitley?

"Weiss. Whitley." Jacques spoke gravely. A small hinto of admiration was in his voice. "When you meet Abyss Mavros… when you truly meet him… Do not look down on him. He is smarter than so many his age." I smiled slightly. Jacques is a bastard among bastards… but he can be used. I teleported to my family and Pyrrha with a wide smile on my face.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Mister Granite! Mister Granite!"_

" _Hm?"_

" _Do you have any comment on Mister Mavros' match today? Do you have any idea what his mysterious gun is?"_

" _I have no idea what the gun was. He hasn't ever used it at signal."_

" _Why do you believe he used it now?"_

" _I know Abyss. He doesn't do flashy or cocky. He does things the smart way. When he used that gun it was a message. He was saying that he was the strongest in the room with that gun. And then he may as well have thrown it away. He showed everyone that he could easily beat them and then he threw that away. And then he beat not just one or two people. He actively rallied them. And then he beat them mercilessly."_

" _What do you mean, sir? We were under the impression that Mister Mavros was struggling for the match after holstering his gun."_

" _Tell me, did Abyss take a single hit?"_

"… _No."_

" _When he moved as fast as he did at the beginning - speed to cut BULLETS in half… did he ever move that fast again?"_

" _No."_

" _And even then it's not unknown that Abyss uses both a halberd and a shortsword. But he only used a shortsword."_

" _Mister Granite are you implying that mister Mavros held back immensely during that fight?"_

" _Oh no. I'm saying it. Abyss didn't use his semblance, his other weapon, his real speed, or even his real skill knowing him. What he did was show everyone that those four people weren't worth the dirt on his shoes and every huntsman or huntress in the audience could tell."_

" _I… I see… do you know why he might have done such a thing?"_

"… _I always forget that people don't see Abyss the same way those at signal do. In signal Abyss doesn't listen to the teachers. The teachers listen to him. Why that isn't the same here is anybody's guess but does it matter? I doubt people will look at Abyss as just a champion after this tournament."_

"… _Do you believe you stand any chance against Mister Mavros?"_

" _I'll win if he wants me to win. It doesn't matter if I'm fighting him or not. I'm done answering questions now. Please go. If Abyss hasn't made it excessively clear to everyone in Mistral who he is… well… that won't happen."_

[|||| == ||||]

"You stole my spotlight." Pyrrha pouted. I leaned back in my kitchen chair and smiled.

"I'm not sorry at all." I said in utter lack of regret. Pyrrha sighed irritatedly. "So what happened with you anyways?" I asked.

"My fight was right after yours. I led other competitors into each other and shot at the person with the largest amount of aura. After your little showing people assumed I was as powerful as you and steered clear of me whenever they could after I showed that I don't have some absurd pistol that one hit KOs people."

"How many people did you get out?"

"Three."

"Good job." I said with a smile. Pyrrha sighed again.

"It just seems so small compared to all the stuff you did. You were amazing for the crowd but for everyone else you know you were terrifying, right"

"Oh I know." I said with a grin. "I was aiming for that." She looked to me curiously.

"Why would you want people to be afraid of you? Or the people you're fighting at least. Are you going to intimidate them in tomorrow's match?"

"No. You might figure it out eventually." I said knowingly. Pyrrha hummed.

"Maybe eventually. Also was that pistol your weapon? The one you're not showing me? It was kind of hard for me to not get asked about it and shown a video. Sorry."

"It's fine." I waved her apology off. "It wasn't my weapon. I just whipped that up as a proof of concept thing. I don't care to use it. Oh, and I'm trading one to general Ironwood for a guy I need to get." Pyrrha's eyes widened.

"You're saying that Atlas is going to have those guns?!"

"No of course not. They won't be able to figure it out." I smiled innocently. Pyrrha stared at me before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Just… Atlas is already pretty much the most powerful kingdom… giving them another huge advantage like that is… it would upset the balance of things." I nodded.

"I know well about the balance of power. I disrupt it all the time after all." Pyrrha laughed a little at that. "I need to go to bed now. I'd like plenty of sleep for tomorrow morning. I actually need to set some things straight with Raven." She nodded and stood up herself.

We walked upstairs together and Pyrrha disappeared into her room next to me. "Goodnight Abyss." She said as she closed the door.

"Goodnight Pyrrha. Last step comes tomorrow. You can do it." I said easily. I knew she would, after all. She had done it before. I stepped into my own room and studied a message I had received earlier today. I hadn't gotten around to looking at it yet.

 ***Ding!* Plasma and electricity affinities merged to form a lightning affinity from 20% plasma and 80% electricity! [214(80%)+45(20%)]= 180.2 lightning affinity acquired!**

 **By acquiring an additional facet of a storm your title has upgraded:**

 **The Storm**

 **-Reduces mana costs of air, plasma, lightning, water, and electrical magic by 20%**

 **-Increases air, plasma, lightning, and electrical affinities by 50% (After modifiers)**

 **-Increases mana capacity and regen by 25%**

 **-can be upgraded by merging all component storm affinities.**

 **-Should a storm affinity all component affinities will be sacrificed to to form a true storm affinity and an unlocked storm based semblance in addition to the already existing [Locked] semblance. All component affinities will be permanently barred. This effect will take place regardless of this title being equipped or not.**

I looked at the final part of the title and a huge grin spread over my face. An… ADDITIONAL SEMBLANCE?! Well… I wonder if this title is a one-time thing or if I can gain more semblances through the titles like this one, assuming there are any. I know there's a mountain affinity, for example. It's another complex affinity like storm that's hard to increase but is multi-faceted and very powerful. Perhaps… maybe I could make an origin affinity? Icmant had mentioned it…

" _Mana converged naturally and the affinities were close enough to form an origin affinity, which was unstable due to the lacking of a vessel to reside in and broke to purity and corruption…"_

Perhaps I could do it… But I would need a corruption affinity. It might be just me but that seems like a bad idea… no. I can make an origin affinity. I will do it. That affinity was unstable because it didn't have a vessel for it. That implies that it could exist if it had a vessel such as my soul, which is a vessel for all my other affinities. So I could theoretically make an origin affinity… what it does is up for debate. It might be like that creation technique from naruto where I can create things from nothing… that could help with my research into the plants to farm for Nature's bounty… a lot.

I'll… try it. First is the storm and then I'll get the corruption affinity and make an origin affinity. I suppose I'll spend time meditating on it now. No time like the present.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Ruby. I found her."_

" _You… you did?!"_

" _Of course I did… are you truly ready to do this?"_

" _I… yes."_

" _There is no turning back from this sort of a path."_

" _It's a path that leads to me standing beside my brother. I can do it."_

"… _You are so similar to your mother but… I don't think I could ever mistake you for Summer again."_

" _Mom is and always be my hero… but I can't follow her lead. Abyss is making his own path and rising to new heights. I have to find my own and catch up. It's… it's all I can do."_

" _You shouldn't feel forced to do this. You can walk away from this. After you do this… it's a commitment to something beyond anything else you could ever do."_

" _I know… auntie, when you left Yang with dad, left your past behind to follow your own path… have you ever regretted it?"_

" _Of course. But when I think about it there's no place I would rather be. The regret of not choosing a different path will always be there when times are hard. But regret isn't the issue. Are you truly prepared for this?"_

"… _Yes."_

"… _I want you to know… I'm proud of you."_

"… _*sniffle*… We're hugging."_

"…"

"… _Okay… when do we leave?"_

" _After the tournament you'll be taking a week off of school."_

" _Okay."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Ladies and gentlemen! We saved him for last this time and ARE YOU EXCITED?!" The roar of the crowd was becoming more and more familiar now.

"GOOD! As you all know this will be a one versus one string of fights! KO as many as you can from the randomly selected pool of good competitors until you run out of steam and get KO'd yourself! The biggest record so far has been twenty seven competitors by Pyrrha Nikos! A new record at only thirteen! A once in a century prodigy she is!" A roar of agreement answered the announcer.

"But we all have high expectations don't we? Out of a survey from four hundred of you kind fold we discovered that most people expect that our shining star Abyss Mavros is expected to take down a whopping thirty four before he is KO'd! Now are you all having high expectations or what?!" A number of cheers were heard for me. Had I really made that much of an impression? That was better than I expected.

"As always we have a rule elected by the governing board for this tournament for each competitor! And boy are we going to see Mavros here actually break a sweat!" I narrowed my eyes. An elected rule? That explains how they cherry pick their candidates for the finals then.

"Abyss Mavros' rule is… he is not allowed to use any weapons whatsoever!" A huge chorus of gasps and surprise was heard from the audience. "And we have been informed that Abyss Mavros is in possession of a sort of hammerspace. Well using that will be considered cheating! So don't. Using weapons taken from opponents is allowed for the duration of that match whereupon it must be discarded. Now we welcome what will undoubtedly be the most difficult match of the year if not this decade!" Two attendants stripped me as the announcer continued talking.

"That's all of them." I growled. The two backed off then. I stored the knife hidden inside my cloak in my soul space.

"The people's favorite, the so-called strongest champion… Abyss Mavros!" I strided out with a calm look but no smile this time. People shouted encouragement like 'you can do it!' and 'you go mister badass!' and a variety of things. I stood at the center of the arena and waited for something to happen.

"First up is a Valean favorite! Fulvous Gallean!" A guy dressed in orange armor with a sword and shield walked out with confidence and poise. "GO!" the announcer cried.

Fulvous' sword shifted into a SMG and he took aim at me. I suppose that would be a common tactic. I blinked next to him and punched him in the throat. Fulvous choked and gaped at me teleporting in front of him and I tore his SMG from his hands and unloaded into his stomach until his aura was low.

"Amazing! For those of you that don't know our hero's semblance it's one of the main reasons he's unarmed in the first place! He has spatial manipulation! Teleporting! Portals! Hammerspace! And rumors of something else… what he's got will start to be shown right here! Right now! And next up is Bistre Orlean!"

A girl in a brown duster and grey shirt with a spear and arm guard walked out from a gate and winked at me flirtatiously. I deadpanned at her and crouched down briefly and grabbed a rock from the sandy dirt floor.

"Oh now what's this?" the announcer said curiously. I reared back and with the help of prediction I threw the rock as hard as I could. It rocketed across the arena and Bistre looked in surprise at the speed of the rock. She raised her spear to slash it out of the air but missed. The rock slammed into her forehead at high speeds and she yelled and stumbled backwards to rub her forehead with her off hand. Her spear tilted down to almost touch the ground in the process.

"What the?! Did he just?! That was a rock that just hit Bistre if you missed that!" A lot of laughter directed at Bistre was heard. I blinked in front of her and stomped hard on her spear. The tip broke off and Bistre stared in horror at her not defiled weapon. I roundhouse kicked her in the face in the meantime. Her aura was down a lot but she wasn't out. I readied a punch and blinked once more right in front of her. My fist slammed into her sternum and she was knocked back and out.

"I don't think I've ever seen a match as… interesting as that one, you all." the announcer said with a little humor. "Next up…"

I went through thirty seven more people. One after another. However, to avoid pointed fingers I had been using aura to fuel my powers. Not mana. After one blink too many I ran near ten percent and was pulled out. Everyone knew I could have gone farther but at the end of the day… it just got boring for everybody. I suppose they either didn't think I would actually pass or thought my semblance was more dramatic than suddenly appearing in a new place. Weird.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Can we just appreciate that the kid took down thirty nine people?"_

" _Yeah. Thirty nine good tournament fighters. Or supposedly good."_

" _He's making our fighters look bad. This tournament accepts fighters from all over, being fair and all, but this… he's Valean. People see him easily clock almost forty of our fighters, not take a single hit except for a tiny poke because he was bored and daydreaming, when we laud Nikos as a once in a century genius. So either we're lying or he's just incredible. Luckily people are believing the second more but even so people are looking to Vale with higher respect because they brought out this kid, barely a FIRST YEAR!"_

" _Well what can we do? He fought nearly forty bare handed. He'll cream Nikos. It'll be bad rep all around."_

" _You all are forgetting something. Nikos and Mavros haven't gone all out yet. Nikos said it was because they wanted to fight each other. A showdown of prodigies. We can still hope Nikos wins when she goes all out."_

" _Hopefully… can we ban Mavros for future tourneys?"_

" _We can instate a new rule that the champion has to be Mistralian or that the champion has to abstain a year after their win for fairness' sake but people aren't stupid. People don't really care we were unfavorable towards the Mavros kid this time since… well come on. Thirty nine for dust's sake… but we can do some things. Fill his schedule around the time of the tournament or something."_

"… _Let's just ask him to not come back."_

" _What? That's just stupid. You can't just ask somebody to not-"_

" _It'll work."_

" _Wait, you too?"_

" _Does Abyss look like a super sneaky kind of guy? He's incredibly strong and fast and damn skilled too but he's a kid. And on top of that he's bored here. Dust's sake he nearly fell asleep in match thirty four!"_

"… _Fine. We'll… politely ask him to abstain after he wins. Or if we have some sort of divine miracle Nikos will win."_

" _We can only hope."_

[|||| == ||||]

"You're not really giving me a chance here." Pyrrha growled. We were laying at the side of a mountain. I had looked at them from the restaurant tower and thought 'I wonder what the view is like over there?' and as it turned out the view was nice.

"Whatever twenty seven." I teased. Pyrrha huffed.

"Abyss… will I even be a challenge for you?" I considered that.

"That depends…"

"On what?"

"Are we going to be fighting or sparring tomorrow?" Pyrrha looked to me confusedly.

"Neither of us have actually tried." I explained. "So… are we actually going to try?"

"Of course!" Pyrrha looked almost insulted that she wouldn't.

"Then yeah. You'll be a challenge." I smiled. Something nagged at me though.

"Say, Abyss?" Pyrrha asked somewhat timidly.

"Hm?"

"We can still be friends after, right?"

"Obviously."

"If I lose I want you to train me." Pyrrha said passionately. I blinked and looked at her. "I know I'll probably lose." She said confidently. "But obviously I'm going to try my hardest. But next year it'll be different. I'll be stronger. Strong enough to actually fight you."

I looked over to Pyrrha. "… Pyrrha Mistral is boring." I said bluntly. She blinked twice and looked to me for clarification. "Mistral is just… this place has nothing for you. You have your father and that's it. Nothing. Nobody to really fight. Nobody to challenge you. You haven't introduced me to a single one of your friends. It's like this place is sucking the life out of me the longer I stay here. The only thing worth a damn in this whole city is you and your father." Pyrrha was silent.

"Are you suggesting I move to Vale?" She sounded like she was considering that. I growled. Actually growled. This place was so frustrating!

"Hell no." I said, voicing that frustration. "Pyrrha when I was about five or so my parents died. Shot in front of me." Pyrrha looked to me in surprise. Had she learned this already, maybe? "They died in an instant. I had nothing in Vacuo. Nothing at all. So I left. Not with a dust jet or a bullhead or to anywhere. I walked into the desert and travelled. I did nothing but walk through those dunes for about two years. It was horrible." Pyrrha looked confused.

"Pyrrha while I was there I did NOTHING!" I yelled. She looked surprised that I had actually yelled at her. "For two years I barely gained anything! I sat on my ass and did NOTHING! And that's Mistral! Those sands in the arena? They're useless. They're just a desert where nothing ever happens! People fight, leave, and for what? Fame? You've gotten to be a name most everyone in Mistral knows and you don't even like it! So why the hell are you here?!" Pyrrha looked down and frowned.

"… I don't know."

"Then find a reason!" I snapped. "Find one or move to a place where you actually have a purpose! Mistral is nothing but an empty, rotting place for me. Vale is my home! It's where I actually feel complete! I have friends there! Family! But here is absolutely nothing! The only reason either of us is in it to fight each other and we're just edging around it like we're supposed to have some sort of ritual before we fight. NO! If I want something I take it. Pyrrha you don't know half of what I've done but I blackmail teachers, fight at the levels of people who I have no damn right fighting at and know things I have no business whatsoever knowing!"

Pyrrha was silent but that was fine. "Do you know I unlocked my own aura?" Her head snapped to me, her eyes wide. "I had and have one goal. Just one. It's how I unlocked it. I want freedom. I want to go where I want. Meet who I want. Do what I want. And I sure as hell don't want to sit and wait to fight in some tournament for some snobs who think we have to EARN the right to fight each other! Tomorrow I'm leaving to Vale and I hope I never have to spend another day in this empty, useless city unless you decide for some reason to stay!"

"I don't want to be here." Pyrrha said quietly. I whirled to her.

"Do you really? Do you actually dislike this place? It's a birdcage for you. There's a wide open sky but can you actually muster up the courage to walk out?!"

"I want out!" She snapped. "My mother isn't even here half the time! My father did nothing but drink and train me all day until you actually came here! My sister left a long time ago and by dust she was and is a nervous wreck so why am I here?! I ask myself that every time I walk into Sanctum! I learn nothing! I fight nobodies who say 'I want to be a huntress!' 'I want to be the hero!' and they do nothing for it! But me? I actually did something! I worked! And now what?! There's nothing here! Nobody to do anything! But I stay here and do nothing! I don't have a reason!"

"So why haven't you left?!" I roared at her.

"I DON'T-"

"IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE SPINELESS DAMNIT!" I broke at that. Damn her finding the answers herself. She stopped and all that anger seemed to melt away.

"You fight because people tell you to! You stay because why move?! You don't do ANYTHING unless it's right in front of you! You don't have the spine to stand up and LEAVE! And every day I spend in this cursed city is another day I think that I have to do this or that. That I have to go to this fancy tower when I can cook ten times better than they can! That I have to fight a hundred useless pricks one after another just so I can go home and sit on my ass some more! You've been here your entire life! What have you actually done that was your own choice?! That you stuck with because you wanted is so badly that you actually reached out and grabbed it?!"

"I… I…" Pyrrha was at a loss for words. She seemed to be really thinking.

"Pyrrha I lied. After this if you don't find SOMETHING to do I won't talk to you again until you do." She looked at me wide eyed and shocked.

"Find something. Hate me if you have to but by dust if you don't find some semblance of life in that empty shell of yours you dare to call a life! You fight and nothing else. That is nothing! And you've done nothing but show it in every single one of those useless empty fights you fought this week! So FUCKING FIND SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR!" I angrily swept a hand through the air to make a portal and stormed back to my room at the Nikos residence.

After calming down a little bit I regretted only one part of that conversation. I had sworn a lot… That was just being crass. I sat down and meditated, hating that I had nothing else to do to pass the time. I heard Pyrrha trudge back into her room a while later. It occurred to me that I hadn't made a portal for her… whoops. It also occurred to me that steel will's clear mind effect had taken a sort of backseat to the loud and angry force of my emotions… I can't find it in myself to dislike that. That all needed to be said… hopefully my position is somewhat clearer now…

[|||| == ||||]

" _Pyrrha? Whoah! What happened?!"_

" _Abyss got angry. Not fire and brimstone angry but some… very harsh words."_

" _Oh…"_

" _Ruby…"_

" _Um, yeah?"_

" _I'm going to kick your brother's ass."_

" _Uhhhhh… okay?"_


	30. Chapter 30

**AN: Huh… so people actually really liked this… well alright then. I mean yeah I'm a pretty good author (trying not to sound pretentious) but it's nice to have feedback.**

 **Regarding the only arc people didn't like… the icy forest arc. Yeah it was a bit of a mess. I hyped it up a lot and then it just kind of fell flat. I had Icmant planned out but couldn't find a place to drop him. The mimic also just sort of… was there. The only really expected thing in there was the tower and the managuard. So yeah it IS a mess… but it sort of has to happen. It's getting to be seen as more logical soon when more of the managuard gets uncovered but right now for everyone does and should see it as a mess. But that's okay for now.**

 **And the powerleveling… one or two people commented on that being irritating and you're right. It's like… you see a big bomb of levels being dropped on Abyss and you just roll your eyes because obviously it's just getting gratuitous strength to crush people. But that's the thing… do you see Abyss using those stat points?**

 **He's got more than a thousand of those suckers just sitting there so he's really gained nothing from those points and levels because, in his eyes, does he really need the strength? Most of his strength lies with his affinities growing to monstrous heights and his influence through Roman. Sure Ozpin is powerful personally but he fights Salem through his students because personal strength only gets you so far. That's what matters to Abyss. Power through others. Not power through himself because you can only be in one place doing one thing at a time but to change the world you need others. That's the biggest impediment to Abyss' power. He can only be in one place at once. I'm going to go ahead and tell you now that he's never going to go 'shadow clone!' and help everyone. He's just one person. A powerful one but even the queen on a chessboard can be killed by a pawn…**

 **I'm sure a lot of you are getting somewhat bored of this AN by now so I'll wrap this up with one last thing. The lemon. Now, originally I didn't intend to put that in there. But I looked at it closely and thought long and hard about it. Because I'll give you all just a tiny spoiler here. That last sentance of that part, where a part of Abyss' soul stirred? Yeah that's important. Sure most of you just thought 'oh it's his semblance. You're not sneaky.' well yeah but it's the circumstances of Abyss' semblance having a sort of brief emergence that's important. You'll see why later on.**

 **And just a little note, one commenter, Just a random, noted that it made the fic feel more mature. That is EXACTLY what I wanted! People who were thinking that they were just going to see an OC and some numbers thrown around hopefully saw that this was more tha that… though yeah there are some numbers thrown around and I do like my OC.**

 **Thank you all for commenting and I'm happy that despite my crappy spelling and brief formatting issues here and there (I called Amber Raven? Ugh. Yeah my mind does totally wander when I write. Sorry. At least it's readable? I need a beta.) you all are reading it and liking it.**

 **Oh and don't worry a lot over the weapon. I left some content on it with the SCARAB's and Ruby and Abyss talking about it so you won't be too surprised by it but that thing is getting broken out when it's time to try. Not to fight some weak grimm or something.**

 **I'll try to get out a chapter once every week whenever possible. No promises though. Sometimes I just need a break.**

[||||= **LEVEL 30** = ||||]

"Welcome to the final day of the tournament! We have three big fights today! Arslan Atlan versus Pyrrha Nikos and Abyss Mavros versus Kerrigan Granite! Now, you all might not know this but I personally saw our two champions today and they looked PISSED! I'm wondering if we'll get some answers soon…"

The announcer can talk as much as he wants. I used mage sight to find Kerrigan alone in his locker room. I blinked in.

"Kerrigan." He didn't even jump.

"Hello Abyss. Something wrong?" Well I hadn't actually known he was competing for one thing. I think he mentioned it once but I can't recall.

"Good job on getting this far but I'm going to warn you now… Both Pyrrha and I are absolutely pissed. We're not going to hold back on you or Arslan. I'm not going to call it hopeless-" that would be rude, after all "-but don't expect me to pull something with flair and flamboyance. If you walk into that ring I'll crush you as hard as I can. I'm done holding back."

Kerrigan frowned but nodded. "Hard to imagine what got you riled up. I've got no intention of fighting you. That Mistral contact Torchwick referred my family to… I'm here to meet with him. And I did. The tournament is an afterthought. I've no intention to fight you."

I sighed in some slight relief. I really need to fight somebody and I might really hurt Kerrigan. I'm being honest when I say that I won't hold back. I can feel a crackling, sparking feeling in me. I'm not entirely sure what it is.

"And the first match is… Pyrrha Nikos and Arslan Atlan!" I turned around to face the monitor every locker room has. It was already tuned to the arena cameras.

Pyrrha stride out of the arena with a hardened gaze entirely focused on Arslan. Arslan looked vaguely nervous.

"And… Begin!" Pyrrha stepped towards Arslan but instead of running she took off like a bullet. Arslan looked at her in shock and threw her hand out, making a fireball that flew towards Pyrrha somehow. Semblance I suppose.

Pyrrha fell to the ground suddenly and readied her spear. She threw it hard and it hissed as it flew towards Arslan. She swayed quickly out of the way and ran towards Pyrrha.

Obviously Pyrrha had a counter for this. She kept her eyes locked onto Arslan but her spear came hurling back from where she had thrown it. Arslan didn't notice, having locked eyes with Pyrrha's blazing emerald ones. The spear struck her directly in the lower back hard. Two thirds of her aura went away then.

Pyrrha ran towards Arslan once again and Arslan stumbled a little jerkily towards Pyrrha before turning around and grabbing the weapon from the ground and facing Pyrrha once more.

Arslan struck with Pyrrha's spear and Pyrrha deflected it easily and grabbed it with her right hand. She pulled on it and Arslan gave easily. She didn't know how to use a spear so it made some sense. She took the opportunity to strike at Pyrrha. All of the blows were dodged and in one case disrupted by a bash with the edge of Pyrrha's shield.

The monitor couldn't well catch what happened next. Pyrrha's spear blurred and Arslan was knocked back. She readied her semblance again but Pyrrha turned her weapon to a rifle and shot her point blank with a narrowed look.

Arslan's aura reached three percent from the shots and she stepped back quickly, as if in deference. Pyrrha mounted her shield on her back and walked away. She's sick of this tournament too…

"A-and Pyrrha Nikos is the winner!" The crowd applauded and cheered but it was somewhat confused and not very enthusiastic. The match had lasted about a minute. Not exactly dramatic either.

"And now for a battle between two best friends, but out of-" Kerrigan walked out of the gate and eyes landed on him.

"I forfeit!" Kerrigan walked back inside the gate easily to a somewhat stunned audience. I smiled slightly.

"Thanks Kerrigan." He nodded easily.

"It's no issue. I can tell that you're tired of this and have… Something going on."

"We, ahem… we are going to have a short intermission of fifteen minutes. Please stand by." The crowd talked confusedly and somewhat angrily as the announcer left his little box up high.

I blinked back to my locker room just in time. A tall and skinny man walked in looking furious.

"Are you actually going to fight?!" He nearly yelled at me. I narrowed my eyes and thought of Pyrrha.

"Obviously." I said, my voice cold. "Pyrrha will do the same with me. We'll fight and then we'll leave. If you have some questions ask them now after you tell me who you are."

"I'm Sparrow Skiff. I'm the tournament organizer and manager." Sparrow said. "What the hell is happening with you, Nikos, and now Granite?!"

"Yesterday Pyrrha and I talked. I said some things that certainly pissed her off and a lot of which probably got to her. She's angry and we're both sick and tired of waiting to fight each other. With Kerrigan he doesn't really care about the tournament. I met with him and told him that if I fought I wouldn't hold back. So he forfeited." Sparrow still looked pissed.

"… Will your fight with Nikos be dramatic?" He asked simply.

"Very. It will also be very destructive I believe. You may want to bring the hard light forcefield to a maximum or whatever setting constitutes as the best."

Sparrow glared at me a little bit before walking quickly out of the room. Not out of fear or anything but lack of things to ask me.

I waited about six or seven minutes in the locker room before I could hear the mumbling of the crowd grow again. Pretty soon everyone was there. I looked into my soul space at my weapon. My real weapon… I don't need it. Nor do I want it for this fight.

"And now… Each and every one of these seven days has led to this. The two best fighters in the tournament and for the first time in history both of them are first year students! Raise your voices for… Pyrrha Nikos and Abyss Mavros!"

I walked out of my gate and Pyrrha walked out of hers. We immediately locked eyes. The only thing I could tell was that she was utterly furious. Not with me but more like I had unearthed some bottled up frustration that's directed at me.

"Get ready for the greatest fight of this tournament! Now… Fight!"

I blinked a quarter of the way to Pyrrha and did something I've wanted to do for a while. I deactivated my net system.

Even without my trying a light crimson haze coursed around me. Not good enough. I released my aura completely, pushing it to project itself.

With a rush of air my aura swirled around me and expanded. The air around me whipped and cut at the ground. My prime affinity at work.

The crowd let out noises of surprise. They could probably feel my aura if they were close. Pyrrha's eyes widened before narrowing resolutely. She released her own aura, which was brighter than mine, and pushed it hard to fight back against my presence.

My aura was thicker and far larger than hers. Any idiot could tell that. But Pyrrha's was fiercer. Hers roared louder at mine than mine could press on her, though. It was like the reverse of what had happened with Icmant.

I had my fake dustcaster on but even if I hadn't it didn't matter. I could feel the affinities at my fingertips. I pushed them together, knowing they would be more powerful that way. I felt a small panicked struggle but it was consumed to fuel the new affinity.

 ***Ding!* Electrical, plasma, water, wind, and lightning affinities consumed. Two elementals consumed. Innate affinities added to total. Storm affinity formed.**

 **By forming your storm your title has upgraded:**

 **The Storm**

 **-Reduces mana costs of using your storm affinity by 25%**

 **-Increases storm affinity by 100% (After skill modifiers)**

 **-Increases mana capacity and regen by 50%**

 **-Wind, lightning, electricity, plasma, and water affinities are barred from you (in effect regardless of title)**

 **\- Storm of souls semblance formed! (in effect regardless of title)**

My semblance… It was incredible. I understood it like it was second nature just to have it. A trigger at the tips of my fingers.

It was simple in concept. I could spread my aura and mimic and control the properties of a storm without any consumption of aura that scales with my storm affinity. The downside was that I couldn't defend myself with my aura when using it. Mage armor solves that.

By mimic a storm I mean the wind, water, and lightning. Plasma and electricity were bound together as lightning and then further bound to the storm. With training I could probably use it but it would be inefficient. Lightning is better since I can actually control it easily with my affinity.

As for my semblance, which has it's intensity controlled by my storm affinity… Well…

 **Storm: 1870.2 (x64)(240%)= 406,955.52**

If I desired I could turn this whole arena to dust. I could cause a storm with a sneeze. I could control lightning, wind, and water on a whim. And with mana…

That storm became a hurricane. Controlling the three elements became completely effortless.

But I had told everyone that I had a space based semblance… when I get back to patch I'm going to let loose on some land and contract a storm elemental.

Even though I couldn't use my new affinity as I dearly wanted to I could do a few other things.

I smiled and brought a lightning dust crystal from my soul space. Pyrrha's eyes widened and I dissolved the dust into my aura. Lightning suffused my soul but it hardly mattered. I had a whole storm in my soul. I used that instead. I'll blame it on the lightning dust and a special technique.

Lightning from my storm affinity backed by the other components of the storm streaked through the air. The more powerful aura was focused on Pyrrha. Her control over her aura strained to defend herself as lightning struck at her soul. She couldn't fight lightning. Only endure it, which she did admirably.

I began walking towards Pyrrha and, almost like I was talking to an elemental, I pushed my emotions through my soul. I pushed my frustration at Mistral, my anger at Pyrrha's lack of willpower, and my disdain for the tournament in general.

A faint pulse of different aura swept through my haze of aura and when it hit Pyrrha she stiffened and looked to me. I met her gaze and kept walking.

All Pyrrha could do was defend herself through her slightly dwindling aura as I approached her.

I stood maybe five feet from her when I stopped. Without any pomp I drew all my affinity into myself and held my aura within me. Pyrrha relaxed in relief but immediately fell into a fighting stance.

I rolled my eyes and warped the space between us to expand immensely. A whole mile was between us from what was once a few feet. Air funneled straight in.

Pyrrha looked at the new space in confusion before she moved slightly to get out of the way. I snapped the space back in place and a shockwave slammed through the air and into her. I sidestepped the shockwave at my side of the warp and blinked next to her.

"I don't like actual fighting." I said easily. "I prefer dust and my semblance. You just saw the results of both. If anything making my own style was a hobby for me. I don't care for getting up close at any rate." Pyrrha glared at me.

"I will, however, make an exception here." I said neutrally. "You made a style that's actually deadly. Use it."

Pyrrha gritted her teeth and leapt at me. A sweeping strike shot a blazing arc of fire at me. I tanked it on my aura. A stab at me released a bolt of true lightning. I teleported out of the way. She found me easily and pivoted to me. More bolts were sent my way.

"Impressive." I said honestly. "Now… Time to fight." I dashed at Pyrrha and drew my sword, dishing out several quick slashes. Pyrrha blocked them with her shield and parried one with her xiphos.

I saw Pyrrha's shield arm tense and some mechanism on it click. I was actually caught off guard as she shield bashed and wind dust released a shockwave of her own.

I landed cleanly on my feet and looked up. Instinctual flared but I wasn't fast enough. Without a moment to even comprehend what happened a huge pain struck into my face. I was knocked back further and I hissed and blocked out the pain.

I gingerly touched my face… Scorched… she predicted where and how I would land and shot a lightning bolt from her weapon at that time.

This is why she is interesting. Why she's worth the effort I'm putting into her.

A laugh bubbled up in me and I let it loose. Pyrrha's eyes narrowed as she was tense behind her shield.

"That was a clean hit. I didn't expect that." I smiled as I looked at my aura. Sixteen thousand AP gone in one hit. Almost a sixth of my aura gone.

"Good job." I said. Then I blinked behind her. I let loose with a flurry of slashes and hacks at her. I landed one good hit at the middle of her back and she whirled around and matched my speed perfectly.

I grinned and got more serious. I was fighting at my full speed including enhancing myself with aural reinforcement and yet she was keeping up, albeit barely. Good. That she can keep up with me speaks of mountains of talent and dedication. However, I want to fight her. That means bring out stops. I can't go to the point of throwing hurricanes her way but this little clash of steel isn't enough to satisfy me. Or her, probably.

I reached for my semblance and felt the wonderful sensation of it activating. It was like a release switch for a tension that I didn't know I had. My aura rumbled and I felt it spread around me again, a thin haze of dark red settling over everything. I felt the urge to throw the whole of my affinity into it but that wouldn't do. I took out an air crystal from my inventory and suffused it with my aura. It helped very little with my gale but I just needed it to trick people anyways.

A thick, strong, and very fast wind flew around me, pushing Pyrrha back and buffeting her with wind. If her feet left the ground she went flying. She wizened up and used her polarity to stick to the ground while we continued to trade blows.

Typically I made an opening and she would retreat a little throwing an arc of fire or a bash of air to hold me back. I would blink up to her and we repeated the process. Pyrrha might sometimes see an opening of mine or something of that sort but with my storm blowing her so harshly it was all she could do to keep up her current pace. Good thing since I was relying on mage armor.

"Why haven't you made a railgun yet?!" I yelled over the storm. Pyrrha got distracted by that thought but I let her think on it for a moment rather than attack her. I want her at her full potential.

Pyrrha frowned and I took a pair of brass knuckles out of my inventory. I pressed them to a little ball and crushed them to a ball and tossed it to Pyrrha. My storm didn't blow them away, it being my will that it didn't.

She focused on the knuckles intensely but nothing happened. "Make a narrow cone of weak magnetic force at the tip and extremely strong force at the end." I instructed. "Make an incredibly repulsive force at the beginning as a hammer of sorts to the rail gun." I know that's something along the lines of how a railgun works. Pyrrha concentrated and her eyes widened as she seemingly figured it out.

A look towards me and a huge boom was all I recieved before a huge amount of damage was done to my aura. Eighty thousand AP damage. I was at about a fifth of my normal aura. Very faintly I could hear an announcement. "Abyss Mavros is at twenty percent! Pyrrha Nikos wins!" I rolled my eyes.

Pyrrha didn't look surprised when I blinked at her but she was surprise by how I attacked. I expanded the space and, with my newfound control over the elements of the storm, shoved the whole thing in the expanded space. Not even a little bit out of place. My affinity was too high to do otherwise. But that's not quite enough. So I made more dense storm clouds. More lightning. I shoved it in the very compressed storm until I couldn't hold any more.

The audience stared at us in shock. The storm had given them vague glances at us and the clashing of weapons and certainly the boom but to see the shape we were in… I had a first degree burn over the left side of my face. There was also a large bruise on my chest. Pyrrha looked beaten and bloodied with numerous bruises on her arms and a few on her face.

Pyrrha looked at the budding storm/shockwave with shock. "Shit." She said.

"Well spoken." I agreed. Then I released the storm. The space snapped down as the storm strained out. It was compressed to the size of a thimble and it exploded outwards in a surge of true lightning, water stuffed clouds, and winds with speeds I could only guess at. It was likely around two hundred or even three hundred miles per hour. I don't truly know.

Pyrrha slammed down to one knee and braced her shield up to cover her face. I know that she used her polarity to push herself down to the ground where she wouldn't be thrown around.

Sadly Pyrrha's tactic was flawed. Lightning slammed into her shield and coursed through the metal and into her arms. She gritted her teeth and bore through it but her aura took a lot of damage. At ten percent roughly. Lower than even I.

Needless to say that I was completely unaffected by my storm. My affinity for the storm made it feel like the wind was a gentle caress, the water a cooling humidity, and the lightning a light tickling. I ran towards Pyrrha, stunned and blinded as she was, and drew my shortsword. I activated something I rarely use, my electrical augmentation, and felt my bio-electricity amplify and course through me towards the metal. But obviously I wasn't going to half-ass it. I commanded the lightning to my sword and it obeyed, the electricity going into and staying in the sword.

I leaped and fell down onto Pyrrha. My sword slammed through her shield in a stab assisted by my fall and body weight and the electricity freely flowed through the shield into her.

Pyrrha gasped and would likely have screamed but it was soundless. She collapsed with her aura shattered. I let the storm dissipate in a few seconds and the audience looked on in shock.

I kneeled down and put her weapons, Milo and Akouo, I recall, in my soul space. I then picked up Pyrrha princess style and made a portal to walk through to her room. I left her on her bed and smiled.

For that entire fight I hadn't used a single point of mana. If I had she would be crushed… but would that really have been a victory? Just crushing her to a paste with my overwhelming power? I don't think so.

This is what I need. People who can do what damn nearly is impossible. Despite being weaker than me by bounds in her semblance and using dust, despite never living to her full potential yet, and despite her flaws she fought me at my full physical and aural strength… and nearly won. If she had seriously trained in making a railgun… well that would kill me if I fought with my current restrictions.

 **Pyrrha Nikos**

 **Titles:**

 **Level – 189**

 **HP – 8774/9321.5**

 **AP – 0/25,440**

 **MP - [Locked]**

 **STR - 217 (+415%)= 1117.55**

 **VIT - 181 (+415%)= 932.15**

 **DEX - 233 (+415%)= 1199.95**

 **INT - 186 (+0%)= 186**

 **WIS - 212 (+0%)= 212**

 **LUK - 16 (+0%)= 16**

 **Semblance: Polarity - Control over magnetism. Use consumes aura.**

 **Perks:**

 **Legacy of champions - Your legacy leaves you destined for greatness. Your ancestors shaped their lives to conquer giants, change seas, and prove themselves a champion of the people.**

 **-2x physical stats when facing an enemy considered far stronger than you and 100+ levels above you.**

 **-Combat skills level 5x faster. Boost increased to 25x faster when facing an enemy considered far stronger than you and 100+ levels above you.**

 **-+200% Aura capacity**

 **Bio: Pyrrha Nikos is an acclaimed child-prodigy hailing from Leonidas Nikos and Helena Nikos. She was trained to be a huntress from a young age, it being expected of her, and excelled at it.**

 **She has always had minor confidence issues and a weak willpower to make choices for herself except when faced with a steep challenge. Her parents have noticed the first and attempted to negate it by constantly challenging her.**

 **Recently she entered the Mistral regional tournament on the urgings of her parents and to investigate a boy who had caught her attention, Abyss Mavros. She now has extremely complex conflicting feelings on multiple matters.**

Interesting… But that still leaves an open question here. Cinder. She was on Ozpin's level. Beyond, even, since she killed him and became the fall maiden. So… How? How did she lose? Did Cinder just outclassed her that much?...

That's actually probable. Ozpin is mainly powerful because of his magic and skill. Take away the magic somehow and beat his skill with physique or superior skill somehow though I doubt being more skillful that him is possible without a cheat like the gamer… But Cinder had the powers of the fall maiden. She had magic and he didn't.

It's possible I suppose for Cinder to have canceled out Ozpin's magic with some sort of rare artifact of some sort and thus take away his greatest strength… and with Pyrrha Cinder had magic and was actively using it. I would guess for that to be how she killed Pyrrha.

Of course Cinder could be just THAT powerful. Dust knows Ashaya was powerful with that boon of hers. Getting shot point blank with Summer's gun and still she was able to kill her.

With all that I have to worry about already what's one more thing to look after?

[|||| == ||||]

" _I see you're up."_

" _Ugh… Dad?"_

" _Yeah. Can you see okay?"_

" _I feel like I got tossed into a workout for ten hours straight, my muscles got ADHD, and I got beat up."_

" _The muscle thing is from your nervous system getting fried by Abyss. You'll heal after a few days with your aura but you'll be jittery and sore for a while. The workout thing is from pushing your limits more than normal and you were beat up. Well nothing permanently hurt you."_

" _Oh…"_

" _Abyss is going to go see if his friend Kerrigan wants to be teleported back or take it the normal way. Raven and Ruby left a note for Abyss and snuck off somewhere with their luggage and I've been here with you for the past six hours… Oh, and Abyss made some casserole to one-up me. Want some?"_

" _Thank you but I'll have some later… um, dad? I… I don't want to be in Mistral anymore."_

" _Huh?"_

" _I talked yesterday with Abyss and we… Spoke. There's nothing for me in Mistral worth staying for. I think I want to travel."_

" _I… you… I see. Sort of. You've run out of challenges?"_

" _I haven't had a real challenge in a while dad. Sanctum is… boring now. Maybe I'm young but I know that there's more to the world than Mistral with more to offer than this place."_

" _You know what? I CAN understand that. Your mother's the same way."_

" _She is?"_

" _She loves new people. The feeling of seeing a new sight. A new challenge every day."_

" _That's what I want."_

" _Yeah I can see that… I was given the prize money for the tournament. Four hundred fifty thousand lien. Being a gladiator pays off more than well. Use the money to travel."_

" _R-really?!"_

" _Did you think I'd object?"_

" _Uhm… yes?"_

" _I would if you were traveling alone."_

" _Abyss isn't coming with me."_

" _Yeah. I am."_

" _What?!"_

" _It wasn't obvious?"_

" _No! Where did this come from?!"_

" _Years of your mother being absent most of the year and the lack of… Well anything to do in Mistral."_

" _Oh…"_

" _Uh huh. I haven't been traveling in a long time. I don't really care to do so anymore. But I do want to raise you right and you're completely right that Mistral… Mistral doesn't have much for our family. The only thing here is the old compound."_

" _... So when can we leave?"_

" _As soon as you can walk, you know where we're going, and we know we won't go broke in the next few years. After that… Well my pseudo retirement is pretty boring anyways. Maybe your mother will catch up to us."_

[|||| == ||||]

"You're sure you don't want a portal back?" I asked. Kerrigan nodded.

"I've still got a few things left to do here. I'll be back to school the day after tomorrow. It's the latest we can get there anyways."

"Well I'll see you back there soon. I'm getting out of Mistral today. I'll see you soon." Kerrigan nodded.

"Goodbye Abyss. And to say good job at the tournament would be an understatement." I smiled and made a portal back to the Nikos residence's living room. My eyes narrowed a little at note on the counter. I glanced at the name to make sure it was for me and saw that it was. Now what's this about?

 _Abyss,_

 _Ruby and I are going to Atlas to do a few things. The special project. It's rather private and sensitive so unless it's an emergency don't contact us. We'll be back within a week. Perhaps a month at most._

 _I've called Roman and he's doing fine. Vale's quiet at the moment and the harvest has just started for the sap. Sales are above our already high expectations. Whatever it is you're working on as a new good would be helpful to have. Additionally, Roman is concerned about lack of variety. We're currently dependant on red bloom sap, which people might lose interest in as it becomes more of a common good than a luxury. Other companies whose profit margins have been damaged by our sales have tried undercutting us by taking sap from forever fall and selling it but the attempts have failed due to being too small scale or something or other._

 _Sales from the sap being used to make grimm traps due to it's attractive properties is being contained to private sales to the huntsman academies so as to avoid selling to people of ill repute._

 _We'll see you in a while. The tribe knows I'll be gone as well. You're in charge with Vernal as third in command with Moss watching her to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid._

 _-Raven_

Oh? Well alright then. I didn't expect them to be gone but that's fine… it might be a bit lonely though. I'll be busy settling in Poledina though. Come to think of it…

I recalled what number Ironwood called to reach Poledina and ran it through my scroll.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Poledina. It's occurred to me that I don't actually know what you might need as a lab. Could you make a list for when I arrive?"

"Oh! Sure. You don't have a lab set up already?"

"I do." I lied. I should get on Roman about that. It shouldn't be hard to find a lab sort of setting. "But we don't have any specialty equipment or other staff besides you. Do you need assistants, for example?"

"That would be nice to have. We've an employee doing a trial run to see if this sort of thing is for him and he's sort of like an intern but an assistant would be quite useful. I'd also need a supercomputer or a high powered one at least. A server for storing data as well and… well a workshop with whatever sort of tools you can get. I'll make a list."

I frowned. "A supercomputer might be a hard catch for us. We can get several high powered ones easily but an honest supercomputer would be hard. Do you just need processing power or is it something more specific?"

"Processing power is the only real factor. I can actually make a supercomputer. It would only take a week or at most three so long as I have the right materials. Oh, and plenty of wires and such."

"Make a list please. I can get you the server and whatever it is you need but you might have to make a supercomputer yourself. We can provide whatever else you may need but a high profile good with a market as discreet as those would be very difficult. We have neither the right connections for it or the reputation to properly contract the creation of one."

"Oh I know like thirty guys with a free one." He said flippantly. I face palmed. Was Poledina really just going to throw me at a guy who would just sell a supercomputer? "Hold on. I've got their numbers on my scroll… Uh, can you write this down?"

"Of course. I've got a pen and paper ready." I lied. I didn't need one, my memory being photographic with selective memory.

'Oh good! Well here are the numbers." Poledina rattled off about ten numbers and I memorized them all easily.

"Alright. I'll get one for you within the week." I assured him.

"I'll need a few days to settle into the lab and make sure everything is there. Don't worry about having it ready to go and everything."

A sly thought began forming in my head. "Poledina are any of those sellers in Vale?"

"Why yes. About four of them. Vale has a good market for tech though Atlas' is better. In Vacuo it's nearly nonexistent. Mistral is… alright. Not good but they can work sometimes."

"Good. Do you mind if it takes about a month to get the computer or is it a critical necessity?"

"Nah I can write code on my laptop fine. I just can't use it without a supercomputer. I can also focus on Penny's chassis and wiring just fine for a while. It's best to have a supercomputer though so I can get started on transferring the code and run a few things that'll take a while to process."

"Got it. You'll definitely have it within a month then." I confirmed. SubI is going to be thrilled.

"Uh sure. I'll get a list of smaller stuff for you. Get me a bunch of metals of all kinds too please."

"I've got plenty. Don't worry about those. I'll see you… probably sometime today actually. I'm getting to the general as soon as I meet a friend and track him down."

"Oh good. I'll see you then." I hung up on Poledina then. I really like the guy. He's agreeable and smart. I had worried that he would be some sort of eccentric but maybe that only applies to Penny… Having a robot call you daddy is pretty weird. Oh well. He could be making a wife. That would be pretty weird.

I sighed and made an email to Roman to get a private workshop with a variety of lab setting tools primed towards robotics and computers and instructed for some profits to be set aside for the purchase of a supercomputer from a seller I have in contact. I made sure to underline that price was not an issue and sent a few warnings to make sure he got the message. Since profits are good it should be fine.

I frowned and it occurred to me that money was not infinite… I should really make the purity trees now. White blossoms, I'll call them. I've had successes but not constant successes like when I grew the red blossom trees from cut off roots. Perhaps… could an origin affinity make the growth concrete? I was making a lifeform from nothing after all. Hm…

I mentally sighed and got to forming a corruption affinity with my parallels. It shouldn't take long. The email was altered to inform Roman that a new crop was in the makings and I turned off my scroll.

I listened for a moment and heard Pyrrha upstairs sleeping… how late was it? A glance to the clock showed it was only ten o'clock… I suppose I really tired her out, huh? I'll visit her tomorrow then. After I fetch Poledina.

A flash of mage sight and I had a portal right into a hotel room where Ironwood was. His hand snapped to his gun at the noise but he brought it away when he saw the portal I stepped through.

"Ready to go?" I asked.

"The flight's in twenty minutes. I was going to get a hold of you through your company. Mind if we trade scroll numbers if we need to contact each other?" I shrugged and drew out a business card I had had Roman make. It was just my symbol on one side in detail and my number on the other. Ironwood raised an eyebrow on the picture.

"Rather detailed for an emblem."

"That's the more detailed one. I have a simpler one on my armor and weapons." He frowned.

"Why isn't there one on the gun?"

"I only recently got the gun. As for why I brought it into the tournament… well I don't really care if my emblem's on the gun or not. Nobody is going to see it, after all." He turned back to his bed, where his suitcase lay mostly packed without asking anything else.

"After your arrival at blacksite A9 you're expected to make your own way back. Essentially we're tossing you into the wilderness."

"That's fine. I'm just going to teleport anyways." Ironwood rolled his eyes still facing away from me.

"That's expected. You're to stay within eight feet of me at all times. Further distance will consider you as a hostile and you will be fired upon. I'd say no weapons allowed on site but that hammerspace of yours negates the purpose of it. But don't carry a weapon publicly or you will once again be counted as a hostile. Don't touch anything, don't look too closely at anything, and don't DO anything unless permitted specifically be me. I don't want you so much as taking a bite of a muffin without the action being approved by me. That you're not drugged to unconsciousness and blindfolded before being transported this site is a mercy, considering the levels of secrecy around project P.E.N.N.Y."

"Mm hm." I hummed dismissively. "Now, I'll wait for you until it's time to leave. Just get me when you're done. I've got nothing left to do here in Mistral."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Don't look at me like that."_

" …"

" _I'm not a workaholic. I'm just… breaking out of a habit of constantly working."_

 _*Sigh*_

" _Well what was I supposed to do?! I barely had time to smoke my cigars with the bosslady's training sessions, the paperwork of managing a criminal empire, and managing a company that has half of remnant's businesses wanting in on my monopoly!"_

 _*Eye roll*_

" _It's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, okay? But now… well now I'm looking back at when I used to lay back and read a book and think I used to be some sort of youngster filled with energy just for reading a dust-damned book. I could have been using that time for making contacts or training or… well anything!"_

"…"

" _Yes you're a hip young person. That you find the time for ice cream is… hey hold on… you don't do anything do you? I mean, sure you show up and kick some ass but I do all the paperwork… don't look away! Why am I chained to a desk?"_

 _*stare*_

" _I don't enjoy being chained to a desk!"_

 _*Smirk*_

" _I don't enjoy being chained up at all! Don't turn the conversation to innuendos! Now give me a good reason why you can't help-"_

 _*Ding*_

" _Oh for dust's sake what now?… A… supercomputer? And a lab? Boss finds the weirdest stuff. Well Fenrir can handle that. But seriously, your idleness is a bit of a problem."_

" _?"_

" _Hm… yeah you suck at managing stuff. Stabbing stuff is unneeded… what else can you do?"_

 _*Schtich*_

" _Stabbing more stuff isn't an additional skill on a job description, Neo."_

 _*Shrug* *Schtick*_

" _Yeah I figured. Go find Frodo or the seven dwarves and frolic or something. I have nothing for you to do unless you want to stab some trees with the faunus guys in Patch, the most boring place on remnant."_

 _*Glare*_

" _Oh come on. That was pretty good… yeah I see that little grin. I won't use it again but that's been sitting in me all day. Just had to get it out. Now I'm off to try to learn how to be idle again… I should probably figure out everything about these science guys… damnit. I'm going to be a workaholic forever at this rate."_

[|||| == ||||]

"So you're Poledina." I stated. The man was… tall. Really, really tall. Not big though. He was like slenderman if slenderman was a redhead with a penchant for flowing lab coats. There was also an automatic handgun in his jacket.

"Yes! And you're Abyss?" Poledina's eyes glinted. It was… uncomfortable. He kind of loomed over me. The man had to be at least seven feet tall. Being about four nine, about average for my age, he leaned over a little to make eye contact comfortably. I had to look pretty high to see him. Is it strange that just now I realized how odd it is for a grown man to be working under me?

"Yes." I stated.

"Oh good! I've got my research all stored over there." Poledina pointed to some duffel bags. Three of them.

"That's it?" I asked in some faint surprise.

"One is filled to the brim with flashdrives." Poledina explained. "Seriously, to the brim. All of it's Penny's future coding to be debugged and such. Subroutines and automatic processes to be directly coded to run and keep Penny functional. The second holds miniature versions of our current models of Penny's parts. Technically making a body to work was easy. It's holding and creating a soul that's the hard part. And the final one has my personal belongings. Clothes, textbooks, toiletries, and the like."

"And the satchel?" I asked.

"My laptop, a few journals, pens and a few mechanical pencils, ammo for my handgun, and a few papers that I want safe." I flashed mage sight and yeah that's all that's there. I guess it makes sense for Poledina to be armed. The handgun isn't mechashift but it can change to fire lasers. Well I think that's what the battery and focusing crystal in the gun is for.

"Hm. Fine then." I took out the handgun I had runed to become basically a railgun and had to keep myself from rolling my eyes at Ironwood's intensely appraising look towards it. "Do you want proof that this is the one?" I asked him. He nodded.

I flashed mage sight and made a portal to the firing range, which was conveniently empty. I walked through easily and Ironwood scowled an followed. Poledina stayed. Presumably to wait for us. "Are you capable of creating a portal into here whenever you want now?" He growled.

"I don't care to do so but yes." I said honestly. He closed his eyes and collected himself. Ironwood seems to have more anger issues than in the show. Or maybe my constantly being a total pain in the ass for him has something to do with his problems keeping a cool head.

"Damnit." He muttered. I lost a little control and actually rolled my eyes and loaded one of my personal bullets into the gun. I aimed downrange and fired easily. The round boomed and tore through the paper target set up downrange easily and Ironwood nodded approvingly.

I had to keep back an evil cackle as I took some motion mana and scratched a small line through the runes in the barrel. Motion mana leaked out and the runes failed, becoming inert. Not that Ironwood could tell. And the gun wasn't even that big of a deal with the bullets being the ones actually infused with mana. Not that anybody would ever believe that. Bullets didn't make themselves spontaneously go faster, after all. Velocity was entirely dependant upon the dust in the bullet and the gun itself. And how could a measly bullet go to triple the speed it had before while looking exactly the same? Thank you Ironwood for being conventional.

Even if Ironwood somehow figured out that I had runed the gun or used magic at all what was he going to do? He was with Ozpin's group. It was something like an agreement between them to not reveal magic publicly, given that Ironwood hadn't already. Neither had the other headmasters.

In other words, I traded Ironwood a gun he couldn't use in exchange for Poledina. I almost feel bad.

"Now I believe our business is done?" I asked Ironwood. He looked away in thought for a moment as he tucked the gun into his jacket.

"Yes." He said simply. "I'll direct Poledina's documents and contract to your uncle." I shrugged and made a portal back to Poledina.

"Ready to go?" I asked him. He nodded. "Good. Let's go then." I made a portal to the outskirts of Vale. Roman had rented a warehouse that was stocked with lab equipment and 'some sciencey robotics things', as Roman stated it. A link showed a list from the seller and it had about three quarters of what Poledina asked for. I plan on handing Poledina a note to my bank account under Mystic Mavros with a budget and letting him go wild.

I was actually impressed with his speed. It had only been maybe sixteen hours with the long flight since I had messaged him. I expected it to take a few days. I pulled up my scroll and looked at the message.

"The lab has an apartment right next to it. You have the warehouse with a lab and some equipment already stocked in a few boxes. You'll have to unpack it and sort it yourself but I would guess you would do so already. As for an assistant we're still looking. If you have anyone you want specifically that's hireable send Mahagony a message. Here's his scroll number." I showed Poledina the message with the address and Roman's number displayed.

Poledina took my scroll and copied the address into a sort of notepad app and his number into speed dial. "Got it. Thank you, Abyss. It will be a pleasure working with your family's company." I nodded.

"Take care." I didn't make a portal and instead blinked into the apartments. I got barely a moment of peace to savor the feeling of being back home.

"Oi. Abyss." I frowned at the voice. Vernal.

"Yes?"

"Raven put you in charge if anything happens. Oh, and welcome back asshole."

Love you too Vernal… I really hope Raven comes back soon.

[|||| == ||||]

" _I'm looking for Dianthus Null."_

" _You've found her. What do you want?"_

" _I don't want anything. My niece needs to become a maiden. I'm sorry."_

" _WHAT?! No! What the?! You're a maiden too! Why would you-"_

 _*Schtick*_

" _O… Why… you bitch…"_

" _Ruby. Come here."_

"… _So you're the niece then?"_

" _I… yeah. I'm sorry auntie stabbed you but… well there are worse ways to die… right?"_

" _Fuck you."_

" _Sorry… really I am…"_

" _Ruby. Quit stalling. I know you hate this but you said it yourself. This is the only way. One day you will likely have to do worse."_

" _Y-yeah… I'm sorry. *sniff*"_

"… _I hope this power is the death of you you little-"_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	31. Chapter 31

**AN: Oh my god… OH MY GOD! To Kavalan D'Alton and Xantheman123 I want to get on my hands and knees with a thank you because dear lord you gave me exactly what I was looking for! EXACTLY IT! Those two questioned me, provided accurate and REALLY USEFUL criticism that I can totally use if not already in use!**

 **So the only real issues they looked towards were that Abyss' weird philosophy that's a pretty big deal in this story is strange and we don't really know it's origins. Oh believe me… that is coming SOON! Oh so soon! … You know what? I feel a little giddy so I'll give a tiny spoiler. Can you think of a knight that has possibly the strongest morals in the series? Say, isn't he going to Beacon? And I would guess that someone who knows the future might be there too. *Malicious cackling of author-sama in the background***

 **Oh and as for how Abyss came to be more accepting with Ruby as his sister. Well… It's not a big secret or anything. It just eventually happened and after using her being his sister as a cover he sort of just gave in. As for why he refused her in the first place… Hehehe.**

 **Anyways, I can't express how happy I am to not only receive negative comments from them but the positives too.**

 **I'm absolutely THRILLED that people like the lore! It's my favorite part of RWBY and that I expand on it is a main goal of the story! And the magic system to me is just a part of the lore, really. I know I messed up on the status screens a bit here and there (I think I gave Abyss two titles once? And I know I messed up a few stats calculations a few times) but I hope that you all don't meticulously go over the screens every time. I mean they're almost entirely right. Sometimes I just round up instead of down here or there. The title thing was a one-time thing I think.**

 **And the OCs were people I try hard to develop as actual characters most of the time. Bella, Cesium, Kerrigan, and Ocean being prime examples of the OCs I'm trying really hard to smoothly integrate into the story. That people liked them as much as the typical characters brought a tear to my eye.**

 **I was really inspired after receiving the review so I went ahead and made this. Not really in one sitting but most of it. I know that people have drastically changed such as Ruby and Raven to a point and I want to deepen that and really help to show the world around Abyss more (and yeah the name is a little edgy but believe me when I say that it's more symbolism than me being an edgy teenager). Thank you so much for giving me your opinions. It really means a lot to me.**

 **Oh, and obviously I'll be continuing the story. I'm fired up after that little stroke of anger and the mass upload. Actually I think the only negative reviews were a guy/girl complaining about the lemon and accusing me of having a fetish for... something. I don't know what you would call that lemon. I'm not going to be posting a lot of those though. As Abyss is thirteen (more like fourteen right now) he isn't exactly a ladies man. I tagged the story for family and adventure anyways. I don't know if I should keep the lemon actually. It seems like more trouble than it's worth right now. I dunno. If you have a strong (or even moderately powerful) opinion on it let me know or PM me, would you?**

 **This chapter will be focused on a few different people and is pretty different than normal.I hope this helps you to understand the other characters a little bit more and what's to come. Focusing on Abyss all the time is unhealthy for the story in my opinion. It's why I have those little dialogue scenes. This is like that but in chapter form.**

[||||= **LEVEL 31** = ||||]

[|| = **!BONUS LEVEL!** = ||]

 **A happy fairy tale**

I never really realized it but my sister's never called me a hero. I was always 'little bro' or something of the sort. Now they do. Violet slipped and mentioned how heroic I was when I beat Coral for the first time. Not that I was supposed to hear. I was, uhm, standing nearby at the time.

Mom winced at the word 'heroic' and glanced over to me standing by the doorframe. I glanced away and left. We never spoke about it.

I remember, with piercing accuracy, the Villain's words to me.

" _You should cry, young man, but you'll probably rejoice. You get to be a hero."_

And I did cry… in joy. When I had everything revealed from magic to Ozpin to the family semblance I went into my room and cried in joy. I could be a hero! I could be strong and save people and become a huntsman and just be useful!

And then I saw Lavender. The only sister of mine that's younger than me. She was… Traumatized. Therapy sessions became a once a week thing, she, Azure, and Verdant were put into therapy (though Vere was out within a month) and as for me I had training every day beyond what I thought was reasonable.

But the training wasn't a big deal. I nearly liked the aching of my muscles. That meant I was getting stronger, apparently, according to mom.

With home life… Settled in a way, I tried to figure out just what I really wanted to do. Everyone was in full agreement of one thing at least. I couldn't do nothing. No way.

The Villain had showed that we couldn't be weak but mom was strong. She was a huntress on par with the top ten percent. She was one of the best and still had years to get even better. But while we were strong as a family and people we were weak on our own.

So… We had a small choice to make. Go to Salem and pledge our loyalty, which was hardly an option, go to Ozpin and pledge our loyalty, which everybody hated the idea of, or… Find someone else.

Ozpin and Salem weren't the only powers apparently. The Villain was just one example of the monstrously strong people in this world. One of the people I was quickly becoming. So… We don't like either option at all so what to do?

Mom reached out through some old friends and found a few people. A cult of magician's in Mantle. The city, that is, but they were pretty weak. Stronger than us by far - strong enough to level valleys - but not strong enough.

There was an old dragon, a sentient one in an isle of Mistral, that offered sanctuary if we offered our mana to it. Mom was really torn but declined it.

However, Coral accepted an offer behind her back and left to train with the dragon and do… Something. Mom swore at her worse than I've ever heard but in the end Coral left to serve under the dragon. I just hope she comes back when she's supposed to.

So we took the only option left. We aligned ourselves with Ozpin. I go to beacon and my family is safe. That's it. No pledging our souls or blood ritual with the blood of lambs. I just go to beacon.

What's the downside again?

Mom relented and the wizard agreed to defend my family and that was that. He sent a box with a sheet of metal inscribed in a pattern of some sort. It allows him to teleport here. He tested it and mom talked to him in private.

But with all that done there was nothing left to do. So I kept training my hardest in my semblance, the Villain's ability, and anything and everything in fighting I could.

But maybe I've trained enough to just be a hero a little bit.

"Jaune… Do you want to come with me on my next mission?" I looked at Crimson in surprise but I felt a massive grin form on my face. I know I'm doing that thing where my eyes shine, as my sisters say, but who even cares.

Crimson looked a bit awkward asking me. Her red hair, the only redhead in the Arc family, shined a little in the dim sunlight as it often did but the uncertainty in her dark grey eyes seemed to overshadow it. I suppose most people don't ask fifteen year olds to go on missions with them. But anyways…

"Yes!"

[|||| == ||||]

"Be careful with the ursas. They're the most dangerous thing you should be facing." Crimson looked at me sternly from her horse. I patiently waited for her to finish talking. The trials of being the youngest…

"You packed everything? Toothbrush, clothes, motion sickness pills, sword polish-?"

"Blanc lumiere doesn't need sword polish or a whetstone or anything like that." I huffed. Lumiere is awesome! It's going to be the next Crocea mors I just know it!" Crimson smiled just a little bit but turned away to hide it from me.

"Uh huh. But… Did you pack your safety blankie?" my eyes widened a little. Uh oh… It's going to be a hard night's sleep for this budding hero.

Crimson laughed at me and reached into the left pocket of her horse. She pulled out a somewhat heavy blanket with knights and defeated beowolves on it. I grabbed it and stuffed it into my pack, which was mounted on the right side of my horse's saddle.

"Hail the conquering hero." Crimson said with the playful snark only an older sister can use. Believe me I've tried to do the same. I apparently only have a special kind of annoying that they find adorable in small doses.

"Well I'll, uh, conquer… The grimm!" I stumbled over the words coming up with a decent comeback. Crimson snorted and reached into the saddlebag again, pulling out a pillow of the same design as my blanket.

"What Grimm? The ones in your dreams?" she tossed the pillow ag me and I caught it as I started sulking. My greatest defense. The guilt trip.

Immediately the guilt trip started working. I really played it up and shot some sad glances put towards the foliage on my right. "Yeah." I said glumly. "I guess I won't really be THAT good against gr-"

"Oh fine! You'll be fine against Grimm!" Crimson looked annoyedly at me and muttered a few colorful words about me and my so-called puppy eyes. "Good Grimm, Jaune, you'll probably defend half the village easily." I smiled at my victory, albeit a minor one, and looked proudly forward.

"So… What's the mission?" Crimson turned her head slowly towards me with that dangerous look on her face.

"Why dear little brother where were you when I gave you the briefing to the mission? Oh wait! Right in from of me!"

"I mean… Uh…" I tried to come up with something to say that would help but I would never claim to be socially competent so I just tried my best. My best puppy eyes that is.

Crimson ignored my futile attempt at a guilt trip and her eyes narrowed like a predator getting ready to attack. Luckily I was on a horse and it's not like sis is going to jump out of the saddle to tickle me to the ground or anything. Azure would but not Crimson.

Big sis growled in irritation and I inwardly cheered at my safety. "We're going to Damas, which is just two days of travel away. Dad goes there for trading sometimes. They have a hardware store where Ansel doesn't. They also have a gunsmith that can work basic mechashifts."

"The reason we're going to Damas is because the Grimm presence has been steadily increasing lately. But… We have a trump card." Crimson had my full attention and she knew it.

"But I suppose it doesn't really matter if you know or not until we get there." She said dismissively. Of course…

"I'll make breakfast." I relented. I mean I was going to anyways but it was the triumph of it that sis wanted. She grew a small grin as I gave her what she wanted.

"Of course. Now, we have red bloom sap. Also called a few other things like red sap but people have been getting more specific recently for reasons you don't need to bother about. Red bloom sap attracts Grimm. We refined it every which way so that it's Grimm attracting effects are REALLY potent. I mean like a sixty mile radius potent. But we're not stupid enough to bring that many grimm in so we have a twenty and forty mile sap too. We'll be using the twenty then the forty then the sixty in three consecutive days. The town will be free of Grimm for years after that."

"Whoa…" I said with wide eyes. I didn't know you could attract Grimm…"

"And that's why you need field experience." Crimson said with some smugness. "And aura attracts them too but it's not as powerful as the sap. Well unless they have absurdly huge aura like you do but even with you I doubt you could reach over twenty miles being generous."

"Yeah…" I muttered. "But why does the sap attract Grimm?"

"I have no idea." Crimson said bluntly. "But they like to eat it. They take it from the trees in forever fall if there's a particularly sappy tree."

"Hm...alright then." I shrugged it off. I don't much care about the why's of it. If it works it works. After all, Dad makes a living off plants and he barely knows a thing about the intricacies of it. As he always said 'you don't have to be a scientist to farm.' so I don't have to know why Grimm like red sap. Just that they do.

"Now come on. You can fill me in on what's been going on since I left last time."

"You didn't talk to mom about it?"

"I figured you'd want something to talk about."

"Oh! Well Azure destroyed Verdant's clothes. Or at least cut the strap on one of them. She wants her to hurry up and ask Shamrock for a date."

"… Has Azure done this sort of stuff a lot?"

"Azure destroying stuff or getting V to ask her current love interest on a date?"

"Getting involved in romance stuff in general."

"Azure's just trying to encourage V to seriously date a guy, her being late twenty two and all. Sure Azure's nineteen but she's dating apparently. I don't get the big deal about it but to Azure it apparently is."

"Hm… And what else has been going on?"

[|||| == ||||]

"You're up to par at least." Crimson said, frowning down on him. I didn't resepond but continued gasping for breath. "But mom's clearly been slacking." Crimson continued.

"Your swordsplay is fine for maybe a third year at Signal, which is when combat training actually begins, but it should be better. Maybe halfway through my fourth year good. Oh, and I was called a prodigy in my time at beacon so I'm not saying you're weak… just not as strong as you probably should be. And your stamina is okay but you're a bit less strong than you should be. And your agility is horrendous. How are you so slow? Did mom just not break out the whip for you like she did for the rest of us?"

"She… she has a whip?" I panted out.

"Yeah. She would whip our butts, and I mean that literally, if we were too slow. It was good training."

"That's… sadistic!"

Crimson grinned. "No. I'm sadistic. I was actually Miss Goodwich's favorite. Since it was her first year teaching I helped her out and got a position as assistant teacher. She's really taken after my teaching style."

"I remember she used to use a sort of wand for her semblance, telekinesis, and then she changed to a riding crop to scare her students and make an example of the bad ones. I'm really proud of her. I mean, I'm technically younger than her but I taught her to teach."

"I can't wait." I was a little less gasping now but I felt dead on my… well I'm not on my feet. I'm on my face in the dirt. This feels a lot like my first days training with mom.

"OH! That reminds me! In about a year and a few months I'm getting a job at beacon! I was actually offered right out of the gate since I knew about magic and such and I'm an Arc but I declined because that's basically pledging allegiance to Ozpin. But now that the family's allied with Ozpin I can teach at a huntsman school without consequences!"

"I'm taking Glyn's job as a combat instructor actually. Glynda leads enough other things from management to paperwork that Ozpin is supposed to do to… well keeping beacon running at all. It was a madhouse before she joined. She's a fantastic secretary but calling her that is just a little debasing so she's being promoted to a manager of staff as well as vice-headmistress. I mean she basically had it already but you can't have two combat instructors, of course."

I imagined being taught like this for my four years at beacon… "Oh dust just…. Just end me."

"Of course not." Crimson smiled down on me and crouched down closer to me. "Now I'll give you a minute to rest as I quiz you on what mom's teaching you. So what's the oldest kingdom in remnant and how did it deal with the grimm?"

I racked my brain…. Uh, uhm… oh! "Mistral!"

"Wrong!" She smiled happily at me. "That's another round then! Oh, and it's Mantle but it fell a while ago. About seventy-ish years. It's a little sketchy when exactly since contact with Mantle was scarce with no radios and such properly installed but it IS technically the oldest. Mistral is a very close second but they go through dynasties every once and a while and the one right now is relatively new at one hundred and sixty-something years old. Mantle, however, still lives on in Atlas in a way. Officially at least since the Atlesian revolution instituted a change in capital and reforms but not culture or population."

"Ugh." I acknowledged her, face still on the ground.

"Now for the next round of sparring! You know what… my summer is actually free this year. I think I'll devote it to making you suck a little less. I doubt mom's had any time to catch up with her quota and V and Coral need to catch up on huntress work. They mentioned that teaching you made them fall behind a little bit. Aren't I generous?"

If possible my face sunk further into the ground to escape my natural predator. Sisters. Crimson giggled at me - this is not a joke. It's a cry for help - and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me up to my feet. I tried my puppy eyes again.

"Nope." And with that my last hope is demolished. That usually works. Maybe I'm getting too old for that to work effectively…

I'm so screwed. Crimson smiled as she grabbed Lumiere and handed it to me.

[|||| == ||||]

"Ready, Jaune?" Crimson said over the radio.

"Ready." I said. I had some snipers at the wall behind me and the region of the wall supposedly to be less intensely attacked by grimm. Sis would dump the refined sap on the ground since apparently that's enough to attract the grimm and I would defend the wall with the militia watching my back. She only had two gunners watching her. I had nine.

The other two sides of the wall were covered by a nice older married couple named Plum and Geo. Crimson had apparently met them before and trusted them to hold their walls with four gunners each, which was apparently a bit generous but they didn't mind the extras.

For two hours I fended off beowolves of all sorts, two taijutsus, a leotine, and even a deathstalker.

Not that I actually fought the deathstalker. I just ran around and kept it's attention on me while a guy with a mortar rained a shell of incendiary and explosive dust onto it.

The leotine I just kept facing the wall until someone put a bullet in it's face and got lucky enough to put an assault rifle bullet into it's eyes.

I killed the first taijitsu on my own through my semblance and pumping aura into it and the second by channeling lightning dust into Lumiere and paralysing it's black head so that the wall could shoot it.

I think I could have handled plenty more if I used my gift, which is what everyone calls the Villain's markings that make me faster and stronger than anyone else even if I don't use aura (but I can toggle them off luckily), but with aura it gets way better.

With my semblance amplifying my aura's property to enhance me I get stronger and faster too but it compounds with the gift. Instead of being twice as strong with just one or the other I get four times stronger with both of them activated. That's the basics of it anyways. There's the trump card but that's… complicated.

Anyways, I had done that… all of that… by myself. All three waves of grimm from all over gone. I heard people laughing and breaking out beer while a few who had drawn short straws pick off any stragglers… while smoking a cigar of chewing tobacco of course.

In all the laughing and cheering for the first time it wasn't the words of others that made me think I was a hero. For the very first time I was certain of it down to my bones. I'm a hero.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Learning to fly**

I remember the first time I met my nephew. Summer's funeral. I had known Summer had a little protege, of course, since I keep an eye on everyone through my portals except for Ozpin. Just small ones that I peer through to look at people.

Abyss had stood there for three hours just staring at Summer's grave with Ruby. For a time I wondered how he could stay so long.

Ozpin had stayed so long as was polite and respectful. He was numb to it.

Taiyang had stayed only until Yang had to go to bed. His own way of moving on I suppose. He loved Summer but he was always a little more pragmatic than he seemed. So he would focus on Yang to heal… But he left Ruby. That bodes badly.

Qrow was the last to leave. I know there was a time he cared for Summer as more than a friend but he still left. Summer was an inspiration to him. His closest friend and a person to strive for. But he left. The job was more important to him than waiting on a dead woman.

As for why I stayed… Summer was my ONLY friend. She was strong though she stayed with the wizard. I respect her despite her affiliation with him. Besides, I want to meet her little protege.

So I met him. And he seemed, while strong and smart for his age, still a child. So we talked and I… Let my emotions slip. A rare sight for me. He gave me books for magic. I knew that I might harm my tribe by practicing or myself if I do something improperly.

Time passed and I slowly started to see Abyss for what he was. A monster. Not in spirit but in strength.

He couldn't fight nearly as well as I but he was so much more versatile. Teleportation especially would make him able to strike at me. And you can't block a tornado.

More importantly were his morals. They were the strongest I have seen. He firmly believed in pessimism, family, strength, and freedom to the point that without trying he tainted the morals of others.

I myself was affected, even. Not so much as my new niece since we believed in nearly the same thing but not an unnoticeable change.

I learned some more of what my new nephew had done in the past. Vacuo's deserts. Traveling with Summer. The slaughter of the gangs. And finally his deal with the wizard in his tower. I didn't begrudge him any of it. I had done worse.

His reasoning for the gangs is hidden, however. I don't know why he did such a thing though I trust he had at least one good one… Ah, there's his influence again on me. I would have inspected him more critically had he not gained my trust.

When he brought to me the option of moving to Vale I didn't even think. I rejected it. But then he explained himself and I saw his method of attack. My tribe. They did not fear Ozpin as they ought. They respected his power but they did not know it.

Abyss promised that I had protection from the wizard but that was never an issue. The problem with Ozpin was being controlled by him. But I realized that Abyss was offering something he did not have himself. Freedom.

With a larger presence in Vale Ozpin could not remove me and to control me he would have to control Abyss' new organization. Abyss would control Vale to a larger degree than Ozpin ever could.

It was funny to me that Abyss was growing his influence as Ozpin had. Through others. Perhaps it is hereditary among wizards.

Whatever happens my monstrous nephew is my nephew. One of the family. I will stand by him. The same goes for my niece, obviously. My tribe is simply an extention of myself. They will survive so long as I am alive.

[|||| == ||||]

I walked down the abundance of cliffs that define Mistral. Ruby followed nervously behind me. Her hand strayed towards Rose Eclipse more than I had trained it to.

She was nervous. Not exactly surprising with all the shady characters nearby. I glared a few away and let my hand stray towards my sword. The street was more empty after that.

I stopped when we arrived at the information brokers house. We had to find out where Dianthus Null, the winter maiden, was. Roman had found out that this broker knew.

I walked inside somewhat casually and scanned the room as soon as I entered. Two people were nearby. Not threats. One was an amateur huntsman with a basic mechashift and the other a civilian that thought a revolver would help him. Both easily dealt with.

The two turned towards me and seemed to both realize that I was a far bigger threat than they could handle. They trained their eyes down to the ground and I suppressed a smirk.

Without trouble I walked through the door. I don't really care if I burn a bridge here or not. The broker will answer my questions one way or another.

"-east." I caught the tail's end of a conversation. The broker presumably. He was young in a dull green jacket and black pants. Next to him was an older man in plain brown clothing.

"Thank you sir." The older man said. He didn't notice me, having entered silently. I like to keep the muffle part of Abyss' runes on at times like these. It's intimidating.

The older man turned towards the door, which I stood in front of, and stumbled backwards with a small gasp. The broker turned quickly and stiffened at me and avoided eye contact. So he knew who I was then. To be expected.

I walked towards the broker with Ruby behind me. "Out." I commanded the older man. He left quickly but not without a glance at my ass. Yes I know I'm beautiful you don't have to tell me.

"R-Raven Branwen." The broker's calm face was betrayed by his stutter.

"Dianthus Null's location. Now." As soon as I finished his eyes widened.

"No… Please no… what do you want with her?" I looked at the man intently.

"That's none of your business." The man seemed to have more backbone than I expected.

"She's paid for my protection. I'll not sell my clients." I frowned slightly in surprise and not the good kind. That may be a problem.

"You are an information broker. So give us the information. If price is an issue then name one." His teeth clenched.

"What do you want with her. I won't answer until you tell me." I narrowed my eyes at him slightly.

In a blur of movement to him I appeared with my sword pointing through one of the gaps in his ribcage towards his heart with my hand gripping his throat. His aura was broken in a single strike. I could feel his heartbeat pound under my hand.

"… I want her location so my niece can meet her." Technically true but not the whole truth at all. The broker's eyes flicked to Ruby for a brief second. "Yes she is my niece."

"Ni… Nights edge. An inn at Mantle in the wilderness." I released the man and he gasped in air.

"Good doing business with you." I said. It occurred to me that the broker might inform Dianthus of my hunt for her. That won't do.

Without a word I put my foot on his throat and sheathed my sword. A stomp left him gasping and choking and a harsher kick left him unconscious. Before I unsheathed my sword I glanced to Ruby, who was looking sadly at the me. I made eye contact and we had a moment of nothing occurring.

With a frustrated sigh I took my hand away and glared at the broker. Old habits die hard… I'm getting soft. "If he wakes up and warns her it's your fault." I mutter. Ruby smiles in relief at me. Summer's smile. Damnit…

[|||| == ||||]

The flight to Mantle and the rush to the inn was harsh. I stole a civilian ATV, wich was akin to a car with treads, them being more common in Mantle due to the seasonal snowstorms, and we took turns driving.

Ruby was almost good enough to drive so long as I kept an eye open. We were offroad since it was quicker. The land in-between Zero, a small city south-west of Atlas that we landed in, and the inn was tundra with few obstacles. If it wasn't so flat I doubt I would have allowed Ruby to drive. That said I took the last hour of driving on a main road.

After the fourteen hour flight as well as eight hours of driving took us to the inn, where we disembarked. I entered alone while Ruby refuelled.

Inside was… rather nice for a rural inn. It was clean and somewhat brightly colored in reds and greys with scattered darker colors with some yellows. Nobody was there but a receptionist, however.

"Excuse me." I said calmly. The receptionist looked up in a little surprise at me. "I'm looking for my sister, Dianthus. Do you know where she went?"

"Oh of course. She's a good friend of mine, being a regular." The receptionist smiled brightly. It was fake, obviously. A regular, hm? This will be tougher than I imagined. "Do you have an ID? We're required to have one before giving out personal information." No you're not.

"Of course." I resisted rolling my eyes and considered how to do this. Bribery? It may work. She doesn't seem the dirty sort though. And with Dianthus being a regular it would be somewhat difficult as well.

Persuasion… no. Taiyang was the only one ever good at that. Intimidation may work but I can't risk leaving her conscious but she would alert the authorities if still awake. So perhaps…

I took out my old huntress ID. I still keep it since it's not slated to expire for two more years, though it wouldn't pass an electronic scan. This will do. I'll simply lie and let this make her trust me. "I suppose this will convince you that her life is in sufficient danger?"

The receptionist's eyes widened in alarm at the ID. "What's happened this time?! Is it gnags? Grimm? Classified?"

"Ironwood needs her. Emergency mission. I'm sorry but I can't tell you why." I lied smoothly. It sometimes disgusts me how easily people accept aid from huntsmen and take their word for the truth. Ozpin truly ran a magnificent campaign to idolise huntsmen.

"Of course!" But then something seemed to hit the woman. "… Wait… Is she actually your sister?"

I made a show of hesitating and made something up. She was a maiden so I'll show some facts to help. "It's complicated. Cousins specifically but we had a… falling out. She had to leave to wander a long time ago and left some… anyways, it's very personal." Quick thinking is the greatest skill Summer ever taught me. I doubt she intended for it to be used this way though.

The receptionist blinked. She frowned a little more and opened her mouth but the sound of the door opening alerted us both. I turned my head and saw Ruby with her cape around her and an innocent expression on her face. Her eyes were widened and her weapons hidden. What the-?

"M-mommy? Is auntie Dia here?" Ruby trembled a little. With the cold outside and her rather light clothing it was likely due to that but it did make her appear weaker. I glanced towards the receptionist and saw her look adoringly at Ruby. Why… oh. Sympathy. I always forget about it.

"Auntie…" The receptionist mumbled. She looked to me and my thoughts stalled for a second before I faked embarrassment.

"My apologies. She gets rather curious."

"Oh no! It's fine!" The smile was genuine this time and she hastily tried to gesture something but failed. "Dia is curious too. Um… she left north about ten hours ago. She stops at Winterhold every once and awhile. It's this little village that makes these amazing sweets."

The receptionist glanced towards Ruby, who perked up a little at the mention of sweets. "Just follow the main road and get off at the G2 highway."

"Thank you." I forced a smile, one of the few things I was poor at faking no matter the practice, and the receptionist took it in stride.

"Of course!" She smiled at Ruby. "Good luck finding your auntie! SHe's a wonderful person!" Ruby's smile almost faltered at that but she kept it up.

"Thank you miss! I'll give her a hug for you!" Is that?… Did my heart just melt a small bit? Oh. No. It was just a little amusement. Safe.

The receptionist smiled brilliantly and hummed happily as she got to some work. I made my way out with Ruby. She happily hopped, nearly skipped in fact, towards the ATV until we were out of sight, where her shoulders fell and a somewhat guilty and haunted expression went across her face. I was silent for a moment.

"Thank you." I said. Ruby looked to me in surprise and a small tired smile went across her face. She leaned over and wrapped me in a hug, which I didn't respond to as usual. Ruby stayed there for a moment and collected herself, which I allowed. She let out a shuddering breath and sat fully back into her seat.

"Alright… Winterhold."

[|||| == ||||]

"I'm looking for Dianthus Null." I said to the woman in front of me. Even with my very light ability to detect mana I could find her. She had a large amount of mana and it wasn't hidden like mine or Abyss'. She had very light purple hair to the extent to seeming almost white in thinner places. She wore green and dark purple, giving her a flowery appearance. Her bearing, however, defied her whole theme. She had a warrior's eyes and a rugged demeanor that betrayed her rather slender frame.

"You've found her. What do you want?" Dianthus bristled and looked suspiciously towards me with some steel in her tone.

"I don't want anything." I said smoothly. "My niece wants to become a maiden." Dianthus stiffened and her hand crept towards her waist's back on waht seemed like reflex, where her weapon, an automatic three barreled shotgun, lay. "I'm sorry." I said insincerely. I disliked such work as this but I would do it. Ruby had insisted that I offer her some courtesy. For a split second Dianthus's eyes became unfocused before looking in surprise at me.

"WHAT?! No! What the?! You're a maiden too! Why would you-" Ah so that's what she sensed. I don't care. With a practiced laido strike too swift to see even for myself my sword struck two times in under a quarter of a second. The first two depleted her aura and the second broke it. With a twirl I stepped forwards and stabbed her far into her lung.

"O… Why… you bitch…" Dianthus coughed some blood onto me and I quickly extracted my blade and pushed her down onto the snow, where she tried to lay with some dignity and a hatred in her eyes. She was fierce I'll give her that. Just not composed.

"Ruby come here." I ordered, my eyes still on Dianthus. Ruby appeared in a soft flurry of red and black rose petals. She looked at Dianthus sadly, which changed her expression to surprise but then to a far greater hatred directed entirely towards me. She calmed herself slightly and looked to Ruby.

"So you're the niece then." Ruby winced and her lip quivered. She swallowed her nervousness and nodded.

"I… yeah. I'm sorry auntie stabbed you but… well there are worse ways to die… right?" Ruby looked uncertainly towards me and as though I knew… I don't actually. Mostly out of not caring. Dianthus' eyes flickered with that hatred. Her powers were manifesting slightly out of raw emotion despite her dying soul. She looked towards Ruby.

"Fuck you." Dianthus coughed a few times and bloodied the snow beside her.

"Sorry… really I am…" Ruby's voice shuddered and she looked down at the end. Dianthus clenched her teeth to bear the pain of dying so slowly better. Enough of this. I see no need in letting an enemy die in pain when we can simply kill her.

"Ruby. Quit stalling. I know you hate this but you said it yourself. This is the only way. One day you will likely have to do worse." Ruby winced again but looked up somewhat.

"Y-yeah… I'm sorry…" Ruby sniffed and looked up at Dianthus. I don't know what happened to her. Perhaps she found some inner spirit to fuel her but her eyes gained that hardness every warrior needs and she drew rose eclipse as a scythe. Dianthus looked at the weapon acceptingly. She looked directly into Ruby's eyes unflinchingly. Whether out of mercy or hatred infecting her views she clenched her fist and gritted her teeth hard.

"… I hope this power is the death of you you little-" Ruby's scythe slammed downwards onto Dianthus. She never finished her final words as she was cleaved in half messily from the head to her right shoulder. Rose eclipse's red blade was stained in a fairer shade as the blood glistened in the dying sunlight. I looked at my own blade. It was clean. I had flicked the blood off by habit.

Ruby stared in horror at Dianthus' corpse in the snow and her hands slipped from her scythe. I watched in some faint sadness as the powers of a maiden were suffused into her. Her soul was merged with something primal. A raw collection of affinity and power with only the most basic sense of an aura that went dormant as soon as it was absorbed. It took only a few seconds.

Ruby's knees shook and she walked towards Dianthus in short and uncertain steps. I frowned but it didn't seem like she was without purpose. I stared sadly as she gripped Dianthus in a hug and gripped her like she was drowning.

As Ruby's eyes grew less focused I gently grabbed her and pulled her away. She didn't resist and I sat her in the snow and folded rose eclipse and put it in our inventory. I then made a portal to her room and picked her up bridal style.

I made sure she didn't see my mana as it reached out to Dianthus' corpse and attuned itself to fire. It burnt her to cinders in moments with ease since I poured a large amount of mana into it.

With a weary sigh I walked away from a stunned Vernal and entered Ruby's room. People almost made to talk to me or Ruby but instantly backed away with harrowed expressions when they saw the look on Ruby's face. The look of someone who had their first kill and needed time.

I stripped Ruby and tucked her in. With a frown I used a spell I had picked up from Abyss, wind whisper. It's so difficult to sense using wind that I hardly ever used it except for cutting and pushing attacks but now it began to show worth. I used it on whoever was listening in the common room.

"Get Ruby atrawberry and cherry hot chocolate, cookies, milk, and strawberries. Now." I ordered. Excessive perhaps but this was important.

I briefly sensed a few people get up and walk to the kitchen. Good.

I stayed with Ruby for an hour before Abyss came.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Proud and honest hearts**

I hate standing backwards. Everything about me is designed to move forwards. From my weapon, made to let me charge in and kick ass while I punch faces in, to my hobbies. Socializing to me meant getting right in people's faces, teasing them, and making them my friend. As with most things I don't really know how I do it exactly but I do know that I can.

I have good reason to hate people standing back. My mom did it when I was a baby and continues to stand back out of my life. Dad did it to my sister, taking a big step back and letting her live her life with the guy I almost saw as my brother though he would never admit to it. And worst of all I did it to my sister too.

But that's just the thing I hate third most. The thing I hate second most is when I do stand back. That just makes it worse. And it's SO much worse! It's not something I can joke about or just get over because I did that! It's my responsibility to fix it - step up and be the bigger woman! But… every time I try I step back again. And I did try once. To apologise to my sister. Not pump myself up to talk to her for real but to wimp out at the last moment since I've done that more times than I can count but to actually go up to her and talk to her. I still remember how that went.

"Hey, um… Sis?" I stood as awkwardly as possible behind my sister when she was at her locker. She snapped straight up and didn't move after I called her sis. That's bad. "Do you want to spend christmas together?" I forced out the words and barely made it.

"Uhm… sorry but I'm spending the christmas with my brother. I won't have any free time. Sorry!" She shut her locker and walked away somewhat quickly and I just stood there. I blinked three times and looked at her with an open mouth.

Did she-?! Did that-?!… well then.

And that was that. I put myself out there and I just got… yup. Me, the great Yang Xiao-long, social butterfly, just got - I dunno - dismissed? So I just sort of… stopped. I haven't had a chance yet since christmas break just started. So what can I do?

In the end I consider my relationship with my sister to be my greatest failure. My dad doesn't. He sees not being there for Summer to be his greatest failure. I wonder if Abyss feels the same way. He was as close to her as Qrow and then… she died. Four years of a team and more time after and she gets so close to one kid?! I mean I know now that mom was too open at times and did some, um, uncouth things with him but he was like a son to her! And a brother to me and Ruby!

But I think of almost equal failure to me is less known. My relationship with Abyss. I mean it when I say he was like the brother I never really had. But when it comes to it I let him go too didn't I? When mom died in front of us he was the one who had to comfort Ruby. When we lived in the SAME DAMN HOUSE where was I?! I was off socializing!

I forced out of dad that once and only once did Abyss ever reach out and try to bring dad back into the fold. He made dinner for Qrow and, upon his suggestion, made one for Dad and uncle Qrow too. And what did dad do? He left and got so drunk he spent the night at the bar! And worse, he did something utterly unforgivable to me. He just… signed Ruby off to him. Abyss is Ruby's legal guardian and he doesn't even know it! I slapped my father that day and he actually accepted it. At least he knew he had done something wrong.

With Abyss I see him every day. EVERY. DAY. But I know for a fact that he just… doesn't care about me. He doesn't even notice a difference in combat class between me and the other kids. He just kicks ass and that's that.

So I worked harder. I demanded training from dad and uncle whenever he wasn't busy with sis. I got so strong I held a firm place at second tied to that damned Kerrigan guy. He's… friends with Abyss.

Still even with all my effort he doesn't so much as notice me! No matter how hard I try I can't even get his attention! I'm practically disowned in his eyes. Not family by any stretch of the word and I HATE IT!

I failed Ruby when I wasn't there for her. I was grieving too but that doesn't mean anything. I failed Abyss by not pulling him back in to be family. I still fail him since I see Ruby as more important as far as family goes. Worst of all, though, I failed myself. I'm the oldest! I should be the one protecting my family! I should be the one that draws everyone together! But I'm just… there! Ith the background stewing away doing nothing!

I think it was certain in every way that I took after dad. More than standing back. More than myself standing back at every turn. More than everything else…

I hate myself. But that won't stop me from being there when sis needs me. If she ever does. One day I swear to dust, grimm, and whatever happens that I'll be there for my siblings when they need me. One day I'll be there. One day I'll have my family back to how it was before. One day…

And now I'm standing back again with that 'one day' ursa shit… dammit. One day. I swear it.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Fake gold**

Being poor is a complicated topic for me. On one hand it made me who I am. It did build my character and I know for a fact that I gained something from it. A hardness that so many others lack.

But being poor took away a lot of opportunities too. There were things I wish I could have had. A childhood mostly. Playing in fields of grass and stuff while dad gets a beer and lays in the sun while mom reads a book. The peaceful, happy childhood.

Instead of that taste of peace and comfort I spent my days running from drunks, gangsters, and pedophiles. I stole for cash and food and a hint of comfort and searched through garbage for fun.

Not that I was in horrible straits. I have my mom and dad with me. I got food every night and had a home with a bed to sleep in. I even got an education. But that doesn't mean I was allowed to slack off on work or frolic or anything.

More than anything I found that two things helped me to live in peace. My tongue and my wit.

My tongue brought me to great places. If I needed something I could charm anybody to help me get it. From help me out to the more common use. Taking a fall for me.

I won't lie. I'm a manipulator and a cheat. But I'm in no way a natural manipulator. I learned from scratch. My first time manipulating others was a failure. My second a failure. My third a failure. And sooner or later I just learned a little. And then I went back to failure… but I got a little better each time. And now I can proudly call myself good at manipulating others. My most useful and definitely most earned skill.

I worked harder than most and climbed up on the backs of others I turned to me with my tongue. Ure they were bitter with my using them as I had but I wasn't too affected by them. My wit found me opportunities where others saw an obstacle. I eventually found myself training to be better. I wanted to get to the point where nobody could touch me. I found myself at Signal academy. I toughed through those three years of schooling and found myself at signal high.

"Subterfuge and investigation?… alright. I suppose I'll see where this goes."

[|||| == ||||]

The one with the grey hair and light blue eyes was sharkbait. He had a weak will so I could likely use him to help myself. The larger kid with the grey theme and hard complexion is more stern. I should avoid him unless I figure out more about him. The girl was quiet and observant. She was sneaky too. I had some trouble noticing her until I really looked. My eyes seemed to slide over her. A semblance, perhaps?

I leaned back in surprise as a tall young woman in dark clothes strode towards the front of the room from behind us. The door was creaky and we would hear so how the hell did she get there?!

The woman turned around and looked like she was about to speak when she stopped and looked confused. "Why are you all looking so confused?"

… Oh. She's messing with us. The lady stride up towards the front of the room and turned around with a little twirl. So this is the teacher, Bella Opaque.

"Okay. You weirdos suck at being perceptive so let's just get to it. Attendance! Um… Janice Beige."

"Here." I called with fake happiness. It was my 'friendly' mask. I've had a lot of practice in it. It makes me so much easier to befriend. "Just call me Cesium, my middle name. There's like eight different Jamies this year."

Miss Opaque smiled and made eye contact. Oh she looks really honest. I like this class. "Got it. Kerrigan Granite."

Attendance passed easily. The big guy was named Kerrigan and the sneaky one Ocean.

"Abyss Mavros."

"Here." I jolted upwards in my seat as suddenly a kid was in the rafters. What the hell?! I had checked those!

Miss Opaque's eyes flashed dangerously and her hand was suddenly in the air with a handheld crossbow. A bolt silently darted up towards the kid and I instinctively readied myself to move and catch him.

But in a blur of movement the kid moved and the bolt was in in his hand. He casually flicked his hand and the crossbow bolt was caught by miss Opaque.

"What are you doing up there?!" the kid didn't actually smile but you could sort of… Feel his amusement in the air. "I was behind you when you were playing militia up here. Killing off the farmer was a bad move. You should have moved the blacksmith to reinforce the dust miner."

Miss Opaque didn't seem to register that and acted without really thinking. J had done it enough to know how to spot it myself. "Shut up and get to your seat." She grumbled. The kid smirked and dropped down without a care in the world.

It wasn't long before my prediction held true. The kid, Aero, that was uncertain left when Miss Opaque gave us a speech about how we were going to be actually doing practical lessons and we would actually deceive people. Good.

It's not that big of a shock. Weapon planning and crafting made their in N weapons, survival really did do survival exercises, and so on. Of course we would do actual exercises.

I was sure I wanted this class but I dont want the responsibility Miss Opaque emphasized. From a normal teacher it would mean nothing but from a teacher who teaches people to be what amounts to spies and assassins? I took it with weight and some of it slipped through.

"First, though, we have to get something down. Organization. Every month you will receive an objective. To learn all you can about a person, place, or thing and compile a report or abduct somebody or something like that." Fascinating. So it's like a class leader. I can use that. The boy in black, Abyss, seems to be skilled in stealth, and judging by his controlled face he's deceptive in person as well. I would put it between us two.

"The person who gives out these objectives is called the spymaster. It's normally me but if I see talent I assign the role to somebody." It might just be me but did I see a twinkle in her eye? "And that somebody this year is going to be Abyss!" Of course.

The boy in black kept on his calm smile and took it all in stride. He would do well as spymaster. However, I'd like that position myself. A look revealed Kerrigan as desiring the position as well. He had the greed in his eyes.

We immediately got started on stealth and persuasion exercises. I showed mastery of persuasion and fast talking my way around people though I didn't do well on the stealthier side of things.

Ocean, the sneaky girl, was fantastic at all things stealth related. Kerrigan, the big guy, was good at anticipation things and pretty good at being persuasive. He had an aptitude for thinking fast and flexibly. I didn't even consider a few of the things he did.

"Alright. That's all we have for today." Miss Opa- I mean Bella (she told us to call her Bella) said to wrap up the session. "Abyss, you got objectives for everybody?" with a pleased Cheshire smile Abyss nodded.

"They're in your pockets." I hid my surprise and felt my pocket. A note… Fuck me how did he do that? I scanned the note easily.

 _C - you are to acquire a key card to the forgery and deliver it to the subI room without being caught. I recommend that you convince an insider to do this. Acquire a contact for next time to receive a reward._

I didn't hide my smirk at the objective and Abyss' drama. I think I see it now. He's asserting himself. This is a message to us in more than just words on paper. He's better than we know and to bring his displeasure upon us would be… Bad.

I've learned when to not anger somebody. Either they have a benefactor willing to crush their enemies or they can do it themselves. Abyss is the second one. If Kerrigan can replete him I'll fight for it but…

A glance at Kerrigan showed a hint of respect and fear in his eyes. So he's not going for the throne either. I'll have to take it myself then. I'll continue observing Abyss and see if he has any weaknesses.

Class dismissed." Bella said with a wide grin. She looked to Abyss with something that made me reconsider my attempt on Abyss' position. Respect. If he has Bella's favor… Well being able to squash me and call on her to squash me would be the end of my ambitions. Though I doubt Bella will get directly involved in our internal affairs.

"This is looking to be the most entertaining class I've ever seen." she said with a smirk.

[|||| == ||||]

"You covered your tracks?" I nodded, still deep in thought. My father had been promoted today. It was because of the bonus objective in the assignment. I'm certain. The timing is too good and the circumstances too suspicious.

"I wore a mask, concealing clothes, all plain black, changed how I acted and spoke, and even got some fake contacts. I made my eyes blue. Melody doesn't even know my name. All she has is that she'll be contacted if you or I need something."

Ah, Melody. A more vain person you would be hard pressed to find. I had marked her as potentially useful the moment I saw her. Painted nails, light mascara on the eyes, and the latest fashion all while glaring venomously at another similar girl.

It hadn't taken much to draw her to the side of evil. That is to say, steal a key card. A whisper in her ear and some sweet words and manipulations to make her trust me and she was mine. I spent the day spreading rumors about one Tracy girl and a guy named Cash dating, thus Tracy cheating on her boyfriend, and done.

"And is she safe from any trails?" I considered that for a moment… She had worn a mask and… maybe the gossip could get us? No. The trail's too long and twisted. I spread those rumors two days ago. I've already heard a few alternate versions of my fake events spreading.

We spent a few minutes talking over the job making sure we had everything safe and sound for the two of us. When we were finished, though…

"I love this class." I said honestly. It's really the only class I enjoy in Signal. It's the only one I really learn things. The independence is nice too.

"I do too." Abyss said casually. "Say, you're pretty good at this whole making contacts thing. How'd you get good at it?"

A good question… Honesty has worked so far… It's rare that I don't have anything to hide.

Abyss hummed thoughtfully. "A good skill to have. Friends in places get you far." I kept my face clear. This sounds like a proposition.

"It depends on having the right friends and being able to reach those places though."

"I'm glad I have a long reach." He said with a hint of smugness. I looked at him consideringly for a moment. It hit me suddenly and I couldn't stop it from showing. He knew people. Big people.

How big they would have to get my father to a higher position in hours was… Scary. Sure my father is a smalltime worker but he's not insignificant.

I think… I think I would like to be that person. The person high up that can make things move. Abyss knows these people. I wonder…

"And friends in some high places." I said absently. Abyss hummed nonchalantly again.

Out of the corner of my eye I looked at Abyss again. Really looked at him. He was strong. Powerful. Connected. And probably in the favors of somebody big with weight to throw around. He's going places.

I know an opportunity when I see one. Abyss is a big one. An up and comer with nobody to really rely on. Maybe I can get up to the top with him.

I can only imagine the places he'll go. Senator? Probably not. Perhaps somebody like the next Glynda Goodwitch? Closer but… No.

He's going to be the next Ozpin. I think I'll be on his staff. Even Ozpin has his staff members.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Black Rook**

"EMBER GET THE HELL DOWN HERE!" Nope nope nope nope nope.

"GET DOWN FROM THAT CHANDELIER RIGHT NOW!" OH NO NO NO NO NO!

I yelped as a blunt glass spear flew into my right hand. I probably could have stayed on the chandelier if I had really held on with my left hand but the next spear flew into that hand. Sis knew me too well.

I dropped with a shriek and a pair of slender arms caught me easily. Two burning gold eyes (not like a maiden's but more like a mirror that's reflecting fire) glared into me.

"It's time for dust studies." She said flatly. I froze for a moment and laughed it off. I got out of sis' arms and met her eyes with my own. My more gleaming gleaming bronze eyes met her golden ones with the practiced ease of family.

"Oh really?! Sorry! I was busy practicing for acrobatics for training tomorrow with Tyrian! I got a bit distracted." I gave my best innocent smile. It had no effect whatsoever on Cinder's wrathful eyes whatsoever.

"Was there dust involved in any form?"

"Of course!" Cinder's eyes narrowed. Bait… "The chandelier is really dusty. I keep telling Salem we need to clean this place." And switch. Cinder scowled at me.

"I'm sure you were studying it ardently." She said smoothly.

"Of course! Though I was already a prodigy, obviously." I reached back and twirled my dark hair to hide my nervousness. Dear sister, of course, knew that it was a sign of nervousness and zeroed in on it. Perfect. I fingered my surprise in my pocket. My only escape.

"I see. Oh, and we slipped into sparring class after your skipping. So what have we learned?" I smiled condescendingly at sis. It irked her so much to be on the receiving end of the smirks and taunts she practiced in the mirror for her 'future enemies'. It showed as her mouth pursed slightly. Hehehe.

"Oh that's easy. Dust is useful in all forms." With a fast thrust of my hand the dust I had collected earlier flew into my sister's eyes and face. She huffed and blew it out of the way but some got into her nose and she sneezed. In that split second of closed eyes I made my great escape!

With a leap of faith and a mischievous cackle I leapt towards the thick shadows that collected from my semblance.

A hand suddenly landed a grip around my foot and I reached out for the shadows. I saw that I clearly couldn't escape back to my nice dark shadows and whimpered.

"My my that is a VERY nice use of… Dust, Ember." I made one more quick snatch towards the shadows - sweet escape! - and my oh so kind sister's heeled foot trapped my hand by the wrist. "How about I show you another? "Damn it!

"No thank you! I'm happy with what I know!"

"Of course." Sis' pursed lips grew to a smirk with teeth showing. I'm pretty sure she hadn't had that smirk in the show. I'm so… Proud? Not really proud right now and more terrified but yeah good for her.

"But I have this wonderful new type of dust to try." I watched in horror as she grabbed at my waist to one of the pouches of dust. I sometimes take a vacuum and just clean the dust from everywhere before carefully emptying it into little bags for pranks and dirty tricks. I haven't ever been on the receiving end.

"Oh what nice hair you have. So unlike my own." Oh no. Cinder really likes her hair. So do I. I squirmed as hard as I could but couldn't break free. Just one thing to do then.

"Sorry sis but could you lose some weight? I'm trying to break free here and you're not helping." I'LL FIGHT TO THE END DAMN YOU!

Cinder's quiet snarl was enough to make me realize what a mistake fighting was when she had my little dust bomb.

[|||| == ||||]

Cinder's hair was still wet from the shower she had taken and I had gone to Tyrian's bathroom since we only had one per person except for Cinder and I. We shared a bathroom. Being sisters the mornings were hellish.

Salem didn't so much as blink at our appearance. No doubt she had seen our entire scuffle through her mysterious magic powers. She was looking through a seer Grimm to oversee something nobody really cared about. She was meticulous like that.

Hazel only raised an eyebrow at us when we walked in for dinner. He seemed a bit amused. I'm pretty sure I remind him of his sister. I met him when I was really young. She had been super peppy and upbeat as well and we had really kicked it off. Then she died.

Tyrian snickered at Cinder and I shared a small grin with him as we silently agreed to mess with my sister a little more. He had mellowed out a little. I still vaguely remember him stabbing a beowolf after brutally killing it in the show. I had spent a lot of time making him more crazy and less psychopathic. I hadn't even bothered to break him of his worship of Salem.

"So Cindy. Hehehe." Tyrian restrained a little cackle at her and she glared at him. He was completely unaffected. "How did your little - hehehe… Dust experiment go?" I snorted at that and Cinder rolled her eyes.

"It went fine thank you Tyrian." She said smoothly.

"She didn't notice the glitter in her shampoo." I remarked. Sis' eyes widened and she grabbed her hair, running over it with a critical eye. I smirked at her and Tyrian cackled as he pounder on the stone table a few times. It was only that funny to him.

After finding no glitter in her hair (I was saving it for our free for all training day so everyone sees) she sighed and didn't even bother to glare. I had been pretty hard on her today prank-wise.

Hazel got up and walked over to the almost-kitchen (It's basically a really nice campsite in an empty room. The tower of Grimm wasn't designed for humans.) before coming back with two more plates.

"Thank you uncle Hazel." I said with a smile. He nodded easily and handed me and Cinder a plate. Ooh pork curry.

"Ah yes." Salem said from the table. Everyone's attention turned to her. "Watts."

"Yes my lady?" Watts exited from the kitchen wearing his apron. I had knitted it for my eleventh birthday with the words 'Cooking is a science' on it. He had originally worn it to appease me but found that it was actually a really good apron so he used it.

It used to be weird that villains had such mundane appearances sometimes but they weren't always looking evil. They had lives too (Except Salem who was evil looking 24/7 and subtly proud of it). I hadn't really gotten that for a few years.

"You are to look into the company known as 'Nature's bounty'. I assume you know of it?"

"Of course. I shall begin tomorrow."

"Excellent." Salem turned from Watts back to the seer and that was that.

"What's Nature's bounty?" I asked. This was more interesting than teasing big sis again.

"It's a promising new company." Watts explained. "They figured out how to farm red blooms and while that is notable as they have a monopoly over the good they are far more known for the extremely powerful huntsmen Abyss and Mystic Mavros."

I blinked once. No that can't be right. Let's do it again. Perhaps a third time.

"What?" I asked. "Sorry you said Abyss Mavros?" Watts nodded. "I was supposed to find information on him over the summer. I couldn't even find him. You're saying he just… Appeared?"

"Rather suddenly but certainly not quietly." Watts appeared to be enjoying my shock. "He entered the Mistral Ian regional tournament and showed expertise in dust, his semblance, and his proficiency at the shortsword that is rarely seen. Especially in the youth. He almost won actually. He would have if he hadn't been trying to convince Pyrrha Nikos, his competitor, of something."

"He started a company and went to the Mistral regional championships after I couldn't even find him last year?!"

"Yes." I scowled and looked down at my pork curry. I swear my luck must be terrible for this to happen. At least I met Jaune. He was a pretty nice guy though I'd only met him briefly once. I hope that counts.

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	32. Chapter 32

**AN:Okay so more concerns. Firstly… Ember. Don't worry about her. She's got a rather minor role overall. And no she's not a gamer.**

 **Secondly, Abyss being irrational. Yeah he can totally be irrational at times. I mean completely without logic. He hides them pretty well when he tries to but he is overall ruled by them. The mimic would be my first example. He didn't really need to hurt or kill it but he didn't do either of those things. He pulled off a somewhat risky experiment when he really didn't need to. There's also his behavior towards Ozpin. You could almost say he's… somewhat childish? Ruled by emotions? Gee that almost sounds like a character trait. But direct characterization doesn't say anything about that. It's like we're looking at how Abyss sees himself… from first person.**

 **There's also him being 'evil'. Sure there are places where he's been an outright prick. Like his spree of stealing all the stuff that catches his eye in Vacuo. It's like he's a KID in a candy store. And the murder of all those gangsters, passing judgement on them like some kind of vigilante. I guess he didn't see any consequences to his actions. He sure didn't seem to. How IMMATURE. Then there's going into the meeting with Ozpin with preconceived notions of how the meeting will go, entrusting Ruby to thieves and killers, showing off at the regional championships, and so on with probably a hundred little things.**

 **For being evil I'd ask you this. If a child with infinite power wished in a fit of anger that everyone was dead would he be evil? It depends really. Most would say no but saying 'someone wanted everyone in the world dead and pulled it off' would immediately draw you to the conclusion that he/she is a bad person. Basically I'm saying this. Abyss could be called a bad person for sure. But he's not an evil person though his actions are evil (in my opinion). He doesn't see consequences for his actions.**

 **I'd refer you to Raven for a little last word. She did as she wanted. Leaving Yang, raiding and killing, killing the spring maiden out of anger, and lets not forget in volume 5 her plan with the relic and her unfounded belief that having it would make Salem back off. She isn't some magnificent and brilliant leader. She's as childish as Abyss is. Maybe worse, even. I think it would be fair to say that Ruby is actually the most mature of the trio.**

 **I also realized I never added an OC tag for this fic. That has been fixed.**

 **EDIT: I heard a few different small... well not complaints but people pointing out flaws in the writing. Some guest account said I repeated a paragraph but I scrolled through this and didn't see anything. Maybe you read a part twice? Or maybe I reiterated something. There was also the status as the winter maiden, in which the +100 luck effect in winter was mislabeled as spring since I copy/pasted the perk from Raven's profile. I thought I fixed that the first time. Maybe I messed with it somehow? Or I'm delusional. Oh, and next week's chapter might be a little late. I'm going over and revising the previous chapters for spelling errors since that's always been a pretty big problem of mine. Editing... I'll be editing chapters from now on (as I should have been doing for a long time) and going over the previous ones might take a moment. I don't expect the extra editing to take that long in reality but being honest I'll probably procrastinate before guilt tripping myself into doing the edits.**

[||||= **LEVEL 32** = ||||]

It was just may and June left in the school year. Just two tantalizing months. But first I had to get back to enduring these daily classes. Was math class always so long? Maybe it's the staring from having just gotten back from the tournament, which ended awkwardly for everyone but me.

"Abyss. Could you answer this question for the class please?" I didn't bother to open my eyes from my seat where I was meditating and just used mage sight at short range. Detail flooded into my mind - ah the one flaw of mage sight. TMI. Wait is that… yeah that girl Melody apparently got a new boyfriend. That or she's slept with maybe ten different guys since Christmas.

The problem was simple. It was just basic algebra, which I actually do know. "X is eight point five, ma'am." Miss Carnelia shrugged and continued on with her lesson and I went back to experimenting in my soul space.

I had gotten the corruption affinity last night but it was different from my other affinities. It was darker. More… Hateful. Not towards the other affinities but it did hate me. However, it hated everything other than me a bit more than me so it's not the love/love relationship I had with the others and more of a curious/hateful relationship.

Merging the two affinities was difficult. Incredibly difficult. Corruption and purity were like two sides of the same coin. You can't just make the two sides completely touch. Coins don't work that way.

Then again I wasn't trying to make two sides of the same coin touch each other. I'm trying to merge two polar opposite magnets more like. The two repel each other. I had to make them merge. No wonder origin was unstable enough to react with itself.

Nevertheless I had made just a tiny bit of progress. I had finally figured out how to foolproof make a silver bloom, as I decided to call it. That is to say, a tree with a purity affinity.

I had to insert just the barest sliver of corruption affinity as a sort of fertilizer. It was like an immune system of sorts. The tree had to learn about It's opposite. My previous attempts that were successes were all only successful because they had ambient corruption affinity around them.

Even so my new trees were SO much better. It was like comparing a sharpened stick in the woods to a high quality mechashift spear.

My new trees made ten times the sap of my old ones (more like eleven point five times on average) and were far tastier. They also were more accepting of the growth spell and my mana, being born from my corruption and purity affinity. They're perfect. I'm making a grove today and assigning Roman to begin selling samples immediately.

The sap of the silver blooms was different from the red bloom sap. Red bloom sap hit like a freight train on your tongue. It was extremely sweet and while many people loved the taste plenty didn't.

Silver bloom was different. It was subtle. By no means was it watery or anything but it didn't really hit you at first. It left a long lingering taste like honey but less… Grainy. I think that word sort of applies. To say it tasted smooth seems weirdly correct.

I personally like the new sap. A lot. I'm not crazy for it since I'm more of the salty or slightly sweet (like honey glazed pork) kind of guy but the sap was REALLY good.

Next up was a plant made with my storm affinity and it's component affinities. The only slight problem was the affinity levels itself.

For my silver blooms I had used my eyes to amplify my purity affinity before infusal into an acorn. The affinity in total reached to about one million six hundred thousand after being amplified though more recently it was more like two million four hundred thousand with my first successes.

My storm affinity currently reached four hundred thirteen thousand but I don't have an elemental at the moment. I need to make and contract one when I get a chance. I just haven't bothered. It'll only take a half an hour but… meh.

 _*Briiiiing*_

"Ah that's the bell. Get to lunch you all. Remember to do the homework."

We have homework?

[|||| == ||||]

" _Do you think she'll be okay?"_

" _Of course she will. The kid's strong. Not just in combat but in mind."_

" _Thats true. We've all been there. First kills are rough."_

" _I still remember mine."_

" _It never really leaves you, yeah?"_

" _Yeah… She was okay when we raided that last string of caravans last summer. There were a few bloody ones there and she seemed fine. Well, mostly. She got over it at any rate."_

" _As you said, she's strong. She'll make it fine. She just needs some time."_

" _And for her brother to get back."_

" _It's only an hour. She can collect herself a bit. Cry it out on Raven. Yeah, she'll be alright."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Well it's been awhile." Bella started with a casualness to her voice. "So what did you all do over the break?"

Kerrigan spoke up. "Abyss and I went to the Mistral regional tournament. Did any of you watch it?"

"No." Cesium frowned. "I was busy with a few things at home. Settling into the new apartment mostly."

"I saw the finals." Bella offered. "And that was damn scary, kid. I saw some theories on how you pulled that off and all of them are saying you're beyond talented."

"Yes." Ocean answered. We all stared for a moment before realizing that was it. It's easy to forget that Ocean doesn't talk all that much.

"And your assignments?" I asked. Cesium grabbed a binder from his backpack that was thick with papers. Oh dear he and Kerrigan were really meticulous. What was I thinking?

Bella had two sheets of paper folded in half. Ocean let a small creepy smile onto her face, though we'd all grown used to them, and took out her scroll. "I scroll-mailed the normal schedule. She has a lot of bad habits."

I glanced over everything and hummed. The binder was actually composed by two scientists. One in Mistral and one in Vale, both material experts. Most of the materials seemed to be constantly endothermic with a 'obscure and strange energy reading of unknown origin' emanating from it.

Judging from the few papers there wasn't much I didn't know about the samples. Knowing the molecular composition of a few dragon scales was a perfect insulant and a fantastic armor even unenchanted was interesting but pretty expected. Still there were some helpful parts of the report.

Bella just had five addresses and nautical coordinates (which Summer had taught me on one of our more oceanic based trips, of which there were six) scribbled down onto some printer paper.

"When did you make this" I asked.

"About five minutes ago between class periods." Bella smiled like that was perfectly professional. Then her hand flickered and I made sure not to look directly at it. "The actual meat on the organization is all buried… Oh, and you never told me you had me investigating a government cover-up." Bella's tone grew a little stormy at that. I glanced to the side.

"Well…" I don't really have an excuse. Shit.

"I believe you're doing that whole mysterious reveal over the summer, right?"

"… Yes."

"I expect some serious answers."

"… Okay." I actually do feel a little bad. If Bella had actually gotten in trouble… well she can handle herself but I should have warned her a bit more.

"Stop looking so mopey. I'm not THAT mad. Just tell me next time. I hit some, ah, uncomfortable situations with a building I didn't know was secretly a place Vale tried to bury some secrets. I'm also certain that I can't actually get anything substantial on this investigation without going to these sites. Everything was very thoroughly burned and the ashes swept not just under the rug but more like down the toilet before blowing up the building for good measure. I can find more of these sites I think but the actual organization is gone to the wind."

"We can find more actual information on the organization over the summer. It's cleared, right?"

"So long as I can make some dates with Qrow it is. I was kinda hoping for a break though."

"Like you actually do work in this class. Half the time I'm teaching everyone."

"Ugh. Just move on."

Ocean's report was… Vaguely professional. That she had a video of Yang in the shower while she was in the cupboard under the sink was incredibly creepy and somewhat disturbing but I didn't really expect less.

Yang's schedule was something along the lines of 'wake up, be a few minutes late for school, blankly tolerate the classes until lunch, talk with a cadre of friends (she had like forty), kick asses in combat class until Qrow (or Tai if Qrow is on a mission) sticks her with Kerrigan or myself, and then go out with friends onto the town for an activity before bed.

Of course there were deviations. Yang had to keep her gauntlets, Ember Celia, nice and maintained for example. They looked almost exactly like they were in the show. Ocean had deconstructed them and created a blueprint, the little overachiever.

She had also taken up sketching surprisingly. They weren't much more than extremely well drawn doodles but she did sketch things out sometimes. She had some colored pencils to use too. It's rather sad since she has a collection of colored sketches about her, Summer, Raven, Tai, Qrow, Ruby, and I as a family in a variety of situations. Raven wasn't well drawn (she does Not smile that much) but the other were well done.

Overall Yang was a bit of a mess at the moment that secretly yearns for a fuller family. I never really thought about it but after Raven abandoning her that she had left Ruby to me was something she probably hated.

I don't know how to properly handle this so I think I'll just show this to Ruby and let her decide what to do about Yang. She's unfinished business that we've not dealt with in long enough.

"Hm. Well you all did… Pretty well. The materials report seems rather disappointing but that's not your fault. Yang is better than I expected in some few ways but worse in others. Thank you for the coordinates, Bella. I'll be using these rather soon. Overall you proved once again to be very competent. I don't actually have any more ideas for rewards so is there anything you want?"

"I want a way to sneak out of my families manor for the summer." Ocean said immediately. Hm, I can do that by digging a tunnel, which my motion affinity can accomplish, albeit inefficiently. Easy enough.

"Fine. I already know your address. I'll install one tonight.

"Teleport me and Qrow to a romantic getaway for a weekend please." Bella grinned. "The deserted island was nice before. Maybe someplace like there. I like tropical places."

"Easy. Sure." I shrugged that off. Really that was so much easier than normal.

Cesium had a thoughtful look on his face. "I'd like some free trips to Vale when you can please. I'd like more direct contacts rather than through Roman."

"Why?" I asked with a frown. I plan on connecting him to Raven and Ruby next year. Ruby loves making weapons so they can defend themselves with them far better than right now.

Raven will be a huge gain in that she's an immensely strong huntress with loose morals and some free time. I hope that they'll ask her for training. She trained her tribe, after all. She's quite good at teaching. Even better than myself. She's also way more skilled in the blade than me so she can properly teach them.

"I want to double check my information I get from Roman. I don't trust him." I rolled my eyes.

"You don't trust him because you don't like him. Roman told me just how well you all got along." A universal scowl was on everyone's face except Bella's. She looked almost pleasant at the mention of Roman.

"Yes but I still don't trust him, whatever my reasoning." I looked into Cesium's eyes. He was resolute about this, I could tell.

I could just deny him this. His going to Vale is a useless endeavor. Roman has the criminal underworld under his and Neo's thumbs. Nobody does a thing unless Roman approves it. Not that there's much he doesn't approve and if it is stupid he fixes it and sends back the better way of doing the crime.

Over the past few months he's knocked out the last small-time gang his control has only grown more absolute. In short, it's Roman's way or the highway. That would be bad if Roman didn't work for me.

On the other hand Cesium isn't going to just give this up. He REALLY doesn't like Roman. I can understand that. The man can be condescending, smug, childish, greedy, and downright racist at times (except when he knows I'm watching). However, he's good at what he does and he knows when to roll over. He's the best option for me unless I want someone like Junior at my empire. Not a chance. I looked at the man. He's shit at large scale organization.

If something were to happen to Roman, Neo, AND Raven agreed to step in. If something is that bad she'll reveal herself and take control of the gang to keep all that hard work we did from going down the drain.

Ideally Cesium would be my right hand man leading the empire when he gets older. He's competent, loyal, ambitious, and cunning. All traits I value.

Both letting him run around and keeping him here have their pros and cons. I could keep him here and under my control or I could let him loose where he'll undoubtedly fail to find anyone outside of Roman's control.

A deep and weary sigh left me. It's too early in the morning for this. I'll let him run around. It will hopefully make him respect my words more. If he does somehow manage to find someone I'll alert Roman behind his back.

"Fine. I'll give you five portals to and back from Vale. Don't waste them. I'm going to tell you now, though, you won't find anyone in Vale that will defy Roman. Keeping something from him is stupid for every criminal since he's a good ruler. Nobody really wants to dethrone him. It's too much work when you could just reap the benefits of his empire." Cesium scowled but didn't say anything. He didn't seem to be angry at me though. More at the news of Roman's absolute control.

"And Kerrigan?" Hopefully he won't want much.

"A small favor to be repaid at a later date." He said.

"A SMALL favor." I clarified. He nodded.

"Of course. I have nothing of real use for you to do right now." I shrugged it off. Fine by me.

"Now for your monthly assignment… I want you to get some floor plans for a lab of a guy. You'll be working together on this and I expect it to be significantly harder than usual. Mostly because you only have a week. It's not quite so monthly this time."

I was sending them to get the floor plans of the labs that held that supercomputer Poledina needs. However, I want them to get those plans fast so Poledina can do his thing as soon as possibly. Sure I have bit less than four years until the Vytal festival begins but I want him to make an impact. There's no excuse for him not to other than informational control. I don't think Ironwood ever really had the pull to let Poledina in on the whole magic thing but imagine what he could do if he had access to magic. I'm expecting Penny and so much more.

I had hoped to send them to steal the supercomputer but sadly I don't think they're ready to try illegal things. They like and respect the subI class but they see it as just that. A class. It's a great class and one worth a lot that's close enough and small enough to be as close as a beacon team in these four years we're together but we're not at that stage yet and we're not at that point yet.

Maybe Cesium and Kerrigan would be willing but despite Ocean's creepiness and skill she wasn't the type of person to flaunt the law without a really good reason to and Bella was a huntress and teacher. She's to set an example. That means no major crimes although some tiny ones like associating with a criminal are, while not really something she wants for us, is something that's okay so long as we keep an eye on the way out and don't do actual crimes.

"A week?!" Cesium asked in surprise. "Any other… difficulties?"

"He's in vale and you can't use Kerrigan's family. Also Roman doesn't know. Maybe try the city records or something but I'll be checking your work." I said smugly. "Oh right… It's your final assignment. Surprise." Bella chuckled at their expense and general mutters of discontent were heard all around. I love this position of spymaster. I can abuse it to mess with these guys so much.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Ozpin something happened!"_

"… _Oh dear. Send Qrow to find her last location. Her corpse if she is in fact dead."_

" _Do you know who could have done this?"_

" _Someone with the power to kill a maiden… Granted she was alone but still…"_

" _The queen?"_

" _Perhaps. It's too early to make a judgment. Call Qrow. We'll hope for the best. I will summon Amber here. I'll also alert Lionheart to call Floss to shade until this business is over."_

" _What about finding the new winter maiden?"_

" _Of course. Now quickly."_

[|||| == ||||]

Tuesday passed as Monday did. With the repetition that comes naturally to schools. Then the afternoon came along. I teleported into the kitchen, planning on getting the pulled pork sandwiches started. I had made homemade relish before but I think I can do better if I tried.

I was instantly hit with the aroma of strawberries and hot coco with a hint of cherries. We had an extract of cherries and strawberries that I sometimes used in sodas and a few other things like whip cream or that time I made yogurt, which was a failure.

My eyes darted to the source of the smell and I saw Vernal putting mint shavings on whip cream that floated on a mug of the strawberry/cherry hot coco.

Other scents hit me then too and I glanced around to see somewhat burnt cookies and freshly cut strawberries on the counter along with some members of the tribe like Maya, that seamstress that made me the fur clothes and I gave the life-strengthening runed ring. She was scowling at the cookies a man had made while she was putting the strawberries in a bowl.

I scoffed. "Get me the dough. I'll make the cookies. Is Ruby back?"

"She's back alright." Maya said with a hint of sadness. "We'll… Not entirely. Make the cookies. Doss here doesn't know how to make cereal." Doss, the cookie ruining guy, didn't respond and left quietly.

I got started on making the cookies and finished in about twelve minutes. I set them on the little platter, certainly for Ruby judging by the strawberries, chocolate, and cookies. All you would need is an upgrade for eclipse rose and you had nirvana for her.

I walked with Maya and Vernal, who hadn't spoken, and came to Ruby's room. "We're leaving you three alone. Having people crowd the child would be a bad idea right now." Maya said. "Come along Vernal." Vernal opened her mouth to protest but Maya reached up and flicked her ear. She tsked and grudgingly followed along.

With caution and an attempt to make some noise just to keep from startling anyone I entered the room.

My first thought was one of panic. Mana flooded the room. Frost covered the windowsill from ice. The walls were peeling and flickering with flames that just barely wouldn't catch. A faint wind flew throughout the room, making it feel like it was breezy. The air was also charged.

If I hadn't had my storm affinity it would be quite unpleasant. As it was the affinities were far too weak to even touch me and the ice affinity was negated by my temperature resistance skill and my own ice affinity.

Worst was the so sobbing that was heard as soon as I entered the door. It was high pitched enough to be Ruby's. I scanned the room and saw her on the bed. Raven sat cross legged on the bed with her arms around Ruby.

Ruby herself didn't look well. Her eyes were shut from crying. The front of Raven's shirt was wet with tears. I didn't pay all that much attention. What struck me was the mana.

Ruby had mana. Why did she have mana? And so much of it… going to stay out here. This is a family matter. Blood family. I know you and Raven are closest to her. Come along Vernal."

"I'm not going to just-ow!" Maya flicked Vernal's ear and gripped her wrist. With Vernal not expecting it Maya pulled her away from Ruby's door, leaving me alone.

As soon as I opened the door I was hit with a flood of mana. Ice coated the windows despite it being more than a week into april. Lightning left a charge in the room, making the floor shock me. Fire fought with ice, making odd pockets of warmer air in suspension.

I didn't have to look around to see the source of the mana. Ruby sat down on her bed on Raven's lap facing her. Ruby clawed at Raven's shirt sobbing lightly, shining like a beacon of mana all the while. I barely noticed as I observed her. I just did it by instinct.

 **Ruby Rose**

 **Title: Rose blooming**

 **Level – 192**

 **HP – 3214/3253**

 **AP – 22,700**

 **MP - 116,400**

 **STR - 128 (+335%)= 556.8**

 **VIT - 75 (+335%)= 326.25**

 **DEX - 232 (+335%)= 1009.2**

 **INT - 194 (+50%)= 141**

 **WIS - 227 (+150%)= 567.5**

 **LUK - 104 (+0%)= 104**

 **Semblance: Petal flurry - Dash and become immaterial as you travel from one place to another so rapidly it's nearly teleportation, leaving red and black roses in your wake. Adding dust adds an elemental effect to the roses, which 'pop' once they hit the ground releasing a sort of carpet bomb effect. Low aura cost to use.**

 **Affinities:**

 **Air: 1699**

 **Purity: 1628**

 **Electricity: 1614**

 **Water: 1574**

 **Nature: 1544**

 **Ice: 1500**

 **Earth: 1500**

 **Fire: 1500**

 **Light: 105**

 **Heat: 78**

 **Space: 61**

 **Motion: 49**

 **Metal: 22**

 **Weapon: 19**

 **Perks:**

 **Silver eyed warrior (Rank 2) - Your affinity for purity has grown immensely yet the emotional block for your eyes remains in place. Some grimm will flee from you even without your eyes on. Multiplies your WIS by 150% and INT by 50%**

" **There's a power in you. You just haven't quite found it yet."**

 **-Summer Rose to her daughter**

 **Maiden of Winter - You are a maiden. One of the heirs of the legendary women blessed with powers by the wizard. Whether this power is a blessing, a burden, or a tool is decided by you and you alone. No matter your decision you are worthy.**

 **-1000% to MP capacity and regeneration.**

 **-Mana and aura are unlocked.**

 **-Nature, fire, water, ice, wind, lightning, and earth affinities are increased by 1500.**

 **-Luck increased by 100 in winter. No limits on your total affinities.**

My mind flashed to when we had shared a soul. My affinities had rubbed off on her even without her having magic. Not unexpected but good to know. She had the metal and weapon affinities naturally though I suspect that weapons is from prolonged exposure or something of the like. Affinities are gained by taking in a part of something and making yourself more like it, after all. Ruby simply had a more personal relationship with her weapons than anyone and gained an affinity for it because of that.

That was all background information as I strided towards Ruby. She opened her puffy eyes slightly and licks of mana flowed outwards from her eyes. She was a maiden now.

I hugged Ruby and she separated from Raven slightly to hug me more. A fresh batch of tears opened up and my shirt got wet. While she cried I reached out with my soul and embraced hers. The mana she was unconsciously emitting stopped as my soul blocked the flow of mana.

The room stopped being torn up and Raven briefly made eye contact with me. I took it as a sign of slight gratitude and we moved on.

For a few more minutes Ruby cried her heart out and I took small notes to piece together what happened. Eclipse rose was on the floor to my right around the foot of the bed. It's blade was covered in blood. Human blood.

Ruby was a maiden. Her scythe was covered in blood. A glance at Raven showed some faint specks of blood on her clothes as well. So Raven and Ruby had murdered a maiden… Ruby had struck the final blow and was having her first kill trauma at the moment. Oh dear. That's bad. Not having the third maiden around definitely inhibits my ability to predict the future. With Ruby as a maiden? Well… I can only hope the world doesn't throw a curveball before I get a chance to save my city.

"Abyss?… I want to be a hero."

Of course she would. "You can be a hero." I said with a hint of sadness. "Raven and I will make sure you don't die."

"Thank you." Ruby whispered, her voice choked. "Can you teach me?"

"Obviously." I said. "If you mean magic that is. We'll start as soon as you're less distraught." Ruby was quiet. Her breaths were still shuddering.

"Her name was Dianthus Null." She said shakily. "I… Can I take a nap?"

"With me here or not?" Ruby's hands gripped me harder. "Alright then. And Auntie?" Ruby seemed thoughtful but shook her head.

"Auntie was there with me… Sorry."

"It's fine." Raven said. I couldn't tell if it actually was or if she was fighting some maternal instinct. Probably not. Raven wasn't that emotional. "I'm going to check on the tribe. Don't forget about the cookies."

Ruby let me go a little as Raven slipped away and walked out. Her eyes lit up a little when she saw my cookies. She snatch done and nibbled at it, getting more into it after a few nibbles. Good. The sooner she comes to terms with this the better.

Ruby scared down some of her comfort food and chattered with me about mundane things all the while. What I had been doing with the subI class, which was surprisingly nothing, and I let her look at the materials sheet Cesium and Kerrigan had cooked up. I set it on her bedside since I'm sure she'll pore over it later for new ideas.

Eventually Ruby dragged me to her bed and was out in seconds. How hard had Raven run her? Or maybe it was the stress of becoming a maiden. Or the effects of her first kill. Maybe a combination of all three? It doesn't really matter. We payed down and I let sleep take me rather than retreat to my soul space to meditate on the origin affinity.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Is she going to be alright?"_

" _Yes… she'll be alright. However, she will never be a person like us."_

" _You mean a criminal or…"_

" _A bad person. Even a neutral one. She is a good person through and through."_

" _We all kind of knew that."_

" _She's too much like her mother. She'll drive herself to death alone. I believe Abyss has a few plans for her to be safe."_

[|||| == ||||]

With Ruby being a maiden I took a few precautions. With her permission of course. I runes and enchanted a ring to hide her magical signature first and foremost. I don't want anyone finding out Ruby is a maiden. It could just cause so many problems.

I called in sick for Ruby and people actually believed that. I'm pretty sure the staff at Signal all know that if I wanted out of school I would pull some usual cloak and dagger business. If I called in sick I was probably actually sick.

Well… we aren't actually sick but Ruby is close enough. I'm sure not telling anyone she's dealing with the trauma of her first kill.

Two days passed of playing video games, eating cookies at an inhuman rate, and being coddled by me and occasionally Raven (she was more subtle about it than me). It did wonders for Ruby.

I made sure she was alright with using her weapons and fighting and basically ran a status check on her. She was fine with shooting and fighting but she shied away from striking vital areas. I couldn't bring myself to reprimand her.

Finally it was time to learn magic. Ruby was really excited. She probably imagined that we were jumping to throwing fireballs and calling lightning from the sky.

The reformed bandits had actually decided to sit in on this. It was magic so of course people would want to learn magic. Sure they can't cast a spell except for what my runes grant them but still… It's magic.

I had just asked Raven to join and she didn't bother to protest. The whole tribe was there and Ruby was excited and cheery for the first time in awhile. Besides, it never hurts to brush up.

In the end of it all I felt like a college professor standing in the dining hall with all the bandits sitting in chairs with Ruby and Raven in the front. A lot of them were even ready to take notes.

"Magic-" I started "-consists of three parts. Affinity, technique, and mana." Some scribbles were heard and I continued on. Come to think of it this is a really weird scene.

"We'll start with the most important part. Mana. Mana is, to put it simply, a controllable energy within your soul that can be molded by your willpower for a variety of uses. This is strictly referring to mana that is residing in your soul, of course. I'll be going into depth in that in a moment." A hand was raised. They're not even making fun of me. They're serious about this.

"Yes?" The bandit looked surprised I actually accepted a question.

"I thought only wizards could manipulate pure mana?"

"That is true. Wizards have the unique ability to manipulate their mana externally. Not ambient mana, which is not affiliated with a soul but mana just existing. However, all beings with a soul have the potential to manipulate mana although the only other mean than being a wizard, an unknown ritual, and maidenhood are not known."

"Now. None of you can manipulate mana externally so don't worry about that. There are two ways to manipulate mana. Internal manipulation and tools. Internal manipulation is willing your mana to move a certain way or be imbued with an affinity. Tools are objects of a construction that they allow mana to flow through it and form through it's structure. Your runic matrix es are a prime example of this."

Another hand was raised. "If this is about the intricacies of your matrices we can go into that at a later date." The hand lowered.

"Now for technique. It's not a difficult concept to describe. To make a spell you have mana that you warp to fit the structure of the spell you desire, imbue the necessary affinity if there is one, and release it."

"For example, A very basic spell would be the wind blade. It's a blade of pressurized wind that cuts things. To make this spell you make an arc of mana, add air affinity, and release it. The intricacies of crafting a spell are many. Especially because you will likely be doing all these steps in under a quarter of a second before I actually call you decent at the spell. Ideally the process would be near instant. Sadly Raven never achieved that level of mastery."

I leveled a stink eye at Raven. She wore a haunted expression, likely remembering my many, many spell drills I made her do. It worked for me in that blasted desert and in Summer's soul space so it will work for you too. And it did. Ruby looked a little more nervous at the prospect of learning magic now. It's not just wave a wand and say something cool. It's pretty damn complicated.

"It is notable that willpower and imaging play a large role in using a spell. That mana you manipulate is imbued with your willpower and will act in accordance to your wishes. If you desire a wind blade to explode on contact and push enemies it will do so. However, I recommend you simply use a different spell more suited for that purpose. It's far more efficient."

Raven looked interested in that last little nugget of information. I mentioned it once but I think she didn't really get it due to fatigue or something. It doesn't matter.

"Finally… Affinities. Affinities are the absolute most important part of magic. There is no disagreement on this whatsoever." Ruby looked a little surprised at this but didn't doubt me for a second. Raven nodded in agreement with me.

"Affinities are the presences of energies and concepts in you. That is mainly theoretical, however, so I would recommend you simply view it as your attunement with an element, energy, or whatnot."

"I'm sure you all are wondering what affinities exist. For your information there are too many to name by far. Time, space, origin, fire, water, earth, mud, wood, blood, life, death, light, gravity, shadows, ice, storm, lightning, plasma, electricity, corruption, purity, and far more than I could ever really list. There are even elements like weapon and unity." Ruby looked at me with wide eyes.

"Yes Ruby you have a weapons affinity. I don't know what it does and it seems rather ridiculous but-"

"YES!" Ruby cheered. Then she realized she had just yelled when even Vernal was being quiet and listening and she looked down with an embarrassed blush.

"Yes, well let's move onto what affinities can do. Affinities allow you to do several things. The most important is to mirror onto mana the properties of it's element. The controllable property of mana and the various properties of affinities allow you to accomplish feats such as manipulate the elements easily."

People oohed and looked really interested in affinities. Good. They're the most important and the most interesting.

"Of second most importance is the ability to manipulate the elements without the expenditure of mana." I flicked on that on switch with my affinities and just let them loose, providing only enough mana to make a small amount of each element. A variety of effects happened. The most noticeable one was a small storm forming though I know it could easily grow far larger. My affinity's limited consciousness knew I wouldn't like that at all.

"As you can see affinities can cause effects on their own. Anyone can do this though making elements did require an initial expenditure of mana. Common affinities like air, earth, or the like don't require mana and as such you can make some small manipulations of the elements without using mana. However, the manipulations are SMALL. Very, very small. Unless you have an advantage like being a maiden or a lifetime of training you might be able to levitate a rock or something."

"Now… let's move on once more…"

[|||| == ||||]

" _Sienna?"_

" _Yes Blake?"_

" _You remember when Adam met with me right?"_

" _Of course."_

" _Well he gave me an idea… wouldn't nature's bounty turning to a more proactive outlook be a good thing?"_

" _Explain."_

" _Being passively there is great help to representing the faunus. They're already showing some effects. However, the white fang has done more."_

" _Are you saying they should become violent like us?"_

" _I think that they're prosperous and the white fang can use all the help we can get."_

" _Blake not everything can be solved through violence. We have to show that we can stand up and fight for our rights but we can't oppress humanity. We're better than that."_

" _We shouldn't show a violent front through them, I know, but what if the company sponsored the white fang publicly? We are the voice of the faunus so shouldn't we or the company have a public relationship? It would show a united front."_

" _No. The company is non-violent. They're a COMPANY. They're people who play at the level of the Schnees and snobby humans and beat them at their own game. Being friendly with them drags down their status to the level of the supposed animals and criminals._

 _They show that we can be better than lowlife - and don't you even start saying that we aren't. You think I don't know that? We all know that. But we need the people who make the decisions to know that. That's why they are there. Not to support the white fang. To show the people what we can do beyond lashing out like animals."_

"… _I never thought of it like that."_

" _Sometimes it's hard to look past the white fang. Every faunus is trying for equality in their own way, Blake. Whether they're white fang or not. And the white fang isn't the only road towards peace, though I believe it is one of the most important ones."_

"… _Okay."_

" _Now why are you not practicing your forms right now? I recall you saying you were going to."_

" _Um… yeah."_

" _That's what I thought. Now go."_

[|||| == ||||]

It had been a nice few months to the end of school. Finals were easily done right after the tournament and some review weeks and everyone, teachers included, spent that last week taking their shoes off in class and kicking back. Just like normal schools. We even had a few classes with Qrow where he just left us to practice on our own in groups. It was pretty much business as usual for me but the atmosphere was so much more relaxed during that time. The tests were a stressful time for everyone though and it even affected me despite my confidence in the tests since I could kind of cheat with mage sight… well let me amend that. I could totally cheat with mage sight.

SubI had done admirably on getting those floor plans. I gave the computer and gave it to Poledina, who had nearly sorted out his lab and was really happy with it. It wasn't as good as the one at Atlas but it was solely his so that was good enough.

I got him some more computer stuff myself and then was the magic reveal, which was… tiring. And very long with all his questions. I was there for hours. I gave him the books and he stayed awake for two days on coffee reading them and calling me over to demonstrate or clarify on something in the book.

First I gave him fifty pendants stuffed with as much mana as I could and asked him to identify mana from a scientific standpoint. I also had a parallel write a book on runes that was incredibly cut and dry but with my teaching skill and runes skill the parallel did do it. It just sounded really robotic.

Roman had gotten the new purity trees, white blooms, and a LOT of them. We had finally achieved as many red blooms as we cared to sell for sap seasonally and a new set of groves filled with purity trees had been erected to harvest sap, wood, and more and sell it. However, this grove was WAY bigger than the redwood grove. We had marketed the sap as a strong grimm repellent and had immediately gotten a constant order from all of the kingdoms as well as menagerie and the SDC for constant orders to receive sap.

We jacked the prices sky high as we could, over six times the price of red bloom sap, and sold it. The other parts of the tree were sold with their similar properties to the sap albeit about ten times weaker. Specialty arrows were made from the sap since they weakened the grimm penetrated with the wood and even insta-killed the weakest ones. Sure guns were overall better but some who still used bows liked the arrows. It helped to weaken the large grimm and make combat safer with them too. We used the shedded leaves of the trees as compost for the red blooms and saw a eight to twelve percent increase in production. Adding a little purity really did help. Huh. Helpful to know.

We'll sell some for personal consumption at the same price but we doubt many people will buy it. It's different than red bloom sap but for consumption it's too expensive unless we sell it at a lower price than we do to the kingdoms. Most of our buyers we have are companies who use the syrup to make other foods that they sold to the populace so even though the white bloom sap is better it's not economically sound to use it in products.

Well… most products. Grimm repellant is a fantastic thing that people bend over backwards for. We added water and a mechanism with fire dust to heat the syrup solution to evaporate and voila… grimm repellant. It's so beautiful. The money and power I mean.

I considered that huntsmen might lose jobs but I did a little research and found that they wouldn't at all. Actually the repellant would really help the kingdoms. With less need for defense the kingdoms could expand a lot with their huntsmen.

I had patented the trees of course. I called them a rare mutation like an albino of the red blooms. A cocktail of recessive genes that we managed to isolate and grow independently of the red blooms. The councils and such tried to get a grip on the trees, being so insanely useful that their grimm repelling element was, but we had the clout to deny them. Money and power… you gotta love it.

This was the first step to really getting remnant to lean on my company like the SDC. People in remnant NEED the SDC. They use dust in everything, after all. But they didn't need nature's bounty. The grimm lures were extremely useful and no way would they ever really fall out of practice among hunters but a repellent that the kingdoms could grow dependent on? Now that was something that the kingdoms need. I just made sure that humanity didn't become lax. I made a public statement encouraging that remnant did need hunters as much now as ever but that this time we could really expand out into the country without sacrificing hunters to solely defend the settlements.

At this rate there might be a new golden age coming soon. Now if only people would stop asking for super powered guns…

With that all being the case Bella and I were heading out tomorrow on a grand adventure. I was bringing her into the secret too. It was road trip time. To the sites of mana of course. Where the managuard have their bases. I've got four of them planned out. Some of them are way too dangerous though. The ocean site, for example. I don't want to go into deep water without getting some sort of affinity that complements the environment like salt to pepper. Deep water and sea monsters is just… BAD!

We've got a site thunder, which is electrical affinity and the only one whose name we actually found at site frost.

Then there's a site overgrowth with a ton of wildlife that's either nature or life around the proclaimed borders of Vacuo and Vale down south on the crest of the U shape of the continent. It's supposedly filled with dangerous plants and a fair bit of very exotic and dangerous magical creatures. Mostly plants though. Most of them release spores that cause a variety of harmful effects like paralysis, death, poison, death, comas, death, death, and lots and lots of death. I'm a bit concerned about bacteria or general sickness causing microorganisms but the managuard didn't report anything on it. Then again the managuard didn't note a demon in site frost… but they didn't mess with ancient runic circles so I can't complain too much.

Number two is site cavern, which is deep in the earth that's plagued by earthquakes in northern mantle in the mountains. I'm not sure if the managuard site is still standing but they seemed quite confident in their base there from the sound of it in what little scraps of information Bella could scrounge up. I didn't get much else sadly.

Third is a break that's actually in one really damn dangerous place. Site daylight. To Bella's fear the site is actually RIGHT UNDER MANTLE. That is to say, the abandoned city filled with old and dangerous grimm in old buildings and buried under a ton of snow. It's caverns filled with so many light dust crystals that it's actually impossible to see. The managuard couldn't find a way around that so they never put a base there but they didn't find any dangerous creatures or elementals (wraiths) either. It sounds like the first part will suck but the second will be easy.

Finally is the easiest site. Site thunder. Believe it or not the place is actually settled by normal people. It's not filled with dangerous elementals or anything. It's the premier mining site for electrical dust. I mean it's monopolized by the SDC (Like a lot of things. The SDC has daughter companies that branch off of just dust though it's primarily mining) and has a faunus labor camp but that's better than horrible plant monsters and earthquake filled caverns, right? Maybe.

I could have asked Jacques for a tour or something of the place but why would I really? That leaves a trail and he'll ask questions. 'Why would Abyss/Mystic Mavros want to examine one of my main mines?' And I'll have no real answer to that. So I'll keep us invisible (and keep us safe from infrared and the like of course) and sleep in a hiding place. It won't be too hard. There's an old hidden managuard base that was cleaned out by the managuard and sold so faunus sleep in the bunkers to be safe from the lightning strikes that occur frequently above. Lightning rods keep them safe and the bunker powered when mining.

I hope there's still something of a magical nature there to use but if not I'll get a good look at the SDC mines with my own eyes. In fact I'm going to take a video for when Blake gets here. I want to know if it's really slavery as she claims in the show. I don't think she ever really saw the mines and all the information she has MIGHT be white fang propaganda or the like since she's the daughter of Menagerie's chieftain. It would be a political nightmare if anyone found out she was there. But it might be true that the faunus are fairly employed and able to leave or it might be true that they're unwillingly there and kept in near-slavery. I don't know but I'm going to find out.

I have to say though that I see myself as more faunus than human with all my time as a faunus now though. My memories of earth have gotten spotty and I'm so much more comfortable with my extra ears. So I can empathize with the faunus a lot on the whole racism and discrimination. I've been kicked out from a few shops before but a fair number of people recognize me from making the news recently so I'm given more leeway than other faunus since… well I'm rich and making the world a safer place from the grimm.

In some eyes I, or Mystic, is practically a saint since I save a lot of lives with my grimm bait. That might get worse when I reveal the repellent in a few months. Halfway through the fiscal year to be precise, at the end of June in two weeks. Most people understand I'm a businessman though so I don't have a cult or anything crazy like that.

I'm emulated by the faunus not only for providing an example but also jobs to the poor faunus and whispers of the white fang supporting me. When asked I gave a small smile and said 'no comment'. That was comment enough though. Nobody actually came out with evidence that I was affiliated with the faunus so I couldn't be charged.

On the side of most humans the poor like me a lot. I don't just employ poor faunus but also some poor humans if they're not utter racists and they get a background check. Most poor humans are friendly with the faunus since most or remnant's population is urban and in the slums you have to be living in a close environment with a lot of faunus. Racism is just not done. It gets you beat up.

With rich humans I'm… not well liked. Businesses want in on my scheme but I'm not running a stock company and I don't have a board of directors or anything like that. I partner with Mahogany officially in a 50/50 split if we ever decide to divvy up the company or the whole thing assigned to Abyss Mavros if need be, being the heir. This all combined means they just plain hate me. I take customers with my goods, making competition, and my goods sold are a new essential for huntsmen and huntresses with how useful they are. I've got a stable and prosperous company that makes others take a hit. That I have promise makes it even worse for them since they can't get in on this without a damn good reason like selling equipment we need.

All that reputation and businesses and spy kid stuff was finally being left behind though. I was leaving it all behind for a summer for a vacation with Bella… this will be fun. I haven't been to any of these places so we actually ahve to road trip the hell out of it. There aren't even roads to site cavern and overgrowth is so far away from civilization that it would take months of bush-whacking to get there without an airship or boat. So I got one, an airship that is, through Roman and also a bunch of fuel that I stored in my inventory.

It's a Mk. 4 Umberwin medium size cruiser. It's a thirty meters commercial cruiser that's outfitted with the best tech around. It was… expensive. About sixty thousand Lien to be precise. It's four rooms (I might need passengers. Also, beacon teams), a miniature kitchen, a tiny living room,and a small common room with a TV through two low roofed floors.

It can land in water though with RADAR and LIDAR capabilities.

It's got a turret on the belly and two on the rear of the craft for defense just in case. There's struts for landing with some hover capabilities through gravity dust so that I can… well, hover and land. It can land in water as well though. It's buoyant, which is pretty much standard fare since with air dust that's really easy to do.

The thrusters are quite good too. It's a speedy, fuel efficient version of an old engine that's pretty widely used. Sure there are faster ones but I don't need the best. I'm fine with simply above average. I can travel at about the speed of sound but I can't see with it and I can't see at that speed. My eyes can take in all the information in the world but sadly I can't process it all. The ship fixes that for me.

It doesn't have have autopilot but that's perfectly fine since it makes up for that with both RADAR and LIDAR. I've long since figured out how to incorporate hard light into my avatars so I can use them in combat properly though they can only take a few hits or slices. It works for the purpose of flying the ship though.

The spell happened in a brainstorm session where I make new spells and the like from what I can do. It doesn't always pay dividends but sometimes I figure out a more efficient way of doing a spell. I've even made a fair few breakthroughs on the level of my shockwaves and pressure spikes. To me it's like a suit of armor, a hotel room, and transport. The guns are only commercial grade sadly.

I only have one since they're a pretty penny to buy and I don't really need two though I might get a spare just in case I need to transport multiple people. I don't need a car since I can consecutively blink faster than any car.

I might need a submarine though… I don't really do so great in water based environments. Most of my attacks rely on air, lightning, or heat. My storm affinity is pretty focused on lightning and wind and less so on water with plasma being completely sacrificed. I can manipulate water better than ever for sure but in an ocean I wouldn't want to trust it. Especially with the giant sea dragon grimm in season four or five or RWBY… I think it was four. And there are MUCH worse grimm in the oceans of RWBY. Like leviathans of the depths that actually really want to kill humans. Scary stuff. I don't want to go down there unless I'm absolutely certain in my ability to kill everything down there without a problem… Okay so I don't like being deep underwater. Big whoop. Dark scary places are dark and scary and totally not meant for people. I like land thank you very much.

Anyways, we have an airship to break in (and learn how to actually pilot. Bella knows. She's going to teach me), locations to visit, a truckload of magical materials and artifacts to collect, a plot to unravel, a teacher to teach, and I'll bet that I'm going to come out of this summer learning a lot.

I had decided against Raven or Ruby joining us. Raven gets to kick back and relax. I mentioned that she can raid some caravans and preserve tradition if she wants but I don't know if she will. Ruby seemed really uncomfortable with saying where she's going but I made her swear up and down that she wasn't doing anything dangerous and told Raven privately to keep an eye on her through her portals. She was already doing that whenever she got bored and didn't feel like watching TV but she agreed that she should use a few more to see what she's doing.

There were a few other candidates to bring along. Roman or Neo were two but I don't really know Neo at all. I'm her boss above even Raven in her eyes and I don't care to change that. Roman is too busy playing Mahogany to leave for a long time. I think he actually being the big man too. He's also pretty weak. Bella is level two hundred sixty four though more than half of her points are in WIS and INT. She's also extremely skilled more than physically powerful a lot like Summer was if Summer had been extremely focused on clandestine operations.

In the end it was just me and Bella. I think I'll reveal magic to Roman eventually though. He'll need to know after a while. I just want to reveal magic only when I need to and Bella needs to.

I really hope this works out.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Hey, um… Yang?"_

" _Wh-uh-um-hi Ruby…"_

" _We need to talk."_

"… _Is this family stuff?"_

" _I'd like to spend the summer with you and Tai."_


	33. Chapter 33

**AN: Ugh. So many nitpicks. Starting now I'm going to be running through the story and making little revisions to it. Currently I'm on chapter 6. I'm making the dialogue properly formatted, changing some strangely phrased sentences, and so on. Now for the stuff that people are still confused or concerned about.**

 **-Formatting: Working to be fixed in the revision that will likely take about a month or so. Hopefully I'll be done around christmas. I'm not going to stop my writing and solely focus on revising but it is happening.**

 **-Abyss' name being edgy: Sure it is pretty edgy. Do you want me to go back through the whole story and change his name to Nathan or something? Sorry but his name is staying. No further complaints are being considered.**

 **-Being all evil and stuff: It is COMPLETELY UP TO YOU on whether Abyss is evil or not. I have my opinion and others have yours. It's a pretty big theme of the story actually. I'm not going to try to convince anyone of one thing or another.**

 **-The food thing: It doesn't play a big part of the story at all but I did mention that Abyss' homunculi body needs food. I screwed up with that. My bad. At least it doesn't play a part in the story at all since Abyss can just store food in his soul-space but I still wrote it and it's to be completely disregarded and pretty soon I'll delete it as I revise the chapters. He can still eat though. Food is consumable but it's just for taste and social norms.**

 **-Ice forest Ruby: I wasn't trying to make her seem useful or anything. Literally all she did was shoot rose eclipse at things. That's it. I don't know how it would seem 'forced' when she literally only did that. It's a one hit K.O. basically so long as she can get the shot in unless it's one of the bigger foes. Eclipse Rose is OP and it's supposed to seem that way.**

 **-Yang feeling OOC to everyone: I think Yang takes after her father a lot. She took after his color scheme and his name being the biggest part of it. Even when he's being really spineless in his depression Yang is still listening to him because he's her dad and she's a kid. A hotheaded kid but still a kid. She also thinks that Ruby is happy (which she mostly is) so her interference would be selfish and disrupt her precious sister's happiness. That's my interpretation and that's all**

 **changing soon with Ruby spending the summer with Yang anyways. If you disagree that's alright. But I'm writing it as I have been.**

 **-OP bad guys: Mmmm… define bad guys. There's Abyss, Raven, Ruby, and Torchwick being the main players on one side, Ozpin, Glynda, Qrow, Ironwood, Winter, and possibly the Arc clan on another, and Salem, Cinder, Hazel, Tyrian, and Watts on the last side. With some chaos mixed in. Jaune, Ember, Weiss, Blake, Adam, and probably some other characters are going to shake things up a lot too. I don't think any one side is too OP. Abyss, Salem, and Ozpin are the flagship powers of their factions and all three are OP as all hell (in this fic at least).**

 **I can't see any of those three factions as truly OP. Sure Abyss feels OP at the moment but remember Ozpin's stats? He's insane - and do you really think he's millenia old without getting not just a bag of tricks but more like a whole sack of them? Going head to head Abyss would be crushed so hard. And Salem, I can tell you now, is no different AT ALL. Abyss is strong from a personal point of view but he isn't exactly OP against a whole organization combined and he isn't near the strongest when you come to people like Icmant or other beasties hiding in forgotten and sealed places.**

 **So anyways… Bad guys? OP? Don't be ridiculous. Everyone is OP.**

 **-Pairing: So yeah I'm planning a pairing though exactly who it is isn't completely decided. I'm going to write Abyss some more with those characters and see how it goes. He is NOT getting together with Ruby or Raven. They're his aunt and sister. Just want to clarify that now.**

 **Next year is Blake and Weiss being around Abyss with their own agendas, Yang getting in touch with Abyss and Ruby once more (And where is Raven? That might be messy), and forever fall finally getting explored. Year three and four of signal are getting cut since I've been in pre-canon SO long. People have pointed it out that it's getting to be like a slice -of-life practically and I agree. I'm aiming for maybe seven or eight chapters before beacon starts at most.**

[||||= **LEVEL 33** = ||||]

 **Bella Opaque**

 **Titles: Professional operator; Silent legend**

 **Level – 264**

 **HP – 4872**

 **AP – 17,760**

 **STR - 126 (+435%)= 548.1**

 **VIT - 112 (+435%)= 487.2**

 **DEX - 281 (+435%)= 1222.35**

 **INT - 419 (+0%)= 419**

 **WIS - 444 (+0%)= 444**

 **LUK - 38 (+0%)= 38**

 **Semblance: Anonymous - You will naturally remain unnoticed unless actively searched for or in direct line of sight with aura. Peripheral vision in use against you is far less effective even passively. With the use of aura it is more potent. Does not defend against sensing your aura due to using your semblance or direct sensory input such as touch or taste although sight is directed away from you and your actions are less noticeable, noise you produce is muffled, and smell is negated entirely.**

 **Affinities: [LOCKED]**

 **Perks: None**

 **Bio: Bella Opaque was raised under a pair of poor trapeze artists in a travelling circus before they opened a gym in Vale in her early teens and trained in the natural gymnastics of her parent's profession. She decided against following their profession and instead pursued a career as a huntress.**

 **Bella did not do well in school in direct combat or academics (due to her poor education) and was bullied for a time until she decided to take matters into her own hands and sabotage the reputation and grades of her aggressors with her natural penchant for stealth and speed.**

 **She realized her talent and joined the subterfuge and intelligence class of shade despite the official class registration being closed off by pranking them without being detected, leaving a hint, and being recruited after dropping said hint as a callsign of authenticity.**

 **Bella spent her educational period as a huntress at Beacon academy and, despite barely making it in due to her barely passing combat scores, got high marks in everything but combat ability. She took the path less travelled and seperated from her team, whom she had never gotten along with due to her dedication to the art of subterfuge and the far more common and traditional ideal of bravery, service, and honor.**

 **She was immediately recruited as a commando at twenty two for the black huntsmen operations of Vale in a counterterrorism unit and proved herself to be valedictorian of her training camp due to her proficiency in not one but two silent weapons, her stealth based semblance, her already notable skill at aura control, and her general talent and agility.**

 **Bella served for four years as a commando, four more in a deep cover operation in Atlas under direct orders from Ozpin with the intention of passing a trail of hints to one captain (Later colonel) James Ironwood, the contents of said messages still unknown to Bella, and finally seven years returning to counterterrorism as a field operator focusing on operations in Mantle and training recruits before entering a pseudo retirement.**

 **Despite not being much more skilled than the average huntress in direct combat Bella is extremely adept at a variety of subterfuge based skills such as hostage scenarios, general stealth, persuasion, hacking, lockpicking, silent takedowns, pocket picking, bomb making and defusing, psychology, and far far more.**

 **She is not nearly as known publicly as the 'heroes' such as Summer Rose or Glynda Goodwitch due to her less than heroic choice in career yet she is the best spy of in several generations though she is somewhat closely matched by Qrow Branwen (not that Qrow realizes, her operations heavily classified on a need-to-know basis) in everything but combat, where he far surpasses her.**

It wasn't hard to admit that Bella was a fantastic spy. I had known that for a long time. I suppose I can see why Ozpin never hired her. Bella isn't and never really was a hero nor ever interested in playing it. She's not the 'save the world' sort of person and she's not the kind of person Ozpin really needs either. He can have Qrow, a person who is completely loyal to him, manage his information gathering, arguably the most important part of an engagement. He also seems to work on as small a scale as possible when it comes to his confidantes in magic and Salem and such.

Screw that. That's what I say.

I needed a Summer. Someone who I can utterly trust to my last breath and inspire others to move beyond who they are with their ideals. I got Ruby. She isn't the person who completely aligns with me but she'll have my back to the grave whether it's mine or her own. She's family.

I needed an Ironwood. They don't have to be completely loyal but when I call to arms they need to understand to do their damndest to get me guns in a full blown army. That's Roman. He can defend himself but he's so much more valuable at the head of my version of an army.

I needed a Glynda. Someone to make things actually run while I'm away so that I can keep my eyes on the big and small pictures. That's Raven. She keeps things straight and tidy. If need be she can also kick ass completely and utterly. I suppose I got the better deal.

I need a Qrow. Someone who knows people. Someone who can know things. Someone that will reach out and learn absolutely everything that might be important. Sure Roman does that a bit but he only knows criminals. Nothing on Salem or the real players in this shadow war that I'm so dragged into. I'm sure Ozpin has all sorts of loyalists to him whispering things in his ears just like Roman.

I need a person that will help to guide me. Light the way so to speak. There's going to be a lot of things hidden from me. I can name a few off the top of my head. The relics. Ozpin and Salem's past. The managuard. I have no doubts that there are a few smaller organizations like the managuard. There still might be some.

This is why I need Bella. I can't fly blind. I can't play the game without a full set. It's not done. But I have one. I've been planning for quite a while.

Raven is my queen. The most competent. The most deadly. She is everywhere and anywhere covering the angles from across the whole board if need be.

Ruby is my first bishop. She'll shoot from across the board if need be and I know she'll help me with all she can give. She isn't a queen yet. She isn't strong. But she at least knows this and might get to be great sooner than I thought.

Cesium is my second bishop. Perhaps not now but he will be. He's preparing to be a man who will manage to rally others to fall giants together. He's not a beast like I or Raven. He will bring others to a banner that doesn't exist yet. He just has to want to be that person.

Bella will be my first knight. I know she will be there when the time comes reaching around in ways that hopefully catches others off guard.

For my second knight I have an open hand. Perhaps Pyrrha. Maybe Weiss or Blake or even someone like Winter. I never claimed to have a ready army at my call. I'm still growing and I hope I never stop.

Jaune will be my first rook. If all goes well he'll be a tank that defends everyone with his life. I don't want to manipulate him. I ruined his life in a moment of rashness and I don't regret if. I can't if I try. He's there and he's staying.

Roman will be my second rook. He's an unstoppable force that will send the full might of not an army but an empire founded on the willing sacrifices of the citizens in exchange for the offerings of goods while his darker half robs them blind. He's a new Jacques. A rising goliath of industry. I just need to keep lifting him up to greater heights.

I have some few pawns. Kerrigan, the loyal friend and a fighter when it matters. Ocean, the next Bella with all the skills of an assassin and the loyalty that manipulators like myself treasure.

I would say that Pyrrha still lies here as a pawn for now. She's strong but weak to the influences of others. If she can manage to beat that flaw in herself I'll gladly become closer to her. I might have Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie here as well. Maybe Yang if a time comes to show her the truth. Even someone like that chameleon girl or Adam Taurus though I doubt it. Even entities might be here. Nature's bounty, for example. The underworld machination Roman has conquered.

But still none of these people are a king. A king isn't the strongest piece. In fact more often than not he doesn't act. He brings these pieces together. He uses them like a well ordered machine. He's the leader. The object of the game. He's the piece that we simply can't quite place a value on.

I can't say I'm anything less than a king in this game. It's something I set myself as. I could have lowered myself into a nice tidy role at Ozpin's side or defected to Salem at any point. I could even have huddled myself away and lived like some normal child with Summer. I had people that wanted such a thing. Summer would have been thrilled to adopt me though I never felt the same. I could have allied myself with a kingdom and gone all out with a company like nature's bounty and hid behind a prosperous nation.

But I didn't.

None of those options are okay with me. None of those let me do what I want. I'm not some limited piece in need of protecting but I can't stand alone. So I'll play with people like they're chess pieces. It's a bad practice but still… I don't have to sink too far down. I can trust the people I have on my side. I can work hard to never have to sacrifice them 'for the greater good'. I can even improve remnant for the better along the way though I've done that plenty already. I just hope this can all work out to be better than it was before. Mutually assured destruction isn't an option.

[|||| == ||||]

" _The winter maiden is somewhere in patch. Unfortunately I was unable to locate where exactly on the island. Somebody hid their mana through some method."_

" _Only took you two months…"_

" _I had to find Dianthus' dying magical signature from halfway across remnant and track it as it warped to fit a new host before the perpetrator disappeared from the area. The teleportation was entirely done with aura laced with some unknown magical signature. The new maiden wasn't even detected in patch until yesterday when a spell was casted outside. I had to latch onto those very faint traces from that small spell and use it to find a location. The signature was made untraceable, I'm sure. It isn't particularly difficult. On the other hand, the locating ritual I performed would be called impossible by some."_

" _Could the new maiden have hid their signature themselves?"_

" _There are methods of doing so, yes, but to instantaneously hide all their mana from detection by the ritual means that they either conducted a ritual, used an artifact of some sort, have a magic user keeping their mana suppressed, or are using any number of tricks."_

" _Tricks?"_

" _Projecting their magical signature into another dimension, changing their magical signature to reflect as someone else's, warping it through a spell akin to the soul hearth spell Abyss used years ago, keeping their reserves of mana constantly low or even empty to weaken the signature enough to lose it, conducting a rapid change in affinities to confuse the ritual I performed and cause it to fail as it did, or a hundred other ways around one of the most likely solutions."_

" _I see… Salem?"_

" _I don't believe so. She is not so… spontaneous. She likes to plot and plan before a large strike of several blows at once. This still may be her work but I don't believe so."_

" _Well we have a resident wizard on Patch right now."_

" _He was the first culprit, yes. However none of my books mentioned the maidens. Add on to that the winter maiden was in Atlas, which to my knowledge he has never been to. Do you know where he was the day Dianthus died?"_

" _He was at signal. I asked a few of his teachers and he was in their classes… but then he took a few sick days… but normally he just pulls weight to get out of classes. Everyone thought he was actually sick this time."_

" _Perhaps there is a link to it or he is an accomplice. Do you know where he is?"_

" _He's on some sort of road trip."_

" _Oh dear. He may be visiting the reserves."_

" _The magic places?"_

" _The sites of high magical attunement, yes. He visited Methanthelios' old stomping grounds and released that old demon through some foolishness. He managed to kill it through his precursor silver eyes and some trickery with runes, a railgun, and some specially made bullets. Rather clever tactics but still risky."_

" _Right… well should I track him down?"_

" _Do you believe you can?"_

" _He leaves from patch today in four hours in an airship. I can't fly that far and the ships are too slow. Maybe with a personal bullhead. Otherwise no."_

" _I'll make a portal for us to both see him. It has been some time since I last met with him."_

" _Wait… you could always do that?"_

" _Obviously. I simply cannot teleport to a person, however, without a sample of their mana. Only a landscape not thick in an a mana I am unattuned to."_

" _You wizards just… fine. I'll interrogate the kid. Keep the portal open so I can come back and meet with you again."_

" _Of course."_

" _Anything else?"_

" _Glynda found Dianthus' body. She was cleaved in half. The wound is too messy to properly figure out what weapon was used but we know the blade was curved and that she was killed execution style. With such a brutal killing the murderer had some reason to make it so messy. I trust you to use this information to your advantage."_

" _So it wasn't Abyss unless he's being a sneaky cunning little brat… so it could definitely be Abyss."_

" _His rebellious and cunning streak doesn't put him in a good light. However, I don't believe he was directly involved in the death of Dianthus. Perhaps he orchestrated it but I do not believe it. He has no motive to do so besides the allure of power, which he has."_

" _I don't want to think he did it… but unless he has a favor to pull with my sister and she's become some sort of prodigal sorceress, which is a horrible thought that should never see the light of day, he's the only one in remnant who can make portals across the world… well apparently you can I suppose."_

" _Yes. Let us hope Abyss has some answers for us. Otherwise you will have to find your sister. She is, as you said, the only other person capable of teleporting across remnant."_

[|||| == ||||]

I had plans to meet up with Bella at one o'clock. Before that, though, I had to go shopping for supplies. I purchased some climbing gear, weapons maintenance supplies, and whatever I felt would be nice to have for the airship. Mainly dishes for eating on and a guidebook to airship mechanics, which was a skillbook I ate. Then I practiced on dummy parts. I got a small motor and repeatedly broke parts and fixed them. I got to level eight after two hours of practice. Then some undesirables came along.

"Mister Mavros." I stifled a groan at the voice of the only other wizard in remnant. I do NOT need this right now. I spun around on my swivel chair from the motor to see Qrow and Ozpin standing right behind me. How I hadn't noticed them I have no idea but maybe I should put runic protections around this hangar. Sure I just got it a few days ago but my ship is here and I have a tiny airship workshop as well.

"Hey kid." Qrow said breezily. "Do you know about the maidens?"

I blinked. Had that never come up? I really don't want anything to do with whatever mess is going on. "No."

"Bullshit." He called me out without a second of pause. Well there I go looking suspicious. "What do you know about Dianthus Null? She was the last winter maiden."

I feigned looking a little ticked off that they called me out rather than . This is rather sudden but I'm not giving them more reason to keep an eye on me… or Ruby. Or know about Raven. Man I have a lot of secrets don't I?

"I know Summer and I went after one when you sent her on that last mission and I linked them to that fairy tale but I don't know anything about any Dianthus Null…" This could be a good time to learn what they know actually. "You said she WAS the winter maiden… so she's what, dead?"

Qrow looked flatly at me. "I expected better. Aren't you the spymaster or something?" I rolled my eyes.

"Fine. I know Dianthus Null died in a town called Winterhold. I know just about everything about the maidens except for a few sketchy spots. Beyond that figure it out yourself. Now you want what? Who killed her? I don't know and I don't care. That's all your problem."

Ozpin gave me a measuring look. I didn't like it. "Somebody teleported from Winterhold to patch using aura laced with mana." I didn't hide my surprise. How had they figured that out?!

"Teleporting… and mana laced with aura?… Wait… you think I'm an accomplice or something?" The two were silent. "Sorry to disappoint but I have enough on my plate. School is easy but it is time consuming. Check signal's cameras."

"You know the remote avatar spell." Ozpin pointed out.

"And you have aura that you can lace with mana don't you?" I retorted. "That doesn't mean you're going around killing maidens. The same goes for being a headmaster. Poor Glynda. So many papers." Summer had told me that one. Qrow chuckled a little but Ozpin remained stoic.

"Do you have any evidence that you weren't the teleporter?" Ozpin asked.

"You don't have any evidence that I was or wasn't. Are you done throwing around accusations when there's really no evidence? I know that you could make a marker teleporter easily with enchantments or runes. Maybe there's an old chapter of the managuard or a resurgence of a similar organization. There could be a maiden converting her friends or a movement from whoever Ashaya Fall was affiliated to, which you've done a marvellous job covering up by the way. Care to share?" Ozpin was silent. I could tell he was thinking.

For a half a minute or so he just stood there staring at me. It was pretty unnerving actually. Ozpin makes a scary sight since I know how powerful he is.

"You know something." He concluded. Of course he figured it out…

"Fine." I relented. "I know a little. Just a little bit." Ozpin looked at me intently. I was silent for a moment as I thought up a convincing lie to tell him. Obviously I'm not telling him about Ruby or Raven. The best thing to do would be to set him on a wild goose-chase against Salem. He'll find nothing and assume it's her being crafty as usual instead of me giving him incorrect information. That is if I can pull it off. I'd prefer tell him something that appeases him but ultimately doesn't help him. It's a bit easier for me to pull off.

"… There is a man named Hazel Rainheart." Ozpin didn't emote but I got a feeling I set off an alarm in his head. "He was targeted by my information network as a suspicious individual. He was in Winterhold for a small amount of time before leaving on the same day Dianthus died. I have my own commitments and problems so I didn't pursue him. Now leave."

"Rainheart…" Ozpin said with the smallest hint of sadness in his tone. He waited a moment, not leaving like I told him to, before casually walking out. "Do enjoy your trip Mister Mavros. Please refrain from awakening any more ancient evils." I scowled before turning back to my motor. That was stressful… and surprising. Then my ear twitched.

Without any sound at all my hand whipped out and threw a throwing knife from my inventory at the intruder. I heard my knife hitting the thin metal wall of the hangar hard enough to punch through. Oops.

"Nice to see you on time, Bella." I said without looking up. A soft sigh was heard before she stood up. She really doesn't need to stand up. I couldn't hear her because of her semblance and skill at stealth but my storm affinity sensed the air displacement she made. It was close though. Very close. She's gotten much better.

"Was that Ozpin that just left here?" Bella asked with a frown.

"He wanted to know about a very important murder case. The culprit teleported so he came to me for advice." I explained.

"A murder? Who?"

"I'll tell you all about it on the flight. Go check out the controls would you? I'd prefer to set out soon."

Bella took one last look at me before walking to the airship and looking at the base of a strut. She reached out and flipped open the control panel easily, taking a look at everything. Fuel, systems, electrical breakers, and so on.

A whistle came from her. "This is a nice ship. Kind of underarm Ed for the trip though. These things aren't meant for airways that aren't controlled you know?"

"I know. Don't worry about it. It has more weapons than you think."

"Hm." Bella hit a switch and the ship ladder fell down to the ground. She climbed it swiftly and I put away everything with my parallels using motion magic to clean the hangar.

Bella was going over the controls. There were a bunch of buttons with labels I couldn't really understand. I think it's all pilot lingo for things that became official from such widespread use.

"Can you fly it?" I asked.

"Oh definitely. It's not terribly complex. You should see some experimental bullheads. They're so much worse. The only problem with this is that a couple of normally manual processes were made automatic. The stabilizers are automatic so doing evasive maneuvers is out of the question, which is pretty stupid if you ask me. There's also temperature control, which we can only alter a few degrees for 'safety reasons'. It's a huge power sink if we go into a cold climate."

"Leave them for now. I can get on altering the temperature problem and probably find something for those stabilizers." I have my airship mechanics skill at eight, which should probably suffice. "It might be best if you're there to help out so I don't harm the ship but I know what I'm doing."

"You know safety protocols?" Bella eyed me like she already knew the answer.

"Don't be stupid, wear protection, and always think before you act."

A soft snort escaped her. "Precision, protection, and proper behavior. You're pretty close for making that up on the spot. I'll show you some moves when we touch down for the night."

"Sounds good." It was amusing that my luck stat came through for me there, being close to the mark. "When will you be ready to take off?"

"Now. Is there some packing of your own you need to do or do you have everything settled?"

I had moved all the tools and bags onto the ship already through my parallels doing some work while we talked so… "Yes. I'm ready."

"Fine. Let me get my bags and we'll get out of here."

"I already moved them into the second bedroom for you." I said. She looked at me pointedly before walking off to explore the ship for her bags.

I shook my head. This would take a little while. Ready to go my ass.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Hi dad. So, um… You know how you told me to not ruin Ruby's happiness?"_

" _Oh no sunflower you didn't."_

" _She's staying the summer!… Ruby get in here."_

" _Uh, hi dad. Nice to see you after so long."_

"… _Hi Ruby."_

[|||| == ||||]

We eventually got out around one forty five. It could be worse. Bella wore some casual attire I had never actually seen her in. Normally she looked a lot like Blake from the show except with some more grey and black colors than black and white. She never wore a coat either.

She had on black sweatpants, socks, and a T shirt… That's it. No shoes or anything. Just a shirt and sweatpants. I guess I can't blame her. Well be on board for a while. Might as well get comfortable now.

Flying out was pretty simple. We waited for a route heading south and Vale flight command did some hand holding until we got out if the city limits, where we rose in elevation until Bella was satisfied and she put it on autopilot.

The RADAR and LIDAR have a higher detection range than I do, stretching about two hundred miles or so away. I could reach what, twenty? Thirty maybe? I'll leave the system to do it's thing.

"Sooooo… Are we doing the whole 'curtain thing now?'"

"Magic is real." I say bluntly. Bella rolls her eyes.

"I thought we were starting this off seriously?" In response I pulled on my light affinity and made a sword made of hard light. Bella stared at it for a moment blankly.

"Roll up your sleeve." She said. I did so and she narrowed her eyes, finding that there wasn't any tech on me. Remnant has shielding systems and hard light but nothing like what I'm doing. It's all semblances and shielding.

I decided to prove it a bit more and pulled on the metal affinity I got from the mimic. A ball of iron formed in my hand and I tossed it up and down a few times. Bella just stared at it.

I played around with some other stuff while Bella just watched me like some sort of alien being. I tossed lightning around between my hands, ate that metal ball with my consumption affinity, and generally messed around. Eventually, though, I got bored.

Deciding to end this with a shock factor I made another blade of hard light. I vibrated it as fast as I could with the light and motion affinities working in tandem.

I pulled back my aura and Bella stood straight in alarm as I was about to stab the sword into my gut… Well I was going to heal it anyways.

"No!" Bella leapt st the sword. I could have done it anyways but I shrugged and dispelled the sword.

"I can heal myself you know?"

"Sure. Got it. Magic is… A thing. Definitely a thing." She seemed to believe me but her mind was racing. "This explains a lot…"

"Ozpin and I are wizards." I clarified. "There are magical hotspots all over. They're what the Managuard, an old Valean military organization, was investigating. There's a whole conspiracy and a lot of denial of what people see versus what they know. The grimm have a queen, you know?"

Bella was nearly catatonic at this point. I sighed and stood up before walking over to my room. "I'll be back in a minute." I called.

A minute later I came back with some weapons, magical artifacts I had made for Bella so she doesn't get K.O'd in the sites, and a few items for demonstration like a lightsaber I had made. It's really not hard with some lightning and projected mana.

"So…" Bella started. "Magic and conspiracies is… It's there. So that's all great but what do I have to do with this?"

"There it is. The big question." I made eye contact t with her. "You have nothing to do with it whatsoever." Bella frowned in some confusion. "You're not getting dragged into this. Yet. But you have my trust, which is scarce enough as is, so you'll probably be approached by Ozpin to be a double agent for me or killed off quietly sooner or later."

Bella still didn't talk and I took it as an invitation to keep talking. "Ozpin has a good few notable characters on his side. Glynda Goodwitch, James Ironwood, and Qrow Branwen being his inner circle." Bella grimaced but didn't seem overly surprised.

"Then there's Salem. The queen of the grimm. She's the first grimm and as cunning as all hell. Her inner circle consists of more shadowy figures but with as much if not more power than Ozpin. She has Tyrian something, a deadly assassin of some sort, Hazel Rainheart, a former huntsman I think, Watts, a scientist, and Cinder Fall, the daughter of Ashaya Fall, the woman who killed Summer Rose."

"Oh dust shit… I really fell into the deep end here." Bella looked down at the table with that thinking look of hers.

"It gets worse." I assure her. "Both sides are locked in a shadow war and have been at it for centuries. Maybe more like millenia. It escalated when Ozpin conducted a mighty ritual of some sort that made the maiden's of the four seasons."

"You...you're fucking joking." Bella asked in disbelief. "That children's story?! That's causing a global shadow war?!"

"The fairy tale is just that. A fairy tale. I'm sure the reality is more gruesome. Other fairy tales are real as well. The silver eyed warriors for one. I believe there's one about mighty warriors with semblances towards aura that's around too."

"Never heard of it. And silver eyes? Like yours?"

"Almost." I allowed. "Your eyes could be pink, silver, rainbow, or polka-dots, but it would mean less than dirt. What matters is the magical component in them. Don't worry over it."

Bella nodded. "So what does Ozpin want?"

"He wants Salem dead." I said bluntly. "He reincarnated after death and is cursed to do so forever until Salem defeats him or he somehow undoes a curse of godly proportions. After Salem's first victory over mankind he was the last survivor. She left him alive to record her future conquests since his semblance is photographic memory."

Normally I wouldn't tell this to anyone but I know that Bella might disagree with my methods. That would mean running to Ozpin and telling him most everything. That includes his supposed purpose. I don't want Bella to be smited by Althea but if she runs to Ozpin… Well I really would feel horrible. It's a vote of trust and a measure of security pending possible betrayal.

"Most recently Salem has been more inactive than usual to my knowledge. Likely gathering strength and followers such as Cinder and possibly her sister Ember Fall, whom I don't have any knowledge about. Ozpin can't act against her and is more focused on maintaining Beacon, raising stronger hunters, and keeping the kingdoms stable. Well… To my knowledge."

"I see. And you're doing… What? You have your uncle's company and… What else?"

I had already planned this all so I was prepared to answer. "I have a powerful huntress turned maiden that I have been personally training in magic, Ruby is a budding silver eyed warrior, and best of all is the company."

"Nature's bounty is backed by Roman Torchwick, who works for Mystic Mavros, who is just me in an illusion, and manages both the entire criminal underworld of Vale and the legitimate company, which grows crops augmented by magic."

Bella stared at me. Then she shook a little bit. Then harder. With a suddenness that surprised me a little bit she broke into laughter at the whole ordeal. I just watched her amusedly as she let it all out.

It wasn't happy laughter. More like the bitter, stressed laughter of a person with too much happening at once.

After what felt like a long time Bella got in control of herself. "Ahem… Sorry."

"Sure." I didn't mind really.

"So you still haven't answered my question. What is it you want? And not just from me. You have this secret order that seemingly controls Vale so… What do you want? Why would you need me?"

"Well as for needing you I don't. However I do want your help. I have Roman as an information network but I know you have tricks and experience in information gathering he doesn't. Besides that I know you're also extremely proficient at wet work and maintaining a double agent cover."

Bella frowned. "And why do you think that?"

"Your classified cover work at Atlas. The messages to Ironwood. They were to recruit him to Ozpin's cause most likely."

Bella didn't even react at my knowledge of her deep cover job. It wasn't really important anyways. Not in the grand scheme of things.

"As for what I want… Well it started as a desire from freedom. I was born a wizard. Born to be pulled into Ozpin's and Salem's game. I didn't really have a choice. I tried once. I just left into the Vacuan desert and managed about a year before it was either leave or go insane. Summer Rose found me and took me in."

"Thats all the past. What I want is still freedom but there are two more things I want. The first is answers. I have a lot of mysteries I don't know and there are too many holes in what I know. I want them filled. Living in ignorance isn't my style."

"Finally is freedom. Not the freedom to run around but the freedom to do as I please. Hiding from Ozpin and the Queen isn't freedom. I'd be a rat in a maze getting cornered. Fighting directly is just as bad. If I fought as hard as I could - going all out - I could match Ozpin. Maybe Salem if Lady luck smiled on me in the middle of a blue moon."

"But killing Ozpin just let's him reincarnate. Killing Salem is impossible. For me at least. But I know people who can kill her. Several, actually."

"I help them and Ozpin hopefully dies off and Salem's deader than dead. I have Vale at my beck and call with Roman managing it and I can get some peace with my family. Does that answer your question?"

"Almost." Bella said seriously. "You want Salem dead… So That Ozpin can die. So why not buddy up with Ozpin?"

I rolled my eyes. "Difference in morality and operations. I won't lie. I've killed a lot of people. Maybe a hundred." An understanding look came from Bella. "I didn't enjoy it and I have never killed an innocent person but I have condemned one and people have done bad deeds on my behalf."

"Ozpin is different. He raises his army through the kingdoms. The huntress es and huntsmen he raises up through his academies are his army. He never tells his true objectives until he has to. Parinoia after being alive so long I think."

"I tell secrets somewhat more freely and lie more outside the law, as seen with my criminal empire. He's the law and I'm the criminal. Freedom versus security. Knowledge versus safety. That noble huntsman Valor and my more vicious tactics."

Bella was silent. "Okay. I think I understand somewhat."

"If you don't want to join me I understand. I can teleport you straight out of here and you can run to Ozpin or live in continued ignorance. I won't blame you either way."

"I don't know." She said. "Look you've been seemingly honest so far but… I want to check my sources. Maybe talk to Ozpin and definately Qrow."

"I can still teleport you to Qrow. Do you want some time?"

"Yes."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Oz… who's this?"_

" _She's the reason why I called you all here. This is Crimson Arc-"_

" _Hi."_

" _-Glynda and I can vouch for her as a member. She's already aware of the supernatural and competent. Roughly the level of you, Ironwood, if I had to guess."_

" _You already told her about magic?!"_

" _No. She knew already. The entire Arc family knows as a matter of fact."_

" _So Oz… why do we need a new member?"_

" _To handle Abyss if need be and run what responsibilities Summer would have had."_

" _Finally! She has my vote!"_

" _We don't even know if she's trustworthy!"_

" _I'll admit that Oz's judgement has been shaky but Glynda isn't much of an optimist. In fact, why are you voting her in anyways?"_

" _I taught her. She was my favorite student and helped me to get a hold of teaching."_

" _Thank you. I'm sure you would have gotten it eventually."_

" _I still don't know why she should have MY vote. If I recall we all need to agree and at least one maiden."_

" _Amber met her on a call yesterday. Before you rescheduled. Glynda and I stood witness to her casting her vote in. That's four of five for allowing her in."_

"… _Fine. She'll be monitoring Mavros? How?"_

" _Not monitoring him exactly. He has run out of control more times than he should. Vacuo and our most recent maiden incident being the largest incidents. However, he also is growing at a nearly exponential rate although he seems to have levelled out somewhat recently. Miss Arc's job will be to identify his weaknesses and keep watch on him to be sure he doesn't do something drastic. As a secondary precaution she will also train to combat other rogue elements should they appear."_

" _Oz I get what you're saying but he's matched me plenty of times and nearly beaten me a few others. I'm not going to say I'm the best but I'm one of them at least. Is she up to the task?"_

" _I am more than capable of combating Mavros. Not beating him but I'm certain I can match him for a long time if he performs at the level as he displayed during your spars with him or during the tournament. I'm not stealthy or cunning but I can fight with the best of them and track a snake across a desert in a sandstorm. I can keep track of him and I can get stronger given some time and training."_

" _As she said Miss Arc is a fighter and one of the best. I've already provided her with a ring that will teleport me to her in case of emergencies."_

" _What?! Why don't I get one of those?!"_

" _Because you're not supposed to be a fighter and when you turn to a crow's form you faintly emit mana. It would activate the runic matrix whenever you changed."_

" _But I-"_

" _Shut it Branwen. Back to business what about these rogue elements you mentioned?"_

" _Raven Branwen has disappeared from my view."_

" _Oh shit what's sis doing now?"_

" _Something unpleasant I would presume. Abyss, Raven, agents of the queen, traitors to mankind, and whoever she has to fight as they appear. She'll be specialized to fight enemies we know of as well."_

" _Specialized how?"_

" _That's none of your business. I do think, though, that if I was prepared enough I could beat your sister one on one. Think of me sort of like a bounty hunter in a way."_

" _I see. And Sum's jobs?"_

" _I'll be hunting grimm if they get too out of control. Possibly with you if I have to. Maybe this Winter girl Ozpin mentioned."_

" _Don't loan my specialist out, Ozpin."_

" _I do what I must. Now for the more mundane matters…"_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	34. Chapter 34

**AN: This chapter was a bitch to get out and good LORD is it long. 12k words. First was thanksgiving where I had three family friends staying in the same house as me, which is NOT conductive to writing and I've tried to get through the sites quickly so we might one day get to beacon. I had to rewrite a few parts because of this. Besides all of that I had a plot bunny that would just not stop so I gave in and tried writing it out a little bit and now I have potentially a new story to put out. I just need to wait until season 6 ends so I can properly keep the potential new fic up to date with the lore.**

 **Editing is continuing at a somewhat steady pace. I'm doing 5 chapters per every new chapter I put out. Expect a stream of notifications about me updating chapters in this fic. Sorry about those but I do need to work on polishing this fic up a little in the beginning. It's necessary I think.**

 **Progress towards second year and from there beacon is going strong. I know well that I'm leaning heavily on the 'family' side of the two tags of the story. It's slow going but this was a major jump ahead. Next chapter will be ending the summer, a glimpse as to what the subI group has been up to (You see a little bit from Cesium this chapter) and We'll introduce Weiss and Blake. Hehehe. This is going to be fun.**

 **On a last note school winter concerts are coming up strong and I'm going to be busy for a little while. Next chapter might be late. Winter break should be some prime writing time at least. Hopefully I'm not swamped in packets and have some inspiration.**

[||||= **LEVEL 34** = ||||]

"Abyss! You finally called! How have your adventures gone?!" The infinite source of energy exclaimed with bright eyes.

"Terrible." I replied flatly. On the screen of my scroll Ruby blinked at my flat answer and looked at me silently for a moment rather than babbling. Her chatter cut off for a moment as she looked at me and understandably so.

Bella and I had just gotten out from our second site, site cavern. It had been much worse than I had thought. Giant worms that burrow up from under your feet, moles that could spit acid that they used to 'chew' (more like drool) their way through solid stone, and a nest of giant blind pale spiders that sensed heat, mana, and vibrations were the second worst parts especially since the moles were the dominant species of the underground, resulting in hundreds of moles coming at me at a time.

The worst part was that The earth mana was thick. I thought site frost was bad but that place's mana was weakened from the desert and sustaining miles of icy forest from the ambient mana of one angry frost demon. Site cavern was different. It was in it's natural environment and deep in it. There wasn't anything but earth and dirt for miles and miles anywhere. The earth mana was so thick that it costed more than ten times more mana than normal for any spell. Projectile spells wouldn't even work since they had to travel through that sluggish and nearly suffocating earth mana. Not that it would have done any good. I couldn't see past my skin with mage sight and there wasn't a speck of light to be seen.

With projectile spells gone, mage sight gone, there wasn't any light, and deadly creatures were about, all of which could dig faster than Ruby could run (ignoring her semblance) I had a pretty tough time. I resorted to taking iron spikes out of my soul space and throwing them with motion mana.

Bella? Oh she was fine. She's stealthy enough to not be detected since everything saw through vibration and I runed her clothes to not emit heat. I learned a lot. It's one of the only two positives of the mission. I learned a mountain's worth of stealth tricks and techniques from the horrible challenge of getting nearly eaten alive every five minutes by worms and fighting every other minute with a giant spider or a mole-man.

That said the managuard base was the breeding ground of the giant spiders. There wasn't even anything useful inside besides some gold ingots in a vault. The site was used as a moneymaker since the cavern was ripe with various metals. Why do I care? I'm already rich…

Having just gotten out of the site I looked like shit. I was covered in spider blood, my eyes were reddened by the spider blood, which was unsurprisingly an eye irritant, my aura was still completely empty since it was continuously healing the venom still in my veins (some acid might have gotten into my bloodstream too), My clothes were half torn or melted off, and I had barely any mana left and it wasn't regenerating. A spider-leech could suck mana or aura out of you and generally be a dick. It disrupted my soul and I still had the status effect for another hour.

Bella had acid burns over her right shoulder and left thigh and probably some venom in her still. I had pumped her full of life mana, healing her, but she was still pretty hurt. It would take a day and a half of treatment to heal her, I imagine.

I should clarify that my HP is at MAX. That doesn't mean I don't look like shit. I have the acid burn, leeched, deafened, fatigued, and poisoned status effects on me and I can't cure those. There's nothing to do but give them time. Luckily site daylight should give me a small break.

"OHMYGOSHAREYOUOKAY?!" I didn't actually mind the noise. That deafened status effect was somewhat useful right about now. I could only understand Ruby by reading her lips.

"No I'm not okay. I'm deaf, poisoned, my aura is empty and trying to heal my ailments as fast as it's being created, and so on. Also my clothes are torn and mangled. Bella is alright though."

Ruby looked at me with concerned eyes. "You'll be okay, right?"

"I'll be fine with some bedrest and spellwork." Ruby breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah… phew! Okay so… did you learn anything?" I almost smiled at how easily she put my injuries behind her. She's come a long way from an innocent little girl. I think she also knows I don't like being fussed over.

"Nothing. The base was ruined by a colony of giant spiders. They're the reason for most of my injuries." Ruby grimaced at the mention of giant spiders.

"And what caused you most of your injuries?"

"The mana density." I said the words like they were curses. "Site frost was extremely weak in terms of mana density because of my affinity to it and the mana fighting with the high heat of the desert. Site cavern was so dense I couldn't sense anything. Worse, though, was that earth mana is sluggish and heavy. It doesn't want to move and it's hard to do so. My projectiles had to displace the earth mana so they lost all of thier energy in the sheer concentration of the mana. I couldn't fire anything and I had to either sneak around enemies or not engage them. You can see how that turned out."

Ruby frowned and the worry showed in her eyes. "Like with Icmant?" I smiled a little.

"I think Icmant's magical presence was far worse. I can't properly say though. I only used physical bullets and purity mana, which cut through his mana like a hot knife through butter. I can see now, though, what Ozpin went through. I sensed his time mana. It's… thin. Without real substance or the magical weight to really throw punches with a presence as large or thick as Icmant's. It explains a lot about how Icmant was barely affected by his efforts. I'm willing to bet that I couldn't even use a storm spell in his presence, though. Luckily the cavern wasn't so bad. I could use mana internally and my semblance worked although it was only a quarter of how effective it normally is. It was still invaluable though."

"That explains a lot." Ruby said with a smile. "Things have been peaceful here. Auntie is spending some time with Roman teaching him to not be such a sucky fighter and, um, I sortametwithYangandDadandwe'regoingtobefamilyagain!"

I blinked and replayed her words through my head again. I wasn't sure if I heard that right. "You met with Yang?" Ruby nodded. "And you're, what, meeting with her and talking things out?"

"Uh huh. And Dad. We had some, uhm, talks and worked stuff out. I had to lay on the, eheheh, the ole Ruby charm…" Her expression fell. "It was super awkward."

"I see." I thought about that all for a moment. I hadn't gotten a particularly good impression of Tai or Yang when we last really met. There's also a lot that could go wrong with Ruby meeting with her sister and father again. She's loose-lipped around people she's comfortable with. Even letting slip something like the words 'Auntie Raven' would cause untold amounts of trouble. I have a feeling Tai wouldn't approve of my methods for anything. Well, except for explosions.

Yang is the biggest problem, actually. She's persuasive and she's had that golden heart of hers from the show for a while now. Not that she's anywhere near a golden girl. Not by a long shot.

"Please try to not mention Raven or my job for… well don't mention Raven until she's comfortable revealing herself, which she probably won't ever be, but don't mention my exploits. Please just don't. I know you can lead a conversation. Lead it away from my job."

Ruby nodded. "I'll keep your private stuff private. I think I can keep auntie on her lonesome. At the very least I can keep dad away."

"Thank you. How have you been?" Ruby's eyes brightened.

"I've been great! It's nice to finally get this stress of family off my back and I've had plenty of free time lately. I'm taking things easy. Yang was super frustrated that I can kick her butt without too much effort so I'm putting her on my training schedule. Well, as much as she can do."

I smiled at the image of tiny Ruby kicking Yang's ass. "That's nice. She needs to get in shape. She's been flirting around too much for her own good. Have you been exploiting her pride?"

Ruby nodded sheepishly. "I remembered how you would take away my gun stuff if I didn't try my hardest and I thought about doing the same thing with Yang but she doesn't have anything like that so I just throw insults and challenges at her. It works great with her semblance. Did you know it dulls her sense of pain? It's so useful!" I snorted.

"Says the girl who can " Ruby huffed.

"Dad is working on me with my semblance. Distance and speed. I have the control to use it on just my arms to swing my scythe but he had some interesting ideas. I might be able to bring another person along with me when I dash and he mentioned that I might be able to apply my semblance at a sort of halfway point to go faster and leave rose petals but I won't go immaterial, which lets me wind up an attack before I reach the target."

"I never thought of that. Do you think he might have some ideas for me?"

"Probably." I considered the merits of going to Tai for semblance work but dismissed it. I have magic. Sure it can't do everything a semblance can and it's less an instinctual part of me like my semblance but it's more versatile and powerful. If I want advice for my semblance I'll go to Bella of maybe Qrow. Speaking of…

"Has Qrow dropped by?"

"Oh yeah! Uncle Qrow stopped by for dinner with us for two days but he's going on a ton of missions to make up for not having time with Bella. He's bragged about having a girlfriend to dad a lot."

I leaned back and ignored the sting of the acid burns. Talking with Ruby is nice but I've been up for about four days. I should finish this up quick.

"That sounds like him. Qrow never had a ton of luck with the ladies I think. Getting his sister as his partner? I believe his exact words were along the lines of her having an 'instant cock-block semblance'. Raven used it to become partners with him."

Ruby smiled and we fell into the easy banter we had done so often. I responded with the ease siblings had and barely finished talking before we left off and I stumbled to my bed. I tore off my clothes and crawled into my sheets, leaving blood, dirt, and grime on the sheets. I'll get a shower in the morning… wait it is the morning. Mmmm… sleep.

[|||| == ||||]

" _So this is site overgro-are those giant bees?"_

"… _Those are wasps. Giant wasps."_

" _I already hate this place."_

" _It could be worse. At least it's small and not horribly hot."_

" _Look there."_

"… _Oh."_

" _Yeah am I going crazy or is that a giant wasp hive?"_

" _It's a giant hive of giant wasps. I think I can catch it on fire though. I can use motion magic to throw an incendiary grenade in there."_

" _Do it. Those bastards need to… wait hold on. Wasps need to eat. So what are their prey? I'm pretty sure wasps eat things bigger than them."_

" _Let's find the managuard base and get out quick. The mana here is thick but not particularly hard to shoot a spell through. Nature mana is laced pretty thickly around the life mana. My storms will work fine provided I augment them with nature mana, which is easy. It just makes them a little more expensive to cast and control."_

" _Abyss you're raining lightning onto those hellspawn, right?"_

" _I will… Oh I just had an idea."_

" _Do tell. Really I want to annihilate those plagues of nature."_

" _Have you ever heard of frostfire?"_

" _That sounds fun. And destructive. Cast it now."_

" _Let's not set the world on fire just yet. It won't spread too well anyways considering the life mana everywhere. Just something to keep in mind for later. Let's keep out of sight for now. Don't go poking a hornet's nest I believe the saying is."_

[|||| == ||||]

"This place is just plain boring." I said with a scowl. "I thought there would be strong elementals or that I would have to figure out some method of seeing in here without burning my retinas to ashes would be difficult but Of course it was just pathetically easy and free of anything whatsoever including anything interesting." There was nothing here. It was just a pocket of highly concentrated light affinity mana trapped to serve as fuel for a runic circle that powers some ancient wizard's castle. Did the guy just not like lanterns?

"It's better than living in terror for a few days." Bella said with her own frown.

"And what would you know about living in terror? If I recall you just strolled around in the darkness."

"In terror for you, obviously."

"I was imagining the laughing when that worm ate me then."

Bella snickered and held back a few small laughs. I rolled my eyes and looked around the site. My light affinity strained as hard as it could to keep a window of fainter light so I and Bella could see. With a sizable application of mana it was pretty easy. It's most interesting feature was the dust it had. Not that it meant anything. Light dust was somewhat common and useful only for a few purposes. It could be used as a long-burning fuel for solar panels in a controlled environment and in laser weapons. That's pretty much it.

The good thing is that the dust here is concentrated to unheard of levels. Maybe I could sell this spot to the SDC? It would be nice to have a tiny bargaining chip for Jacques. He's a snake I don't trust although I think I sufficiently terrorized him last time we met in person.

As far as I could see there were no magical creatures here. It was like the pure vanilla of the mana sites. Just safe and rather boring. Come to think of it there might be more little underground mana pockets like this one. I know the managuard drilled into here based on some old Mantle reports. It's not a natural thing just wide open for anybody.

"Anyways," Bella said amusedly. "What can we do here? There's no base and no apparent danger. So why are we here?"

"I thought the source of the hotspot was some mage's stomping grounds and I could find some spells." I grumbled. "The only thing emitting mana is the dust. Sure it's extremely concentrated but it's not valuable and useless to me. I might be able to use them as a fuel source but why would I? That's boring. I've got dust in spades. This place is useless basically. Unless you want a suntan."

"Nope." Bella said, popping the P. "Well back up top then?" I nodded. The grimm weren't even a hint of a threat. I and Bella could sneak around them with an application of the wind part of my storm affinity and some light to make us invisible. If I was somehow caught I could just flare my silver eyes and dump mana out of me and have an instant grimm repellant in the form of an army.

I sighed and began the walk out of the site. Really overgrowth was alright and cavern had magical fauna every ten feet (until I killed a sizable portion of them but I'm sure they'll repopulate soon. So many spider eggs…) bus site dawn was just shitty. It reminds me of mount rushmore back in my old life…

I blinked when I realized that thought. How often do I look back onto my old world nowadays? I've just sort of… moved on. In more than one manner. Life was shitty back then except for…

With a scowl I pushed back the memories. I've moved on. That's all over now.

"You alright Abyss?" Bella put her hand on my shoulder and looked at me concernedly. I glanced around. Oh we're out.

"I'm fine. Just lost in thought." Bella nodded.

"It happens to everyone. Could you teleport us out now?"

I closed my eyes and reached out with mage sight. The world became clearer and I could see through the affinities and mana in the air. It was a little hard to see through the air in Mantle. It was rather thick in ice and snow mana due to a blizzard at the moment but it wasn't a huge issue. I could still sense a lingering trace of death affinity around the surface. It drew the grimm to this place. So long as we avoided the big grimm, which were like black holes of corruption, Bella and I would be perfectly fine.

I latched onto the teleportation anchor on the ship and grabbed Bella's hand. With a jerk and a twist of spatial mana I opened my eyes on the ship once more. We were parked at a frozen lake about fifteen miles out of Mantle. It had it's own little settlement but it wasn't filled with death mana. It was rather peaceful actually since all the grimm that came here left for Mantle.

"So where now?" Bella asked, leaning onto the wall.

"That depends on…" I trailed off. Something felt off. My ear twitched. I barely spent a moment considering it before I snatched Bella's hand again and blinked far into the treeline of the lake's edge. Bella looked around in surprise before a sort of understanding hit her and she crouched down, camouflaging herself with the chameleon runic matrix on her clothes. I myself went invisible as soon as I teleported. Working on casting two spells at the same time had been a pain in the ass but worth it in the end.

We stayed there for about a minute as I scoured the land with mage sight. Nothing. That's good but not foolproof. Mage sight can be bypassed with a high concentration of nature mana blending into the environment or a runic matrix. I had found that out when I had failed to see a deer in the woods.

I sent beams of light out at random tracking them to see what they hit. It wasn't perfect either but it helped. Seeing nothing still I tried my last detection trick. I focused on my affinity for the storm and held back everything but the wind and even then I kept that to a small gust that wouldn't so much as knock down a toddler.

Keeping all the elements back and keeping perfect control of the wind, which naturally was chaotic and disorganized, was a difficult exercise that I likely wouldn't have been able to do the first time I tried it without my high mana control skill.

The gust scoured the land and I made six more, keeping my parallels on it. Nothing… nothing… and some more nothing.

With a frown I looked out at the empty land or ruined houses, a frozen lake, and a short rocky hill before a snowy field. All signs pointed to there being nothing. Still, though, I had a buzz in the back of my head. It was like there was a mosquito around but different. It was a mix of my natural inclination towards being instinctual as a faunus and my instinctual skill. They both said a little about something being there. I just can't for the life of me figure out what's there.

With a narrowed look I used my nature affinity and spoke to the trees, searching for anything different. But no. The only anomaly in the lake's trees was Bella and I. Everything was as it should but us. So maybe…

With a suspicion that was bordering paranoia I reached out at the water under the frozen lake. The ice wasn't cracking and there wasn't anything in the water of serious note.

I turned around and saw nothing. I checked everything again. Nothing. What the hell is here? The feeling is still persisting. I don't like this.

"Anything?" Bella whispered so softly I couldn't almost hear her. I should thank her for her caution later.

"Can you feel anything watching you?" I whispered back. Bella closed her eyes and frowned in concentration. She opened her eyes and looked around.

"I… think so?" She seemed uncertain so I dismissed that she was actually getting anything.

For a few more minutes nothing happened but the wind blowing. I tentatively threw a rock out at the lake in open land. Motion mana spared me the risk of moving. It occurred to me that any observer might be far out and I expanded my radius of searching to twenty miles in every direction. All my parallels focused for ten minutes to find anything. Of course nothing was found.

Just to be absolutely certain of our safety I kept all my parallels away from meditation and instead monitored the area. Nothing. I hate this feeling.

I myself made two clones of hard light with a teleport marker in them and teleported them into the ship. Nothing happened. The two fakes did as I think Bella and I would do. Fake Bella reclined on the co-pilot's seat and my double operated the controls under her lazy supervision.

It irked me that nothing happened. I leaned in towards Bella again. "The ship is going to take off. Don't panic or talk." Bella nodded easily and continued waiting. I saw the dulled head of a crossbow bolt readied in case something needed shooting. It was very well concealed. Commendable, really.

The ship went away and I watched it fly for a few miles before I tentatively felt the feeling of being watched slip away. I shivered. I don't even know if the feeling was dangerous or not. I just know that I can't sense it. It may be something like Salem's seers or a crystal ball. I'm not sure if crystal balls are really a thing but I don't like my chances. Magic was already diverse. Something like a crystal ball was possible to say the least. Maybe even easy with some runes or a well crafted enchantment. That the feeling went away with the ship means that something isn't watching us. It's watching the ship. For now. Or maybe the dummies fooled it.

I sighed. Grabbing Bella's hand I whispered one final time. "I'm teleporting us back. Be ready." Bella nodded and I focused again. The markers and the clones of hard light actually had a convenient side effect. Whoever teleported into the clones would move their body in the same way the clone was provided it was solid. It's a neat little trick with some use. It just wasn't particularly noteworthy as far as tricks go.

I closed my eyes and when they opened I was in the cockpit again. The feeling returned full blast. I hate this. I hate it so much. Unless I'm going crazy Ozpin or Salem are watching the ship. Maybe Althea? No. if she really is watching me, as I still suspect despite lack of evidence, she's more subtle than this or has already been doing as she does for a while now. One more option is some sort of observer from a faction. I'm not sure exactly who would be sent though. Nobody except possibly Raven with her semblance would be that subtle and she's on my side. Finally would be some sort of unknown party, which basically means I have no idea who else it could be.

Either way my new observer isn't hurting me. I suppose I'm okay… for now. I just don't like this at all. It makes my ear twitch, as it always done when I feel in danger.

[|||| == ||||]

" _You saw him?"_

" _Yeah. He stayed in the ship before teleporting out and I lost him for a moment. He reappeared on the treeline and stayed there for a long time. I think he was trying to find me since he looked very alert."_

" _Fascinating. He sensed you?"_

" _I think he sensed something but didn't know it was me."_

" _I see… I believe we can call this a success. He is simply visiting old relics of an age long past. Perhaps he is the one that released the demon in Vacuo."_

" _With his visits of these sites I believe so as well."_

" _There is no need to monitor him further. You're free to go."_

" _Alright. Should I keep an eye on him?"_

" _There is little of interest beyond two more imprisoned ancient ones. He is unlikely to make the same mistake twice. Do not bother."_

" _Hmm… alright then."_

[|||| == ||||]

I sent a message to Ruby as the feeling of being watched thankfully left me sometime a few minutes after we took off. It wasn't a slow decline. One moment the feeling was like someone breathing down my neck and the next moment the only presence on the ship was Bella and I. It was almost more unnerving than being watched in the first place.

Travelling was as normal as could be. Sometimes grimm assaulted us. I crushed them easily with magic. I even flared my aura sometimes just to relieve the boredom of flying. I also had some wonderful books on me that I hadn't fully read yet.

Through some calls I found that Roman was doing well. Business hit a frenzy with the white blossoms in the public eye and new uses were being found every day. People found out quickly that the sap was the most potent poison against grimm on the market. An arrow laced with a drop of it would kill an ursa major in minutes and five would force an adult nevermoore to crash if you could shoot it. Adding some white bloom sap into a paint would give the grimm a subtle aversion to the area. As a consumable the item was only used by the rich. I suppose people like safety more than a tasty treat. Roman took it off the market as an edible good and began selling the extra sap to huntsmen academies.

Most interestingly was that people found that adding red bloom and white bloom sap together made a violent reaction occur. The saps would bubble and hiss as they tried to escape each other like they had opposing magnetic poles. If you ate both saps you could have severe stomach pains as the saps fought each other in your stomach. Nature's bounty got a minor lawsuit against that but it didn't really hurt us. I think Roman is a far more vicious businessman than a thief. Being a vicious criminal brought you problems, after all. Being a vicious criminal was respected.

Ruby decided to refrain from further honing her capabilities as a huntress and work on her abilities as a maiden. She knew what magic could do firsthand and she knew she had several advantages in it. She didn't have any natural talent in it at all unfortunately. Her creativity didn't extend far past weapons and combat (and possibly leadership but I haven't much investigated that) and that stifled her abilities as a maiden. I left her to Raven and offered my advice on the purity affinity. She had a major advantage in purity and considering her intent was to fight grimm it was the obvious choice to practice.

Finally, a little rumor about a figure in western Vale that was causing mass chaos. Reportedly a small copper projectile fired at massive speeds tore through several houses and ignited a dust-fire through the sheer friction of it. The figure, who wanted to be anonymous, apologised profusely and personally took several people out of the fire with a companion.

I'm pretty sure Pyrrha accidentally figured out how to make a railgun and caused destruction as she fired it. Copper was a pretty good projectile for a railgun I think. Also with speeds a railgun fires at doesn't the projectile leave a trail of fire behind it? I think it does… I'll ask Pyrrha next time I meet her. I have her scroll number after all though she might have some sort of dramatic idea about only meeting me when she's strong enough to kick my ass. Ruby told me she wanted to do that. I'm somewhat excited to see what she adds up to once we hit Beacon.

When Bella and I finally arrived at the last site, site thunder, I found that the only way to get into the site was on foot or through one of several SDC controlled paths with lightning rods by the side of the road and a canopy after a boat ride. Being on an island around southern mistral meant you were isolated but certainly not easy to get to. I had to leave the ship in my inventory and continue with Bella on foot across the island to the main camp. Luckily that was pretty fast, both of us being competent huntsmen.

The mana in the site was surprisingly thin in affinity. It was a mix of lightning and electricity with electricity being more abundant. You could feel it in the air too. A sort of constant buzz. My steps actually caused static shocks every time. Bella had a pair of rubber boots for herself and my affinity for storm kept me better than healthy. In fact, I felt great. Like I could run a marathon. My thoughts were sharper, my body stronger, and spells in relation to the electrical portion of the storm were effortless to cast. I think it's a side-effect of storm being my dominant affinity as well as my storm affinity being absolutely massive.

Sadly the high mana concentration wasn't all good. Electricity was energetic and mage sight was utterly scrambled. Many other magics were screwed as well. Space magic was possible - easy even - but controlling the destination through the mana scrambling everything was impossible. I was as likely to end up five feet above the ground as five hundred below it. Luckily runes worked fine. My illusionary cloak on my runic matrix will provide a stable illusion for me and Bella's semblance and the chameleon effect on her clothes will make her stealthy beyond whatever she could do before, which is more than enough.

The landscape of the site was a strange sort of plains filled with black rocks spearing out of the ground. The ground itself was an ashy grey color and rough as could be. There wasn't a tree in sight.

Curiously enough lightning and electrical dust was common in the dirt. Every minute I seemed to see a new one. Unfortunately the dust was horridly low quality. I wouldn't use it to power a microwave much less in a spell. I have at least some pride. I sensed more potent dust far beneath the surface but it wasn't worth going down there when I could simply buy it.

With the rocky landscape traversing it was difficult… at least it would be. Bella and I are strong. We crossed it in leaps and bounds enhanced by the power of our souls. It wasn't like this was the first time we did this either. Site overgrowth didn't have much to offer in terms of managuard information or magical material but we at least got some experience travelling together.

That said there was an eerie lack of magical creatures. Sure the mana isn't particularly strong but it's not THAT weak. There should at least be some elementals of even a petty variety.

I kept an eye out but didn't see anything move the whole time I was there. Well except the lightning but that was a constant in the region.

"So that's the camp?" Bella said normally. I watched the camp as Bella used the binoculars. From my perspective I saw huge cylindrical machines grind dust in them as conveyors brought dust from around the camp to it. Other conveyors had ores of varying types in them all sorted. The camp did mine metals to make batteries after all. It would be strange to see only electrical dust being mined.

Pickup trucks emerged from a massive mining pit between us and the camp carrying piles of dust as cargo. More pits of a less large variety were seen in the distance but here was the largest.

A ways away multicolored figures moved at tables before putting what seemed to be dust crystals onto the belt. Some crystals went onto a cart and most went onto the belt to be taken to a grinder. Other figures in white stood vigil over the workers.

With all the information it was easy to see what was happening. Faunus were sorting the crystals that they find and keeping the high grade ones while the lesser crystals went to the belt to be processed into dust. Those of a higher station stood over them in supervision.

"My turn." I beckoned for Bella to hand me the binoculars and she huffed but passed them over. A look showed that the white figures were unarmed and in decent looking uniforms clearly meant to be for working as well as looking good. They weren't military or security it seems. Of the most interest was that a sizable portion of the supervisors were faunus.

The workers often wore overalls or a jacket with only a few wearing just a shirt. The colors varied often but none of them wore white and none of them covered their faces any more then a bandana around their heads or a scarf around their necks.

Overall nobody looked particularly oppressed.

I handed the binoculars back to Bella and she looked through them again. "Let's see what's going on in this mining pit." I muttered. Bella was already peering over the edge. I followed her lead.

In the pit there wasn't much to see sadly. Those workers were more common but they worked diligently on heavy machinery. A mining drill was parked in a little marked off area with another empty area beside it. I suppose that one is in use.

Plenty of workers worked with smaller drills off to the side. Occasionally one would run off into the side of the pit to store their unrefined dust to one of several crates on a gondola.

I didn't pay much more attention to the machinery or industrial process and instead looked at the workers. They didn't seem devoid of life or particularly unhappy. More of the bored face you might see on a store clerk or a construction worker fulfilling a rather grueling task.

The supervisors in the pit and above were of a similar variety. Not exactly thrilled either but they were working. Occasionally one of them might bark at a worker that was being lazy or negligent but not unfairly. One of them tossed a rock at a guy taking a nap but judging by the laughter I couldn't hear it wasn't abuse or the like.

"Let's get closer." I said. Bella nodded.

"It's no concentration camp but I'm not sure it's a picture perfect environment either. Look over there." Bella pointed at a conveyor belt off to the side seperate from the rest. I took the binoculars back and looked again.

Immediately I frowned at what I saw. Kids around what might be six to twelve years old sorted dust on a table. More dust was dumped onto the table when no more was present. Alongside them were older folk. Many of the elderly were using sticks as canes or in wheelchairs. A few young people with injuries watched over the kids with the elderly. They corrected what were seemingly mistakes the young made and drove them off from goofing off too much.

Taking another look at the sorters and miners I noticed that the sorters were mainly women and thee miners mostly men. So men did the manual labor and women did the more precise tasks.

I think I can say with certainty that the kids are born in the camp and taught from an early age to do the work their parents do.

"This isn't a good image for the SDC." I mutter.

"Not at all." Bella says easily. "But it could be worse. Does this really look like a bad place to grow up? They're safe, they have a community, the whole family is there, and they might even have a family."

"That's true." I nod. "But they're stunted. Do you really think they can properly function in the real world when they've only been taught to mine and sort dust? Not to mention how volatile dust is. How many injured do you see in that group of elderly and infirm?" I hand the binoculars back and Bella is silent as she looks.

"A lot. At least two in five of those teachers is an injured person. Do you think they get reimbursed?"

"I doubt it. There's too many injuries to properly reimburse every worker there. I'd bet that they have a good doctor around with how many injuries there are at least… Did you ever learn about traditionalist, communist, and capitalist economies?"

Bella looked at me curiously and shook her head. "To put it roughly think of it like this: Capitalist economies are where trade is free and government intervention is minimal. People move from one job to another freely and choose what they do. This is what system is currently used by remnant. Communist economies is, ideally, where everything is shared by the people. As for jobs I'm not quite sure but I think they're taken by volunteers and whoever is most suited for the job. Finally is traditionalist economies. The people are all assigned a job regardless of their efficiency based on their lineage. Your father was a tailor and now you're a tailor. Your father was a miner and now you're a miner. You learn from your parents on the basis that you'd eventually take their job and pass it on to your children."

"I've never heard of any of that but I get your point." Bella said flippantly, like I hadn't just given her a rundown of completely foreign economic systems. I hope I didn't just bring communism to remnant but I think I have more important problems right now. "Basically you're saying these kids are being trained to replace their parents when they eventually die, right?"

"Exactly." I confirmed. "The kids might not get a choice too." Bella looked once more through the binoculars and concern was etched on her face. I glanced once more at the site and stood up.

"Come on. Let's get started."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Winter I don't see how this is helping."_

" _Keep the dust from igniting while channeling aura through it. Stay on this crude and terrible dust first and we'll move up to dust that's more potent and receptive to aura when you get better."_

" _It doesn't take a lot of control to ignite dust though. Isn't that what I want to do when I fight?"_

" _Do you remember when Abyss made that thunderstorm?"_

" _Of course I do! I still have no idea how he did that… He must have some incredible dust and aura to put everyone else's to shame."_

" _Close. He had control."_

" _What do you mean? I thought a thunderstorm was the opposite of controlled."_

" _Not in the slightest. Abyss' aura was saturating the whole area around him in the storm while it was there. He controlled that storm entirely. Did you notice how no lightning hit the ground? The air became more and more charged by the electrical dust he likely kept in his semblance. Father and Ironwood kept a few dust specialists on the topic to figure out how he did such a feat and came up with the answer."_

" _He… he spread his aura over the whole arena?! I was never told about this!"_

" _Don't yell. It's not quite spread around how he accomplished that act. It got drowned out over the screaming of his new fans."_

" _I-… sorry. But how could he have done that in the first place?"_

" _Aura control is difficult to train without the proper resources or experience. As Abyss grew up poor he learned through experience. You, however, will learn through training and hard work."_

" _Nobody ever went into depth on aura control."_

" _That's because you have more important skills. Like not getting hit when fencing and controlling your semblance. Aura control is typically taught at beacon, being an advanced skill and difficult to master. As you said, you don't need to have fine control over your aura to ignite dust."_

" _I see… what can better control over your aura offer you?"_

" _You may lose less aura when hit, with immense focus you might project aura as a solid shield in the later stages, you might choose to only ignite a portion of a dust shard rather than the whole, and as a whole you conserve your aura and utilize it better."_

" _Why isn't this taught at a young age? It seems extremely useful."_

" _It takes a large amount of patience, understanding in yourself, meditation, a more powerful than average aura, and a degree of focus not often found in teenagers or most people in general."_

"… _You mentioned you sensed Abyss' aura?"_

" _Yes."_

" _What was it like?"_

" _It was titanic. Terrifying. Utterly controlled… enough said. Now for your exercises."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Kid!" A hand cuffed me behind the head. "That dust is clearly a grade four! Why would you toss it in the grinder?!" I growled at the supervisor but he didn't look terribly put off. I decided to explain to the ass why he was wrong and this crystal was crap.

"Look at this groove here. The discoloration." The man squinted at a jagged little dark groove in the crystal. "The crystal is more like a shell around a rock than a pure crystal." The supervisor looked closely at it before he drew back and grudgingly nodded.

"Eh… you're right. My apologies for the cuffing, kid. Carry on." The man walked off and the faunus around me looked at me with some respect in their eyes. I ignored them and continued sorting the dust through a parallel. My actual mind was daydreaming.

Working with the sorters was strangely calming. Teamwork among the faunus was flawless in a communal way. If someone found a crystal they weren't sure about they would pass it to an older and more experienced worker. The worked figured out if the crystal was to be shipped out or ground up. If a mistake was made nobody got offended if you plucked a crystal from another's hands. The whole process was wordless and surprisingly efficient.

Those with aura, namely me, had to wear protective rubber gloves. Rubber was a bad conductor of aura so little escaped those that wore the gloves. For a kid with poor control over his activated aura handling raw dust bare-handed was the height of dumbassery. The dust would explode and hurt you. I and probably any huntsman or huntress around could carry dust easily since we have more experience handling our aura. For these untrained faunus aura let you take an injury without getting put into care, for which you would receive reduced rations. It was an incentive to not get injured. You starved.

I learned it was uncommon for those with aura to be sorters. They were naturally stronger than normal people and as such were expected to work in the mines. Not that they always did but positions in the camp were fluid. So long as the whole camp made quota the supervisors didn't really care where you worked. You could work as a sorter one day and a miner the next. The whole thing was decided by a communal council for those that achieved the most and were the most influential members of the camp.

Workers were, ninety nine times out of a hundred, faunus. There were a few humans but they were typically prisoners that the SDC was paid to keep in their camps, which had the license to legally act as prisons. Not that the faunus were quite prisoners.

Human convicts that were violent (which was common enough. Prisoners sent to the camps were often convicted of violent crimes) were often… 'disposed of'. The council would meet and decide whether to subtly kill the disturbance or give him/her another chance.

Faunus that were convicted of a crime and sent to the camps were another matter. There was more leeway given to the faunus inhabitants of the camp as a whole. It was racist, sure, but that was how it was. People identify with those like them. Physical traits like a tail or ears were easy to see and consider you and that other guy the same. It helped the two empathise and more fluidly integrate with the camp community.

Anyways, back to the council and community. Inside the camp was by no means a paradise. If you defied the council without a damn good excuse you were often treated as a pariah. The amount of respect for the council made sense actually. The faunus had just one way of maintaining order and that one way was the council. The council was the way to properly communicate the masses of workers to the SDC representative of the camp. The council was the voice of the faunus, the leaders of them, and best of all was that it was entirely made up of those who were respected by the masses of faunus that made up the camp.

Overall the camp had a structured community among the faunus. It was crude and didn't have anything resembling proper rules or a proper enforcement of them but it was better in that it was entirely communal. It reminded me of a sort of primal tribe's leadership. Luckily debates didn't last for days like in political councils since everyone was family in the camp. They had to be with the harsh demands of the SDC.

I should once more clarify that the camp and it's pleasant communal government was designed with one purpose in mind. Survival. The faunus as a whole had one large quota imposed on them by camp. If the camp didn't meet the quota amenities were taken away, food was more scarce, and in general conditions became poorer. The council made sure that nobody was a slacker. They decided who needed more resources than the others. The extra food could go to the elderly or the miners, for example. The council decided who needed it more based more often than not on productivity. It was efficient, communal, and resourceful. It was a shame that it would never work in a large scale society.

As for where the SDC fits into all of this? Well in a way I could liken the SDC to the wielders of the carrot and the stick. If the faunus didn't put out enough dust the stick would be put in place. Rations would decrease. Medicine would turn more to crude solutions than the big city products. Water would grow scarcer. The thread to keep clothes and cots in decent condition would be withheld. So on went the list as everything in the camp grew worse.

The carrot was a far better solution that was, thankfully, more common. The faunus would get the dust needed and turn it in and in turn medicine would be given to the sick, water would be given out plentifully for baths and drinking, and so on. If they were really good they might get a day with electricity to power the old televisions and radios in the camp. Not that there were many in the first place.

The SDC weren't tyrants trying to kill off the faunus. Not all of the guards were racists though there were some bad apples. They weren't saints by any means at all. Faunus were allowed to die right in front of them and children raised knowing no other life. If the leaders of the workers decided to kill one of their own they would not intervene. In fact, if they wanted someone gone too they might conveniently forget to patrol an area past the curfew.

In my week in the camp I had learned all this and more. Bella confirmed that this was the standard form in every camp. Councils in the faunus were encouraged in every camp although sometimes there might be just one ruler, being the most knowledgeable or most powerful in fewer cases. Typically the faunus were allowed to govern themselves while the SDC reaps the bounties of their efforts to make a functional society meant to produce dust.

I actually approved of the setup used. The faunus, if they were allowed to leave, would likely stay in the camps. They weren't educated enough to survive in the city and in their minds they were safe, fed, had a large family, and all of it was available so long as they worked. The shorter lifespan wasn't mourned since they never thought that they should have better.

The SDC were the main profiters of the arrangement. They got dust by the truckloads, didn't have to manage a community of faunus with the expenses of a prison, and the chance for some sort of uprising was little. They basically got their own communities of faunus willing to work long hours for scraps and didn't terribly mind it. Well, most didn't terribly mind it. Some were, of course, discontent. There were always those who wanted more. I still didn't know what happened to them.

Bella had achieved a lot of this information for me. The record keeping building wasn't heavily guarded. I don't think many of the faunus here know how to read besides the basic words like SDC, grade five dust goes here, and so on. Likely a fair few knew how since education wasn't discouraged but what use was reading when your whole life was to be devoted to mining?

"Oi. The shift's over." I blinked out of my trance and looked behind me. Kale, a deer faunus, had taken a sort of motherly attitude towards me. She had noticed I was alone and she and several other workers had some sort of stare-off as towards who would approach me first. Kale just sort of took me under her wing and showed me the ropes.

My story was that I was an orphan by the name of Scorch (I kept myself a jaguar faunus) with no given last name that ran away from the orphanage. I had gotten into signal and taken three years of training before I was exposed as having no legal parents. I had some faked documents so it was either go to one of these camps as a convict for a year or pay a fine I couldn't afford. Bella had forged all the papers to seem truthful herself inside the reception building. It wasn't hard to sneak into the camp. People didn't really do that so nobody looked very closely at me for legalities.

That I had aura and could actually unlock the auras of others made me the new hot shit. I limited myself to two to three auras a day so I didn't run out but that was more than enough. People didn't blink twice when I claimed to have an unusually large aura but no apparent semblance. It's not like they were particularly informed on the matter of aura.

Luckily the news died off quick and I became just another face in the crowd. An important and extremely helpful one but not necessarily one that you would try to look into. I heard a few mutters about me getting a place in the council but no way in hell am I getting that deep in the camp. I worked a little harder to stay away from the spotlight then.

"Kid you really gotta keep from zoning out." Kale said as she pulled me gently away from the conveyor belt I was staring at.

"Ah, right." I muttered. "I was wondering, how many people have aura in the camp?"

"About an eighth." She said easily, like she wasn't giving me valuable information. I suppose to her it wasn't valuable. "Unlocking aura is hard and there's about a thousand two hundred faunus here so… meh. Your kind are a minority. Occasionally some lucky guy unlocks his aura naturally but not often. Some people don't want aura. It attracts the grimm, after all. Not that there's many around. Not everyone wants aura, though. You need to be a huntsman in training or to have signed a ton of papers to live in a city with aura. Considering plenty here don't know how to read not everyone wants it. The ones that want to become a miner, though? Aura lets them work longer, harder, stay healthier, and get injured far less. Some of them might get a semblance too, if we knew how."

"Oh it's meditation, personal understanding, and a powerful aura." I said easily. "Experience using your aura helps too. Some semblances are always active or activate by reflex under certain conditions though. They're a minority though." Kale looked at me like I had just dropped a priceless nugget of information. I had learned plenty about unlocking semblances from my research in trying to unlock my own. Besides, it wasn't uncommon information… oh I see. How ironic. Common knowledge between the two of us is completely different. I should have figured out that sooner.

"The council might appreciate knowing this…" Kale muttered.

"You mean how to activate semblances?" I asked. Kale sent me a look like I wasn't supposed to hear that.

"Ah, yeah."

A few minutes later the two of us got to the center of the camp. Food was always served here. It was a large lot with plenty of rocks faunus had hauled in long ago. People lounged around on the rocks while they ate whatever was being handed out. In good times like these we had what was basically mediocre school lunches. Soups, chickens, and the like with canned foods (mainly peaches and vegetables) as a side. In poor times it would be watery gruel and poor crackers.

Today was cheap mass-bought chile. There weren't toppings like cheese or sour cream or the like. We weren't exactly valued by the SDC after all. Even so it was clearly edible food, which was better than what they all supposedly got.

I got a bowl myself. The guy dishing it out seemed to recognize me and loaded a little more into my bowl judging by his smile at me. Kale followed after. I found a nice little spot away from the busiest places and Kale followed.

"Ooh! Scorch!" A kid about eleven years old - and already showing some muscle himself - bumped into me. He had rough grey skin for the most part except around his face, where it stopped like some sort of biological armor and was quite heavyset for his age. Ah Basalt, clumsy as the first time he barrelled into me. A rhinoceros faunus that got a rhino's tough hide. In the mines that was extremely useful since the calluses for hard work don't have to be earned. Also, with a burly animal like a rhino as his faunus trait he developed muscle somewhat faster than most. Just like how bird or feline faunus had naturally better eyesight. Despite popular ideas not ALL faunus saw better at night. Just most of them. Turtles don't see in the dark, after all. It would go against genetics to have night vision because you were part turtle. Although there is a guy around here with a shell somewhere.

"How are you doing?!" Basalt asked excitedly. He had his own bowl next to him, already empty.

"I'm fine." I said easily. "A boring day but it was nice to take a break from the mines."

"It was boring without you!" Basalt complained. Since he was tough, energetic, and his parents had their own problems Basalt often went into the mines and pits to, well, mine. I had done it a few times but I don't like being underground and the pits aren't pleasant either. That I'm strong enough to shatter rock with my fists regardless of magic made pretending to not be absurdly strong rather mentally tiring too. I dislike holding back.

"Work is usually boring, Basalt." I reminded him. "You survived years without me. You can keep doing so."

"Yeah but nobody else has awesome stories like you do!" Basalt complained. "Being a huntsman - even one in training - is awesome! We only get stories about rocks and cave-ins and stuff and even then people don't like to talk about it. I wanna go killing grimm with you and stuff!"

"I won't be killing grimm anymore for a while." I said calmly. Ruby could be worse as far as annoyingness goes. I suppose that I'm actually good with kids. I don't get annoyed easily, after all. Patience is a virtue, after all. I can handle a half hour with Basalt anyways. He doesn't interrupt my stories too, which is nice. Something about telling stories is appealing to me. It helps that I remember all the adventures I've been on so far. Not that there are a ton but I got some hunting with Summer and I can bootleg some from what stories Raven's told me about from her hunting days.

"When you do can I come?!" Basalt got excited, like he would ever get out of the camp. At least he knew how to read even if he was a bit dumb. That was more than some had.

"If you ever get a way out of this camp and find me I'll teach you about hunting." I said. I really would too. I just doubt that he'll ever control his own life.

"Definitely!" Basalt said happily. As I said, not a genius. "I bet I could totally wrestle an ursa!"

"When you grow up I'll bet you could." My words weren't idle praise. I think the kid seriously might be able to when he grows up. He has sixty one strength right now. And seven intelligence with eight wisdom but… let's not talk about that. Might makes right I suppose.

"Yeah!" He grinned enthusiastically as though he wanted to go wrestle one right now. "What are you doing?"

"We're trying to eat, Basalt." Kale said patiently from behind me. I took the opportunity to take a few quick bites. I had more work to do for seven more hours in a half hour. I could just not go but the mines had plenty of conversation to be had. I didn't like socializing but it worked the best for gathering information. The record houses only had so much. Real firsthand experience was more valuable for me. I wanted an opinion from the workers themselves rather than an SDC report. The reports are biased anyways. I checked the most recent ones on a cave-in with the victim's experiences. Injury reports were vastly understated. Being impaled through the shoulder and likely never using the arm again was not a 'moderate injury'. It was crippling.

"Ooh! Scorch! Could you unlock my aura?" I blinked and looked at Basalt. He seemed excited. It said something about him that he hadn't asked about this before. I think it just slipped his mind.

"Sure." I shrugged and touched his forehead. I don't bother with the ceremonial chants like most do. I extended my aura around his dormant one like a cocoon and slowly coaxed it to life by slowly pouring aura into it. After a moment the aura he had brightened to a livelier state and I continued. I had found that rather than adding a dump of aura to a soul it was far more comfortable for the recipient to have aura slowly poured into their own. It was more comfortable apparently. It took only a second more before his seemed to explode. On the level of his soul his aura erupted mightily like it was letting pressure out in a tiny explosion. From a visual perspective Basalt glowed dark crimson for a moment before the aura surrounding him became tainted dark green. Then suddenly a faint corona of green light took over.

Claps and cheers came up around us for a few seconds before they died off. Basalt looked down in awe at his hands, still glowing a faint green for a second before the glow wore off.

"That was AWESOME!" Basalt shouted. I didn't let my patient expression falter despite the irritatingly loud sound. My right ear twitched though. Kale noticed and sent me a sympathetic look.

"It was like a super soft and warm hug - and a little weirdly wet now that I think about it - and then I got all warm and fuzzy! And then I went FWOOSH like I was going to blow up and I felt all sparkly and awesome!" Basalt chatterred. I was taking his little rant as an opportunity to eat my chili. Nobody likes wasting food.

"How does it work?!" Basalt asked excitedly. Stars practically shone in his eyes.

"Like this." I reached down and snatched up a flat rock that easily fit in my palm. I grabbed Basalt's hand before he could say anything and smashed the small rock against his hand.

"OW!" Basalt yelled. He moved to pull away but I held his hand firmly. Then he paused. "Wait that didn't really hurt all that much." A few snickers broke out from the people watching.

"Aura dampens any blows you receive." I lectured. "If you get punched the aura would take some of the blow for you, for example. With a little focus you can hit harder and faster. You can move faster too. There's plenty more you can do like ignite dust if you're not careful-" It occurred to me that Basalt was NOT a careful person but that's not my problem - "So don't touch any dust until you can control your aura somewhat well or you're wearing the aura-resistant gear."

"How do I hit stuff harder?" Basalt asked, excited as always. I don't think he heard the cautioning stuff I said. I highly doubt he'll die or anything if he explodes a little bit but… meh. Experience is the best teacher. Ruby exploded a few times too. Now she doesn't. I'm such a great teacher.

"Feel your aura for a moment. Focus on the feeling of it for a moment." Basalt closed his eyes and seemed to be touching it a bit. The first step to controlling aura was actually touching it. "I'm going to hit you lightly with another rock. Focus on the feeling of your aura as it defends you. Try to focus on that feeling. Then hold it back." Basalt nodded. There was a fire in his eyes. A determination.

I picked up another rock and flicked my wrist. The rock hit Basalt like a soft punch. He took it easily and his aura defended him. I don't know if he can even get bruises with his skin being so thick. Probably not.

I saw his aura flare a bit but it was quickly tamped down by Basalt's will. Then his aura changed a little and I could tell he'd lost it. He opened his eyes with a little frustration. "I lost it." He said with some petulance in his tone. "Can we try again?"

I inspected his reserves. He was about five eighths full. Man his reserves were so tiny. He had what, three hundred twenty? Most huntresses and huntsmen have at least two thousand with the good ones having about eight thousand. Ashaya had about ten thousand and raven was at twelve. Then again, both of them were focused on being extremely skilled rather than having large pools of aura. Taiyang had about eighteen thousand. Quite a large aura. Argent Arc, the matriarch, had ten thousand as well. She was also a vitality freak though.

"Sure kid." I left him a moment to focus before lobbing another rock at his chest. He grunted but lost it again. Without waiting for him to ask to try again I threw another rock. He snatched at his aura but it was just out of reach. I lobbed one more and I saw his aura change a little bit.

"I did it!" Basalt yelled out happily. I nodded.

"Now that you have a hold of it try to bring it outwards." Basalt thought about it for a moment before staring hard at his hand. A few seconds passed and I could see him struggling with his aura. Better to struggle than to not be able to touch it at all. Basalt was already far ahead of most of the aura users in the camp. I've seen plenty of faunus in the mines use their aura to make themself stronger but I think they do it without really knowing how they were doing it. They knew how to do it sort of but they didn't know how they were doing it.

A thin sheen of green appeared on Basalt's hand and he looked at it like it was gold. Tough cookies, kid, any signal student worth the dirt of your shoes could do that in year one and without leaking aura too. Basalt was leaking a sizable amount of aura (for his reserves) every second. Most kids also had a larger aura too. Around two thousand as a rough average with some three thousands at the top of the class. Yang was around three thousand five hundred herself.

Basalt was two years ahead of those signal students though and stronger than a lot of them… hold on he might actually be a good huntsman some day. He had the VIT and STR for it. He just needs to wisen up a bit and learn how to use a weapon. Maybe a hammer. Not a warhammer like Nora used in the show but a handheld hammer or a war axe. Hmmm…

Nah. The kid's got talent but he's not my responsibility. If he gets out I'll definitely train him to my standards though.

Basalt's aura was running pretty low from his admiring of it so much. He seemed to not notice it before he was around seven aura. "What's that… feeling?" A few more seconds passed with me looking at Basalt in blatant amusement before his aura flickered and faded.

"Huh?" Basalt looked in confusion at his hand. He waved it a little bit before squinting in concentration. "Where'd it go?"

"You ran out of aura, kid." I said. He looked up at me in surprise.

"But I thought people had way more!"

"People with training do." I corrected him. "Aura grows naturally over time even without training but you have poor control and while bringing out your aura you were leaking aura like a faucet."

"So I don't have a lot of aura." Basalt looked sad.

"Very little." I confirmed. He looked to get a little more down. "Then again, you're eleven. It'll grow and you can train it to control it better." Basalt seemed a little put down still but he nodded. I was weak once too, kid.

"Here. Let me show you what a trained aura looks like." I brought out a portion of my aura - just about ten thousand points of it - and layered it over my right arm. A corona of light wrapped over it. It was far brighter than Basalt's expression of his aura. It was bright enough to cast a faint red glow onto the ground and our faces given the cloudy weather. Basalt looked at it in that awe he had had before he got disappointed.

I held out my aura for a moment longer before I drew it back inside me. I glanced at the small circle of people watching me and Basalt during my little lesson. Kale watched me too, likely planning to try this herself later. I have no doubt that the information I just told Basalt will spread like wildfire but I don't much care. If the SDC throws a little fit then I'll stop. I don't think they will though. I'm not showing anyone combat techniques or anything after all. Just little things that any aura user could do. I'm sure the supervisors, who all have unlocked auras, can do plenty with their own auras. Some of them probably have their semblances unlocked too.

"Want to train a little more?" I offered. I have nothing better to do right now. Basalt looked at me with some small confusion. I rolled my eyes and poked his forehead, sending a jolt of aura roughly equivalent to his aura capacity into him. He yelped and jumped once at the sensation of foreign aura entering his body but blinked once and seemed to feel that he had far more aura than before.

"Whoah… how much aura do you have, Scorch?" Basalt looked at me with some wonder.

"A lot more than you, kid." I answered vaguely. "Now I'll show you how to hold your aura back from shielding you. With your hide as a natural armor you don't need aura for a lot of stuff. It's better to not use it unless you need it in some cases. You don't need to deflect every pebble that's flung at you, after all. You can also use your aura to heal quickly. I'll show you how…"

[|||| == ||||]

" _Did anybody ever tell you 'I told you so?'"_

" _Just rescind the order. I'll go and you don't have to see me again. I won't tell Abyss and you won't be punished."_

" _Mmmm… I could… but I want you to say it."_

" _No."_

" _Then you get nothing."_

" _You blackmailed Harlequin and EVERY gym in Vale and Patch! I can't train to get stronger!"_

" _That's the point."_

" _What the hell do you want?!"_

" _I wanted you here. Now you're here."_

" _Why?"_

" _Because you're working for me now."_

" _No."_

" _Oh? I see then. Listen here, you little shit from a backwater slum, I carved my way through Vale leaving a BLOODY SWATH OF BODIES in my wake. The only reason you're standing where you are instead of grovelling in the shit with the animals is because Abyss has some interest in you. I don't care about your potential. Right now you're a bug that I can squash. You're not special or essential. You're interesting and Abyss can find other toys to play with."_

" _Fuck off. If I tell Abyss you're doing this he'll gut you."_

" _Not even! See, I'm not stupid. He tosses you into what amounts to live-fire exercises. Stealing things, playing thug, recruiting gang members - all of that is real stuff. Not training exercises. He's tossing you into the deep end and seeing you kids swim. Well guess what, kiddo? This is the deep end! This is the criminal underworld any you're not strong enough to strong arm the world to your demands like he can. You get to play ball with the big boys."_

" _Fuck. Of-"_

 _*CRACK*_

" _AGH!"_

" _Don't speak to me like that, brat. I'm not abusive but with a mouth like that I'm not above smashing it in to enforce some respect. Get off your high horse, kid. You can't ask your good buddy Harlequin for a pit to crap in unless I say so. I could say a word and the ferry to Patch would blacklist you. You'd be stuck on the streets unless I decide to me merciful and say otherwise."_

"… _What do you want?"_

" _So quickly giving?"_

" _I've been blackmailed before. You want something or you wouldn't bother with me. What do you want?"_

" _I want you to quit being an insufferable brat. Grow the hell up."_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _This little angry tantrum streak you have with me. In front of Abyss I'll act all nice. You act like I'm some disgusting, untrustworthy bastard because I have power. Because I'm the big man in Vale I'm out to squash you and everything you love under my boot. Guess what, Goldilocks? I'm not. The opposite, actually. Have you noticed something about Abyss' jobs for you?"_

" _He puts me in jobs that are related to charisma and information gathering."_

" _Yeah. The skills of a leader. Something I am."_

" _Oh really?"_

" _Watch that tone, kid. Respect is a virtue that you're severely lacking in. Keep letting that ugly flaw shine and I'll beat it out of you."_

" _Tch."_

" _Scoff all you want. Now here's my olive branch. I'll teach you how to be better at leading, managing, and gathering information."_

"… _You're serious."_

" _Kid, I've been smooth-talking since you were in diapers. I've been leading the biggest, strongest gang in Vale for a year and longer and gathering information and deceiving dumbasses for longer."_

" _Why would you do that?"_

" _Simple. Favors."_

" _Favors."  
_

" _The world's ultimate currency, kiddo. You'll learn someday._

" _Favors are unreliable."_

" _But they're powerful. First lesson, kid. In a situation where you have the upper hand a favor can bring any task to completion so long as you play it right."_

" _Fine, so I COULD learn from you. But I can't fake and talk out of everything. I need to be able to fight. I need a combat tutor."_

" _Oh you'll get a combat tutor alright. The best there is."_

" _And who is that?"_

" _The right hand of my not so little empire. The best assassin in Vale and enforcer of the whole city."_

"… _Fine."_

" _Finally realized you don't have a choice, do you?"_

"…"

" _Awww, what an adorable little glare! And for your information, I'm sure mini Mavros would be thrilled that you were getting lessons from me. I'll pay your ticket back to patch and you won't even have to pay. Aren't I a generous teacher? I'm sure we'll have a great summer and even better ones for the rest of your educational years. Now let's get you started meeting by Neo. Be sure to make a good impression. You'll be spending a LOT of time together to get you at at least a decent level combat-wise."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]

 **Actually there's an AN down here if you're interested.**

 **AN: I'm not going to get in the habit of making an AN at the end of a fic. However, I feel that this ending scene deserves some explanation. I'm certain that some people are going to say Roman's acting OOC. Nope. He's not.**

 **See, so far we've seen Roman act with three people. Raven, Abyss/Mystic, and Neo. With Raven he's respectful and a little fearful. With Abyss/Mystic he's the same. With Neo he's friendly and has a sense of comradery.**

 **Now we see him with Cesium, who he doesn't get along with, unsupervised, in a position of power. These factors change the game. Roman is a CRIMINAL. He's a greedy and selfish person and rather blatant about it. He's also a racist that's happy to look down on others as shown by calling the white fang 'animals'. With all this in mind why wouldn't he look down on a signal brat or take advantage of him. Sure Cesium sort of benefits but he's not going to have a good time doing what amounts to Roman's dirty work.**

 **Sure Cesium has Abyss backing him and Roman knows damn well that Abyss can make or break him, being above him on the food chain with Mystic and Raven, but he's not there. "While the parents are away the kids play ball".**

 **As for Neo and Raven seeing this? Raven isn't looking over Roman's shoulder all the time. As far as she's concerned the summer's her vacation. Even if she were to see I think we all know she wouldn't care. Abyss and Ruby are family. Cesium is a random street rat Abyss took an interest in. She wouldn't let him die and she might tell Abyss what Roman's doing but she's amoral.**

 **Now as for Neo she's cute and cuddly, I damn well know. I want to give her a big old hug too but she's a criminal too! I said that she's Roman's enforcer in Vale and I damn well meant it. She terrifies traitors to Roman's underworld empire and disposes of them if need be. She's no murder happy psycho but taking advantage of Cesium's weakness for favor is pretty much par for the course for her. Besides, it's Roman's plan and thus his ass on the line if daddy Abyss doesn't like what he's doing. That big old spanking will be on him.**


	35. Chapter 35

**AN: This chapter used to be 12k words but that's a little ridiculous. I cut it down to 9k. I'm also having a little trouble writing Weiss. Writing Weiss as formal like I've been doing seems… off. I've gone over this chapter twice now fixing little parts of her character that seemed OOC but it's still a jarring difference from canon. I've written the first part of the next chapter, which features Weiss, and I think it makes her less OOC than before though. Just wait on that if you don't like my characterization of her so far.**

 **Writing Blake is somewhat easier for me. She's supposed to be awkward at the start and just going with what Abyss is doing.**

 **I do think Weiss will do terribly in subI though. She's not fit for cloak and dagger things at all. Tolerating BS from businessmen and maneuvering a large scale company? Absolutely. However, so far as spy stuff goes I can't imagine her doing well. Blake at least is more prepared, being a more sneaky person.**

 **We wrap up the summer stuff and move on with signal at least. Yay. Next chapter expect some difficulties with Weiss and a checkup on Ruby since I don't feel like we've paid much attention to her lately.**

[||||= **LEVEL 35** = ||||]

"Scooorch! Can I get a refill?!" The voice carried throughout the wide tunnels used for mining dust and I sighed in exasperation.

Ever since I showed Basalt I could transfer aura he got a little bit selfish. He trained incessantly to get better with aura. Literally the entire time he was in the tunnels he was training.

He kind of reminds me of myself.

I normally wouldn't indulge a kid doing that. It was almost like spoiling him. The problem with that was that Basalt was improving. Rather quickly, I might add. With my aura at his disposal he could essentially train constantly. He never seemed to lose enthusiasm either.

So far he consumed about ten percent less aura enhancing his body with the same results. He still had problems controlling aura quickly but once he got a flow going he had no trouble keeping it that way. It didn't seem like a lot but over just one week it was quite good progress.

Somewhat more impressive was that his aura skill, or his equivalent, leveled up twice. His physical stats got a fifteen percent boost from his aura rather than a measly five.

Best of all was that his wisdom grew a staggering two times. I think that I'm either an incredible teacher or the kid never bothered to think before now. I don't much care which one it is but the results spoke for themselves. I wonder what he could do with reading material?

The results of my little whimsical training showed. Those with aura worked noticeably better in the mines. Well, noticeable if you paid attention, which the council did. I was getting subtle encouragements from a few people a day to go for council.

Obviously I'm not doing that. My time in the mines was planned for between one and two weeks. Signal starts in six days now. I need to check on everything and get ready for school.

The plan was for Bella to pay a parole based on my money so I would get in for free and stay a week or so before getting out legally.

I considered taking Basalt but a lot of problems came up with that. He was legally a ward of the SDC since he was born in the mines. Theoretically he could be adopted and whisked away but that raises the question of how the adopter would know about the ward in the first place.

I could just take him and change his name but I don't have the time to take care of a kid as troublesome as Basalt. I would also be taking him away from friends and family. It's not my place to take him.

Besides, Basalt is amusing but he's not very important to me. He's like a friend I met while on a trip. I can just move on easily enough.

Don't get me wrong, what Basalt has to go through is shitty and if I could save him from it easily I would. The kid's future is essentially taken from him. He's destined to work in the mines as mandated by the law. All the kids in the camp are. It's unfair and amoral. If life was fair they'd be emancipated.

Unfortunately, life isn't fair. A majority of the kids wouldn't be able to cope with the outside world and all of them would miss their families horribly. The camps aren't legally prisons either so visiting hours aren't provided. They just get to suck in convicts for labor.

The verdict was clear. I had to leave the kid behind. Sad, but leaving him won't tear me up inside. It'll just make me a little mopey for a while. I'll get over it.

Unfortunately for the camp, that day I'm going to get paroled is today. Bella was getting impatient. She pranked the camp a little but that became boring quickly. She also couldn't call Qrow. I had left the ship hidden away from the camps and she just stayed there for a few days idly.

She really needed to check in with Signal too. She had some stuff to set up for future classes apparently.

"Scorch!" The SDC supervisor called out.

"Yeah?" I asked. I already knew what was happening but I had to play dumb.

"You're paroled. A lady paid you out. Paperwork was submitted and you leave now. She's already at the gate. Get moving."

"WHAT?!" Basalt yelled. "YOU CAN'T GO! YOU'RE AWESOME!"

"True." I admitted with all the humbleness in the world "But I'm a good student. Signal starts soon. Likely a friend of mine paid me out. I thought it might happen but I wasn't sure."

"Well that came out of the blue…" Kale frowned. "I'll miss you kid. The whole camp will. You've been a huge help."

I shrugged off the praise. Unlocking auras was easy. The camp was just helped as a side effect of getting things done quicker.

"Come on. I have to escort you." The SDC supervisor looked faintly annoyed I was saying goodbye. How rude of him.

"Fine, fine. Let's go." I said exasperatedly.

"I'm coming with you!" Basalt jumped right by me and clung to my leg. I tried to move but found that without aura I couldn't. I seriously couldn't. Basalt was a big kid that was tall enough to reach my chest in height. I mean, I'm what, seventeen now? No wait, sixteen. Basalt was twelve.

Besides that his thick armor-like skin made him really heavy. End result was me doing the obvious. I pulled my foot upwards strongly enough to slip through his grip.

Basalt gave me puppy dog eyes as a last resort for… Something. Even if I didn't want to go I had to. I wasn't allowed at the camp anymore.

"Are you coming?" I asked. Basalt nodded and got up to trail behind me sullenly.

The walk through the camp was somewhat quiet. News apparently traveled faster that light since a small crowd of people gathered up around the entrance. Probably to see me off.

Bella stood around the entrance building chatting with an SDC guard. I didn't pay any attention.

"Who's she?" Basalt whispered, his voice a little hoarse.

"A teacher I'm friends with. She's a huntress." I said. Basalt's eyes widened.

"A huntress." He breathed out in awe. By his tone Bella may as well have been a unicorn. "She's so pretty…"

"Aura naturally makes your body better. You look healthier and better as a result." I gave the short answer as an explanation.

"Can I someday look like her?" He said. I withheld my laughter.

"You'll, um, yeah. Sure." I decided to humor him. He didn't respond, too busy staring at Bella. She noticed him and waved. He shyly waved back. Seeing him so passive was weird.

"HI PRETTY LADY!" He shouted out of nowhere. That's more like it. Bella laughed a little at the pretty lady part and turned back to talking with a guard.

The supervisor walked past the gaggle of faunus without a care, opening the big chain link gate pretty easily. "Go." He said shortly.

I walked onwards, holding Basalt back a little. He got the message and stayed in place.

As I walked past the crowd they all cheered and clapped and said goodbyes. One guy was close enough to clap me on the shoulder. I didn't even know him.

The gate closed behind me and I turned to wave while I walked.

"GOODBYE SCORCH! I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU!" The voice grated against my ears as usual and I kept walking.

"Geez is the kid always so loud?" Bella muttered.

"Yeah." I said idly. "There's no papers or anything to sign?"

"Not for you." She said with a scowl. "Thirty four forms, 'Scorch'. Thirty four filled with information to fill out."

"Thank you." I said.

"You better be thankful." She rolled her eyes. "You know that stuff you wanted an answer to?"

"The whole 'Ozpin versus me' deal?" I asked.

"I got an answer for you." She said. A glance at me showed that was not all. "And some requirements."

I sighed. Bella knew some important things. I couldn't really say no. "We'll discuss them." That was my way of not admitting she had me by the balls.

"Now get in that damn car. The SDC guys will take us to the docks and we'll leave. Once we run into the woods at the mainland we have to travel two miles to a nice little ravine I found. It's quite nice."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Remember to distinguish yourself among the staff."_

" _Yes father."_

" _They are not as important as the heir however they are your teachers. It would beget the Schnee name to cast such a poor image of ourselves. On that note, I expect your grades to be stellar."_

" _Yes father."_

" _Of the reports I have received the most favored class of Abyss' is subterfuge and information gathering, although I'm told an acronym is prominent among your classmates. You are to register for this class though I do not expect you to excel. You are not trained in stealth. Simply pass the class and leave a good impression."_

" _Yes father."_

" _You are to arrive on time always. An apartment has been furnished and bought for you on an address two blocks from Signal. Abyss unfortunately lives anonymously. Klein will be with you to attend to your needs although he may be recalled should he be required."_

" _Yes father."_

" _Your future as the Schnee heiress depends on your success here. Befriending the heir to nature's bounty will offer untold profit to the SDC. You already know the booming success they have had with white bloom sap."_

" _Yes father."_

" _Finally, train to be a stellar huntress. Mediocrity is unacceptable."_

" _Yes father."_

" _The airship to take you to Patch is waiting with your luggage. Collect your belongings, say goodbye to your sister, and embark. Remember your lessons."_

" _Goodbye father. I shall."_

[|||| == ||||]

"You want _what_?" I said scathingly.

"You heard me." Bella said with hard eyes. "Work with Ozpin."

"Not a chance." I said venomously. "To that man all of humanity consists of his pawns to be moved around his board. I coexist with him. I do NOT work with him."

Bella set me with a steely look. "What do you have against him?"

"I value my freedom far too much to resign it to serve him."

"And what have I said about serving him? I said work with him. Not throw your lot in with him."

I had to force my teeth to not clench. "Ozpin is a manipulator of the highest order. He has centuries of experience ruling Remnant even when he doesn't directly seem to be doing so. He is immortal, powerful, and skilled. Besides all of that his and my methods greatly differ."

"Differences can be bridged." She retorted.

"He refuses to acknowledge his allies. He hides information on a need to know basis. He shuffles naive children around in a game they aren't allowed to know about. I don't accept that. I don't care about the common masses and what they know but I will not ally with anyone who treats their allies with the disposability he does."

"Then barter a change with him." She said that as if it were obvious.

"On what ground?" I challenged her. "He is as powerful as me or perhaps more so but he doesn't die. He has centuries of experience in deception and politics. Perhaps even millenia. He wants only to gather the relics to serve his demise."

Bella was silent as she stared at me. A long stretch of time passed between us as we stared off.

"Fine." She relented. "You don't have to work with Ozpin, however you have to pursue the good of remnant independently."

"I improve Remnant plenty already." I pointed out. "I stabilize a racial inequality publicly, supply a critically important good to repel grimm, and I'm actively working towards several other plans that will improve Remnant drastically."

"Are these plots actively for the good of remnant or just helping along the way?"

I was silent. I don't care about the overall good of remnant. It's just convenient to me for remnant to be a better place. Bella took the cue to continue.

"How will your plots help remnant?"

I took a deep breath. "I'm currently engaging in diplomatic relations with the white fang. These relations will hopefully improve the fang's disposition towards humanity in general."

"Now there's nature's bounty. It sells tools against the grimm to hunters and has already drastically improved general safety."

"Last in this little list would be Roman's empire. I helped set it up. He works for my 'uncle' but knows I'm on par with him in terms of authority. Under his hand controlling Vale's underworld criminal elements have been brought to a controlled level with somewhat more profit since there's no conflict to hinder him or his underlings."

Bella digested all of that for a few seconds. "What are your actual goals with this?"

"I just want to make the world a better place." I said with thick sarcasm. Bella rolled her eyes and I got to the actual reason.

"The white fang is a wild card that could disrupt my plans for the SDC. I need influence over them. Weiss Schnee has some of Ozpin's attention with her training to be a huntress, a Schnee, and a somewhat curious person. Finally controlling the underworld has a range of benefits for me, all of them criminal."

Bella was silent and clearly her mind was whirring. I waited for her to think before she finally spoke.

"I'm not going to work under you… But I'm not going to oppose you or tell Ozpin anything. If there's an operation that I approve of I'll help. If there's one I disapprove of I'll stay out of it. In exchange you protect me from magical means and don't antagonize Ozpin."

I considered everything in that deal. It could be worse. Definitely worse. I keep signal standing and in exchange I have an operative I can use sometimes and silence from Bella.

Now that it's come to this I admit that bringing Bella into the fold was a bad idea. She's too loyal. Too military. Too nice. I would have had to lie to her to convince her my way was the right way.

"Deal." I agreed, though I wish I was getting a more solid agreement from Bella. She nodded to me solemnly.

"I don't want to fight, Abyss. I'm not an enemy that wants to bring you down. I really do want the best."

Somehow I doubt that the best applies only to me. I think if Bella was tasked between my life and two others she would choose the 'greater good' one. She was one of those people. The ones that want the best for everyone.

If she met Ruby they would get along famously.

"Ready to get back to Patch?" She asked with a less harsh tone.

"Yeah." I sighed. "This trip has been mostly pointless. At least I got the truth about the mines."

Bella nodded. "They could be worse I guess… being illegal isn't good for a company. It makes sense that the camps, being their main mode of production, are legal."

"It's sad but I can't do anything about it from the camps themselves."

"I know. I can't blame you for that."

A moment of silence went between us. I had a feeling that things were alright between us although we would never agree on some topics, Ozpin being one of them.

That's alright I guess. I can't expect everyone to go along with my ideas. I am somewhat concerned that Bella just became the most dangerous person to all of my plans though. At least she isn't directly against me.

[|||| == ||||]

" _That's checkmate."_

" _Ugh."_

" _Don't be sad, sweetie. Losing in chess just means you're stupid. I'm sure you can use you manly muscles to become a street thug."_

" _That's harsh, dad."_

" _Come to think of it, yeah that was a little harsh. Hmm, don't worry about it."_

" _I'm kind of done with board games."_

" _Are you going to practice that railgun again?"_

" _Yes. I need to control it. I can't have another accident."_

" _It wasn't your fault, sweetie."_

" _It was! I should have been more careful! I should have looked where I was shooting those things! I destroyed several buildings!"_

" _Pyrrha. It wasn't your fault. It was an accident. When you saw what you did - on ACCIDENT - you literally dove into a fire to make up for your mistake."_

" _I shouldn't have had to do that in the first place. I ruined homes, dad."_

" _And now you know to respect your weapons."_

" _And my semblance…"_

" _Especially that. The kid was right. You were holding yourself back by not experimenting."_

" _Flying is really uncomfortable though."_

" _It's flying, sweetie. Flying. You literally lift yourself up and FLY."_

" _And it's not useful for combat, severely draining on my aura, and really uncomfortable."_

" _There's no satisfying you women, I swear…"_

[|||| == ||||]

"Abyss, there's someone outside." Ruby told me from the doorway to my room, scroll in hand. She had gotten back from the Xiao-Long family home yesterday and we had two more days until Signal. "She's got kitty ears on her head like you and some bags. She looks really confused."

"Oh. That's Blake Belladonna." I barely looked up from my book. "She's probably confused because she'll be attending Signal with us but she's in an apartment in Vale. Remember the white fang diplomat that's supposed to arrive?"

"Oh yeah! She's the diplomat? She seems kind of young." Ruby smiled and looked at her scroll, on which there was a cat faunus standing awkwardly checking the address of our apartment building with a slip of paper in her hand.

"People relate to others their age. I also had some somewhat specific qualifications for a diplomat." Oh so that's where the gyro for the airship was! Remnant was really quite clever making their airships. I never thought of using wind dust that way.

"Huh. So she'll be living with us?" A more critical look went towards her scroll.

"She'll be our neighbor and classmate. Try to be friends with her. She has a hero complex like you." Ruby's smile brightened and she might have just marked Blake as a friend already judging from the enthusiasm in her eyes. "Want to go meet her?" I offered. Ruby nodded happily and I got up from the common room's couch with a small groan.

I should probably introduce Raven too… I flashed mage sight for a moment and found her drinking and supervising one of the weekly tournament style competitions the bandits did. It kept their skills up. I teleported to her.

"Raven." She glanced towards me from her chair.

"Hm?"

"We have a new neighbor. The white fang one. I don't care if you're friendly with her but you should at least meet her. Come on. It'll only take a moment." Raven scowled and looked at the tournament going on. That captain guy that got alcohol last christmas was kicking the ass of two generic bandits.

I sighed at the hesitation. She needs incentive then. "I'll let you decide dinner if you come along." Raven was up in an instant.

I teleported us to the elevator and stepped through, where Ruby was just running in. She pressed the first floor button and looked at her scroll again to look at Blake. Ruby doesn't have many summer friends. Or neighbors, now that I think about it.

The elevator doors opened too slowly and Ruby slipped through the cracks in a little whoosh of rose petals. I saw Blake looking at her in surprise before her eyes locked onto me in the elevator. Her eyes switched between us a few times and I thought I could see a light bulb turn on above her head as she made the familial connection.

Ruby threw open the doors to the apartment with a wide gesture. "Nice to meet you! I'm Ruby! Abyss' sister!" Ruby seemed to barely hold back from hugging Blake but she at least had the presence of mind to not hug complete strangers. Blake clearly had no idea what to do so she put on a practiced smile and nodded politely.

"I'm Blake Belladonna. Nice to meet you."

"Ruby is… excitable." I said in a form of apology. Blake looked over to me with that polite smile. Hey wait she's actually a pretty good diplomat. What do you know? I thought she would be antisocial and barely willing to say two words.

"It's fine." She said.

"You'll be living on the floor above us!" Ruby said excitedly. "We can totally be apartment buddies!"

Neither Blake or I had any idea what apartment buddies were, apparently. Also, Blake wasn't really 'buddy' material. I was getting a little concerned over Ruby since she was acting socially erratic nearing what Penny was like in the show. Not quite there but social decorum was being thrown out the window with her.

"It will be… nice to be friends with you, Ruby." Blake said, settling with friends before being a… buddy. Ruby seemed to compose herself a little bit, realizing labelling Blake as a 'buddy' was too much too quick for her tastes (or anyone's comfort really). She backed up a little bit and left Blake some personal space. She gratefully walked through the doors with Ruby no longer blocking them.

I started walking towards the elevator and the others followed me. "The apartment is mostly empty at the moment. It has a bed leftover from the old owners but it's inn poor condition. I think the springs are broken." I said casually. Blake relaxed a little at the mundaneness of the conversation in comparison to Ruby's enthusiasm.

"That will be fine tonight. I can furnish my rooms later. Thank you for your concern." Blake kept her tone even and polite as we filed into the elevator. Ruby pushed the button for Blake's new floor.

"It's no trouble." I said, waving off her thanks. "To get to school I'll just teleport you to school with Ruby and I."

"I was wondering about that." Blake's small smile became somewhat more genuine as the air around us became more relaxed rather than awkward. "Can you tell me about your semblance a little? Not all that much is known about it."

"It's multi-faceted." I started the lecture I've doubtlessly gone through many times once more. "I can teleport, warp space, and a few other effects. Most important are my hammerspace and my ability to make portals. I use the portals for a variety of things, of which not walking to school is included." An amused twinkle entered Blake's eye at the small joke.

"The hammerspace is just a pocket dimension I use to store objects I care to keep. I hold weapons, dust, school supplies, and everything I care to have." Blake nodded at all that.

"I always wondered. Thank you for telling me." She stated. The elevator doors opened up and Ruby was the first one out. We all trailed behind her.

"Are there any official matters to do in your time here?" I asked curiously. The white fang didn't say anything about any specific goal or association or anything between us. I don't have anything to ask for anyways.

"Just to make relations better between our two groups and manage things as they come." Blake said with a slightly more casual tone than before.

"Sounds fine to me. Do you have to write reports or just be friendly?" Blake's small smile dropped.

"I do have to write reports. Not on a daily basis but more on a monthly one on how relations are between the company, you, and people of interest."

I shrugged it off. I'm not going to trust Blake with anything sensitive. She was self righteous in the show and I don't want to see if that trait was prominent before her defection. That righteous attitude could have her disapprove deeply of a lot of my actions.

"Ah, and you are?" Blake looked at Raven pointedly. Raven had an almost lazy droop to her eyes. I haven't been working her enough lately it seems. She's like a cat I domesticated that's growing fat and lazy. Maybe she should get information on Cinder Fall? Or something with more fighting…

"I'm Raven." She said carelessly. "I'm Ruby's aunt." Blake looked between the two and looked pointedly at Ruby, seeing little similarities.

"My mom and auntie Raven were on the same team." She explained. "Auntie also had my half sister Yang before she divorced dad and then mom got dad." Blake seemed to make sense of that messed up family tree for a moment before realizing she couldn't and just went with it.

"Alright. Nice to meet you, ah, Raven?" Raven looked amused by her hesitation about using her name and nodded.

"I won't be seeing you often. I'm just here since Abyss promised to let me decide dinner today if I met you."

Blake seemed to decide whether she was insulted by being worth selecting a meal it decided on just being resigned about it and putting it past her.

You know, with Blake being this mature I kind of like her. I was worried she'd be offended about everything and blame all her problems on her heritage. I suppose I was making an assumption there.

Blake surveyed her room easily. It wasn't like there was much to look at. A small kitchen area, a bed in an alternate room, and a dull brown carpeted flooring. A wooden chair was left in the corner.

"I got you some dishes in the cabinet and some food in the fridge but ultimately it's yours to furnish however you want. I'll give you an allowance to decorate it at first."

Blake looked at the space easily before shrugging and dropping her suitcase down on an unoccupied space of carpet. She probably has some things to decorate the room with in her bag unless what I saw of the show was wrong. I wonder how many books she has? Come to think of it I haven't read a dirty novel before…

"Do you want to go get furniture, relax, or something?" Ruby asked thoughtfully. Blake seemed to consider some options before settling on one.

"I would prefer to get some furniture for the place soon enough… I also need to learn how to cook."

"There's a store five blocks east." I informed her. "As for cooking… Have fun. Or go out to eat. Here." I flicked my writs, taking the card out of my inventory and setting it on the counter of the three room apartment. "It's got a limit of five hundred lien a week, which I think is generous. Bills and such are paid for by yours truly. I'll see you soon and at Signal. Goodbye Blake."

I stepped out while Blake was trying to figure out what to do first. Raven followed quickly through my portal to our floor. I heard Ruby call "Bye Blake! I wrote all three of our scroll numbers on this." A papery sound was heard. "Call if you need anything. Bye!"

I walked back to my book, happy that that was over with. I think Blake has some independence. I'd rather not hold her hand through the whole process of having your own place.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Hey, uh, Abyss."_

" _Bella? What brings this on?"_

" _We have two applicants requesting to be a part of subI but they're both year two students. I almost always reject them out of hand but these two… Well I thought you might want to meet them."_

" _Names?"_

" _Blake Belladonna."_

" _Let her in. She has training in wet work and life and death situations. Possibly even taken a life. She also has experience in diplomacy."_

"… _Wow. She's a shoe-in then. Does she know about everything?"_

" _No. She's white fang. Not dangerous since she's a white fang representative to nature's bounty."_

" _Got it. I've made an exception and accepted her. Now for the second one, and this one is a good deal trickier."_

" _Who?"_

" _Weiss Schnee."_

"…"

" _She has experience being persuasive and an array of ways to be a good spy but I'm really interested in her charisma. I've heard her sing and I'm certain that whatever I can teach her will really help her future. Persuasiveness is always helpful but her skill in negotiations is helpful too in an information exchange and two faced talk."_

" _Weiss Schnee - THE Weiss Schnee is attending signal."_

" _Yeah. Why?"_

" _Let her in."_

" _Look as useful as she seems she also seems like a moralist. Blake is one too but only on the subject of racism and honestly I couldn't care less about that. None of my business."_

" _I'll take responsibility for Weiss Schnee. If she causes trouble I'll take care of her."_

" _Hmm… Fine. It's going on record that you've vouched for her."_

" _Fine."_

" _I'll see you soon, Abyss."_

" _You too, Bella."_

[|||| == ||||]

I lay on top of the main signal building, looking down on all the freshmen scurrying to their first classes.

My classes were almost the same as before. SubI was the first class of the day now being the only exception. Then I had the educational classes before combat at the end of the day. It was why I was fine being a little late.

Besides, Kerrigan and Cesium were late and Bella was playing a scroll game. Ocean seems to have started a journal of some sort on various poisons she can concoct. She also seems to have branched into explosives and various payloads for delivering said toxins.

Sitting in a chair looking haughty was Weiss Schnee. THE Weiss Schnee. She seemed mildly disgruntled by the late start but was too polite to disrupt Bella's activities. She probably thought Bella was doing real work. It almost looked like she was with how focused she was on her scroll.

A bow-less Blake was in the rafters looking incredulously at Weiss. I don't particularly care why she was in the rafters but I'll pull her down as soon as I find Cesium and Kerrigan. Especially Kerrigan. He's not one to be late.

I finally found Cesium a mile away looking furious on a ferry to Patch. Kerrigan was in the stairwell working on a summer packet he seemingly hadn't finished.

I teleported to Cesium first, grabbed him, and teleported into the subI room, dumping him in a chair.

"What the-?!" A shrill voice exclaimed. I winced. Weiss' voice was high pitched. I really hope she can learn to be quiet. I noticed Blake wince as well.

I quickly teleported to Kerrigan and teleported him in too. He didn't look particularly surprised. When he was suddenly sitting at a desk he didn't even look fazed. As though it was completely natural to be abducted. I quickly gathered his packet and such and had a parallel quickly start completing it for him. It wasn't very difficult.

Bella glanced up and sent a sad look to her scroll before pausing her game. "Now that we're all here we have two new students here. Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna."

Blake dropped down from the rafters and to my happiness only Weiss looked surprised. Blake wasn't terribly good at suppressing her aura so we all sensed her.

"Introductions, please." Bella said casually. "Just you two. We already know each other otherwise."

The silence lasted barely a moment before Weiss started. "I'm sure you all know who I am." Cesium and Ocean quite clearly didn't, though I know they memorized her name the moment Bella said it.

"I hope we can have an amicable relationship as classmates." I wondered how quickly her excessive formality would last.

All eyes turned to Blake and she seemed to tense as Weiss sent a judging look to her ears. Blake sent a hostile stare right back. "I'm Blake Belladonna. I like books and I have experience in espionage and wet work."

Weiss' eyes seemed to narrow and I wonder if she just pegged Blake as 'white fang scum'. Let's see if I should do something about that… later. I have to make sure they're actually friends first. Possibly figure out what Weiss wants. I doubt Jacques would let her out without good reason.

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way we need to fill you two in on how things work around here." Bella said while spinning around in her chair. Weiss' staring at her was kind of funny. I'd bet a thousand lien she was wondering if she was actually the teacher.

"See first of all is the whole confidentiality thing. You get in here and you've made an agreement to not talk about ANYTHING that would put the class in jeopardy. Recently this has been expanded to include illegal activities, should they happen." Blake looked pretty nonplussed by this but Weiss seemed almost scandalized. I glanced around and saw everybody else looking on in amusement at the two newbies getting adjusted.

"If you do violate the trust in the group majorly you get a target on your back and we're all looking to make a dent on it. Small breaches in trust are, while certainly disagreeable, not worth kicking you out or anything. All of us got one strike last year."

"What did you do?" Blake asked curiously.

"The strike was because we went looking independently of our spymaster, the class leader, for information on him." Bella said. A hint of seriousness went into her demeanor. "The whole class minus the spymaster was in on it and received a 'strike' on their records for it. Do not betray the trust of your classmates. Secrets should stay secrets."

"I think we understand." Weiss said even toned. She didn't seem too shaken up. Then again we weren't really trying to intimidate her.

"Good." Bella said. "Now as for what we do here we practice espionage. This means ambushes, information gathering, wetwork, sabotage, thievery, we actually tried assassination last year, and there's some more miscellaneous stuff like thuggery or persuasion of a more criminal nature. Everyone trains in everything at least a little bit although having a specialization is fine. Cesium is shit at takedowns, for example."

"Actually I trained over the summer." He spoke up. We all looked at him curiously.

"Where?" Bella asked. Cesium made a grimace.

"Our criminal friend. He wanted favors. Now I owe him." I almost frowned at that. I'll need to have a chat with Roman. Having his paws on signal is not something I want. In fact I should inform him to stay away from unknown huntsmen altogether. Ozpin has his fingers everywhere in that area and he's bad for business.

"Don't be dumb." Bella said in warning. "Anyways, he WAS crap at takedowns. Now he might be better. He's also the most charismatic teenager I've ever met and is a good pickpocket. He's the talker. Kerrigan has knowledge of the gangs of Vale and knows a bit of everything as well as being good at acting as muscle. He's an all-rounder basically. He also has some creative ideas once and awhile. Ocean is a stealth specialist. That means she can't do hand to hand if it was her life at stake. She does, however, know how to wield a stiletto quite well in conjunction with her semblance and makes some really scary poisons."

"What about Abyss?" Weiss asked.

"He's the best." Ocean said quietly. Weiss and Blake still looked confused.

"She means that he is the BEST." Cesium stressed. "He knows people we don't, he's stealthier than Bella when he cares to, his semblance is one of the most versatile I've ever seen, his aura is huge, he knows secrets Bella doesn't, and to top it all off he can fight on the level of a veteran huntsman even if not for very long. That still makes him one of the most powerful students in the school. He is the spymaster."

Blake looked at me with an evaluating look, like she was determining how much of that was truth and how much was hot air. Weiss seemed to view that as a challenge, like she wanted to fight me for the throne I held.

"Now then," Bella continued, still swivelling in her chair, "As Abyss is spymaster that means he dishes out monthly assignments. He hasn't given anyone crazy hard jobs all of last year and those that were difficult were taken in groups of two. He's also not mandated to give out rewards but he usually does so anyways if you do decently."

"Not something like lien or a ticket to a show." I clarify. "I give real rewards. I gave Cesium three teleportations to Vale and back no questions asked. I gave Ocean exotic poisons. I gave Kerrigan a contact he could use, and so on. You might think you don't need anything but my gifts make things just a little bit easier should I think you've done something worth them."

"So anyways, Don't stab the backsides of your immediate classmates, don't slack on getting new skills, and don't cross Abyss. One final piece of advice. We've got a hierarchy here. Abyss first. Then comes me, Cesium, and the rest is yours to work out. We never had any issues before so please don't start any and make them a group problem."

"In regards to monthly assignments…" Everyone's attention snapped to me. "They're in your lockers. See them after class."

"But I was just there." Blake said with an inquisitive look. "I was only in class for a minute and a half before you appeared. I was at my locker just before that."

"Teleportation solves many issues." I said plainly. "Bella if you would start us off?"

Bella smiled slightly. "I was planning on getting to know the new kids' skills a little so I know what to work on but with Cesium practicing and a whole summer gone by I suppose I'll just test everyone! This will be fun. Abyss can you make your way to that field south of that lake?"

"The one with the waterfall?" I asked. She nodded. I had a portal up quickly. Our new arrivals looked to it with fascination while everyone entered without a blink.

Then the test started.

[|||| == ||||]

" _You what?"_

" _I got an assignment for you."_

" _I'm on vacation."_

" _And living like a bum. How many beers have you had today?"_

" _..."_

" _You're bored. I thought about sending you off to haven to take the relic-"_

" _The relic is at Haven?!"_

" _Yes. Don't go for it. I doubt you could find the sanctuary anyways. Instead of riling everyone up and possibly making a horrible mistake you're going to track down Pyrrha and check on her."_

" _Lovely. Give me until signal starts and I'll get moving."_

" _Keep lazing around and you're going to get fat."_

" _The day I get fat is the day I wear a tutu."_

" _I'll go buy one. You'll need it soon."_

"… _Fine. I'll go tomorrow. Do you know where she was last spotted?"_

" _Western Vale most likely. A small high speed projectile destroyed several houses. A rail gun. I think it's Pyrrha that accidentally fired her semblance railgun and destroyed some property. There's a news article on it."_

" _Flying too far gives me sore wings and that transfers to my arms. Is there an airship I can take?"_

" _Didn't I say that you're doing this specifically to get off your ass and do something? Take your time if you want but I'm telling you you're getting soft. Stop being so and exercise a little. Spars aren't doing it for you."_

" _You flatter me, really. Calling me fat, lazy, AND saying I'm getting soft?"_

" _You're welcome. It gives you motivation."_

" _Aren't you the nicest nephew in the world? Maybe I should spar with your little white fang friend. She seemed rather soft to hang around you."_

" _You can violently play with Blake when you get an update on Pyrrha. Maybe spar with Pyrrha when you find her. I'd appreciate that, actually. I doubt Pyrrha is that strong but it will give you a small challenge at least."_

[|||| == ||||]

Three poor bodies lay in some agony on the ground in various states of emotion. Two seemed as though used to it but not quite able to deal with it enough to stand. The other seemed out of her element. One stood in a combat-ready stance with the expression that spoke of being used to this. The final was standing tall and proud though heavily beaten. All of them were in various states of low aura. The two standing were at roughly a quarter each while the others were all around or lower than a tenth of their maximum.

On the other side was myself. I had one thick stick in my hand. Technically it counted as a short sword so long as I used it as one. That let me use it as a conduit for my fighting skill.

The two standing were Kerrigan and Cesium. Cesium was heavily beaten and Kerrigan was resilient and had a high tolerance for pain given his combat training. He once mentioned his family putting him through an anti-interrogation course with his approval. That probably helped build the willpower to stand tall.

Both of them were wielding their actual weapons. Kerrigan had his war axe in hand. It also transformed into a lever action shotgun. A buckler shield was in his hand - a buckler as in a buckler shield for him.

He had actually grow a lot over the summer. He stood at a solid six feet with a little extra. He was the tallest in our class for sure and he wore thick boots on top of that that made him a little taller. That and his large frame made his buckler far larger than normal. Around the size of a kite shield. He also had the muscle to make it heavy and still swing it around like it was made of plastic.

Cesium had upgraded the dual swords he had used all of last year for an average steel sword and long dagger. Neither were good or even mechashift but merely okay. He also had basic armor now. Simple synthetic materials and the basics of all military grade plastics but armor nonetheless. It dampened blows and

His fighting style had grown far more vicious and focused on offense and getting in his opponent's face. He used every advantage he could when he saw them and he was quite adept at seeing them. Any time he saw danger he could step back and immediately dash back into the fray to attack. Despite the seeming frenzy to this style I could see that he kept his front foot slightly more forward than he would going forward as well as his balance being slightly farther backwards than most attack based styles would use. I should know. I was there when Ruby was being taught, after all.

This wasn't at all the fighting Cesium had been capable of before. Before he was more timid. He struck for openings and could block and parry but he had plenty of issues. He thought too much. He tensed his attacking arm too much. He used two full length shortswords when he really shouldn't when practicing dual swordsmanship. His stance was always leaning slightly forwards or backwards when attacking or defending. He wasn't hopeless but he wasn't good. Now he wasn't the best either but he was a huge improvement from what he once was. I would have to fix his aggressiveness a little when fighting a clearly superior opponent but otherwise most of his flaws were corrected. I wonder who trained him? Most likely Neo but it never hurts to make sure.

Weiss was crap when it came to real combat. She had the swordsmanship down to a science but she wasn't trained in huntress swordsmanship. I simply switched to a halberd when I fought her. She had no idea or way to fight that other than to throw dust at me, which was easily countered with my own dust. Her semblance was versatile and powerful as well as quite cheap aura-wise but she hadn't yet found a way to properly merge it with her swordsmanship.

She had a lot of potential at least. Her dust technique and aura control were fantastic for her age and her swordsmanship and dust use blended together seamlessly. She just needed to e a more versatile and agile swordswoman and find an opponent that can't handle dust like it was second nature (it actually was second nature. The dust usage skill was maxed out and higher understanding allowed me to use the skill without thinking about it).

Ocean had always been the sneaky type. I allowed my mind to be influenced by her semblance and she nearly got me a few times but I always had the reflexes to defend against her. I could tell it was frustrating to her but it wasn't something she could fix until she finally got the cat-step technique Bella taught her down. She was too loud otherwise and if not her sound then my nose smelt her. Everyone smelled of something no matter how hard they tried. And if it wasn't one of those things it was my instinctual skill yelling at me, which happened every time. She just needed to have more avenues of attack. Cloak and dagger tactics only went so far against certain opponents. Hopefully her research into homemade bombs yields fruit.

Blake was just barely below Ocean in terms of stealth and her weapon's unorthodox nature made her able to restrain me (or try to, which was distracting), pepper me with bullets I had to avoid, or attack at close range so others got a breather. I had trouble hitting her even with all my skills since her semblance was a bitch to get a visual lock on her and with all the commotion around me I couldn't hear her footsteps since Blake constantly endeavored to make as little noise as possible. Her only weakness was stamina, low pain tolerance, and a weak aura. That last one explained a lot sadly. She was poor at handling dust based attacks as well. I could blanket her general area with fire and her only defense was to run for cover and wait to attack again. She was still one of the most troublesome opponents to face.

Besides the flaws they had all done pretty well. Just not well enough.

Cesium must have seen something in my guard since he lunged in close. I slashed out at him but he dodged and parried to divert my strike. He slashed upwards with his sword but I moved aside swiftly and batted his sword away. With a scuff of dust he was away from me once more. I decided to be done with him and sent a bolt of lightning at him.

To my annoyance Kerrigan closed in and predicted where the bolt would land. His large buckler took the hit. It was insulated so it easily absorbed the charge. He crouched down and Cesium took the cue to run forwards and use his back as a stepping stone. He went into the air with a dagger sliding out of his sleeve already in motion towards me. I could tell it was headed towards my throat. While he was in the air Kerrigan was charging towards me.

I funneled ice dust with some ice mana to add to it and slammed my fist to the ground. The earth didn't budge but in front of me a barricade of ice with slightly blunted spikes grew. The knife still made it over so I caught it.

Cesium barely made it over the barricade but that was fine. He slipped on the angled ice and fell down. I hit him with a blast of lightning and he was out. Kerrigan got creative and used a spike of ice to try to scale over the barricade. Rather risky with his size and momentum if you ask me but it's his choice.

I threw the knife at his left foot. I'm no great knife thrower at all but prediction solved that little issue for me as well as telling me where Kerrigan would be. The knife flew towards him and right into his knee. He nearly buckled under the force of the throw but prevailed towards me. I prepared a lightning bolt as I teleported behind him and threw it the moment I teleported. And like that Kerrigan was out.

"Good job everyone." Bella said from above. A journal of hers was being quickly written on with a complete evaluation. Her eyes didn't even leave it. "Except for you, Weiss. You're showing a lack of adaptability. Dust is versatile but it can be countered by quick reflexes and superior skill at dust handling. Fix that. Also you need to incorporate your semblance into your movement and your swordsmanship into that too - and yes I know that disrupts your whole style but that's too bad. You're too traditional and not mobile enough. Fix it. Oh, and great job Cesium." Bella's eyes flicked to him and made contact with his gold ones. "You showed a lot of improvement. You'll probably be around the top ten now. I can easily see that you didn't slack at all over the summer. Unlike Ocean. Where the hell was the knife throwing I told you to work on?! I didn't even tell cesium to work on that and he got it down!"

Ocean didn't respond other than a rollover and a small groan. I had drop-kicked her in the face and into a tree. She had aura so she was fine but she probably had a bruise. She's be fine by combat class if I gave her a boost and I'm giving everyone one anyways. Just channeling aura to a wound healed it pretty quickly disregarding major wounds.

"I think that settles that for today." Bella said in a satisfied tone. "Kerrigan you're absolved of getting worse at pickpocketing. Your hands were always just too big for that anyways. I can see you've gotten better at planning though so I suppose it's fine. Persuasion is always hard to grade but I think everyone had an overall improvement there too although you, Blake, need some training. You've got the goods to do well at least so I'm not letting that talent go to waste."

"Goods?" Blake wheezed out.

"Boobs." Bella clarified. "And face. And definately body. I saw Ocean giving you jealous looks by the way. Shame on you Ocean." Ocean rolled over again hiding her face. She was not a large chested girl. "You're actually the most capable person for seduction training here. Weiss is a second but I already know she's too prideful." A look from Weiss confirmed this. "So you've been conscripted. Congratulations. I'll give you some private aura sensing lessons in exchange."

"Aura sensing?" Blake moved upwards and seemed to mostly recover from the hits I'd given her. "I thought only special operators knew that sort of thing? Isn't that military level techniques?"

"I AM former military." Bella said with a fox-like grin. "So you get to learn some serious skills. I'll show Weiss the basics of course and she'll be in the lessons we occasionally have. You'll catch up quick I'm sure."

"That sounds… amazing." Apparently Blake was not as recovered as she appeared and she fell back onto her back.

"Just don't spread it to your friends." Bella advised. Blake looked with slightly widened eyes to Bella but She was already jumping down from her spot in the trees. "Let's go wash up a little. We have about fifteen minutes until class ends. You have ten to rinse off and the rest to put your normal clothes on. I have a free period second period so I'll wash everything before combat class. We have a laundry guy for all the combat uniforms after they've been used. I'll call in a small favor. And don't worry about doing this every period. We won't be doing this often at all although we do go on field trips with Abyss often and train in stealth outside. Abyss, the portal please?"

[|||| == ||||]

" _You mentioned my friends?"_

" _White fang and stuff. I got it and I'm not going to yell it from the rooftops. Kerrigan's the second or third heir to one of the most prominent vassal gangs to Roman Torchwick in Vale, Ocean's a creepy little thing, and Cesium's lived in constant poverty. Being a part of a terrorist organization is the most extreme case we have but not really scary. If anything it gives you a headstart since you're trained in covert operations and have a powerful contact."_

" _I… I see. You really don't care?"_

" _I do care. I just don't care in a negative way. I care since it gives the class a new potential contact in the fang and that you're ahead of the curve compared to Weiss and not baggage."_

" _I see. I actually have to ask, how did the Schnee get in?"_

" _Call her Weiss. She's your new classmate now. And for your information I originally wasn't going to allow her in but Abyss vouched for her. I let him know that she was behind the others already. He said he has some plans for her so I'm just going to let him do as he pleases with her. As far as I'm concerned that I even let her in is a small favor to Abyss."_

" _Why would he do that?! She's a Schnee!"_

" _Abyss isn't really biased like that. He met the Schnee heiress briefly in the past. I don't know the specifics of it but he feels that she can change things for the better. Ask him. It's nothing I want a part of."_

" _Thank you but… you mentioned seduction training?"_

" _You're doing that starting tomorrow."_

" _I already know about using my… goods in diplomacy training with the fang."_

" _Show me."_

" _No."_

" _Do it or I'll force you to be in seduction training anyways."_

"… _*Ahem* Oh hello there. And how are you d-"_

" _That's awful."_

" _It's not that bad! Sienna thought it was passable."_

" _It's horrible. She probably got sick of you trying to seduce her for practice and decided you'd only ever be able to flash your boobs at drunks as far as seduction goes. Here… excuse me, your hair is out of place… There… back where it belongs."_

" _I… oh."_

" _Aha! A blush! See?! Close contact, skinship, trailing hands, and plenty of other things. I've even got a secret technique passed down to me from my bestie in my time in the field. I'm willing to pass it down."_

" _Can you teach me to do that?"_

" _Well yeah. I kept it light that time since you're, you know, like fourteen?"_

" _Fifteen."_

" _Right. Well I didn't use my special technique or have the time to really get started. If I had been too intense you would have recoiled from the contact since you're skittish by nature. When you get more in the mood your inhibitions drop and you become more susceptible to all manner of fun interrogation techniques. Or, just fun techniques. I did, however, use your fetish against you."_

" _What?!"_

" _Ninjas of love volume five: The trials of chains. It was in your backpack along with a few others, two of which were based around submission and domination. You have a slight submission fetish judging from that submissive nature though you're a pervert so I would guess that you're comfortable being dominant as well."_

" _This is NOT a subject to be talking about with a teacher."_

" _As if. I've read the whole series. I had to read it as homework for my seduction training. Believe it or not that series actually uses advanced interrogation techniques in some parts and seduction techniques thrown around like candy. It's why the series is so detailed. You're being 'seduced' by the details. It's gripping, right?"_

" _Y-yeah."_

" _So you're up for seduction training?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Great. I'll start with you today then. Just stay an extra hour after class and I'll get started teaching you all I know along with that sensing training. You're almost late for your next class by the way. Get to it."_

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	36. Chapter 36

**AN: Just to make something clear I'm not trying to make team RWBY from the utter wreck canon has long since become. I get that there are some raised eyebrows at Weiss being introduced. It seems like a weird decision for the story, right? She doesn't fit very well at signal and it shows.**

 **Look she isn't going to be a permanent thing in the story. She does have a role to play, though. So sorry if you dislike her place in the story but it isn't like she's going to be the focus of an arc or anything. If anything she's just along for the ride as I wrap up signal.**

 **By the way, Weiss doesn't even know Ruby or Yang. She just goes to the same school as them. Nor do I ever plan on introducing her to them besides a very brief hello as a courtesy. Kind of like meeting a friend of a friend. That sort of relationship.**

 **All that said I'm glad that people have said that the story has gotten better. Well, not explicitly but we hit 400 favorites! That tells me I'm doing something right at least. I don't think being late on my uploads is something I'm doing right though. Sorry about that.**

 **Hopefully this shorter than normal chapter is in the right… sorry. I got a plot bunny and started writing a new story and got completely wrapped up in it. I haven't forgotten this one but it's not the first thing on my mind right now. That's why this is so late and shorter than normal. Also, the end scene is more like an omake than an important event. I also thought it was hilarious personally.**

[||||= **LEVEL 36** = ||||]

"Miste-Abyss." I turned at the calling out and saw Weiss approaching me. School had been as normal as it had been last year. The only two interesting things to happen were Blake getting private lessons from Bella and Qrow being absent. I had no problem with the extra training for Blake at all. Seduction training didn't sound particularly useful to me but she thought it might be useful so power to her I suppose.

Qrow being absent wasn't very shocking. He was gone often. I was just disappointed that he had to be gone when Weiss could have met him. That would be fun. Nothing like a stroke of fate had happened between the cast today unfortunately. Weiss didn't miraculously bump into Yang or Ruby into… anybody. Yang did see Weiss and look at her curiously though. And then look at me with some sort of determination. I'll just wait for her to make the first move in whatever she's doing.

"Yes, Weiss?" I asked pleasantly.

"I wondered if we might walk home together?" Weiss said with practiced friendliness.

"I teleport home usually." I say. "I sometimes stick around if Qrow is here so we can spar a little but with him gone for now I'll likely teleport."

"I-I see." Weiss seemingly hadn't considered that for some reason.

"If you'd like I still have to get some materials from a shop in Vale." I offered.

"That would be acceptable." Weiss said politely. I opened up a portal and stepped through to Vale a few streets away from the dust store I get my dust from. I'm getting low on bullets and the dust shop had the caliber I need in several forms. I like the explosive rounds the most although the high velocity ones were alright. Ruby is also getting low so I'm getting bullets for her too. Some dust is never unwelcome either. I'm not low but I like a stockpile.

"So what is it you need?" I started.

"Your monthly assignment. It says to observe the social hierarchy of the school and graph or otherwise display it accordingly. Does this have a rubrik or further specifications? It seems rather vague."

"A decent question." I turned a corner and Weiss followed, nearly bumping into a stranger who stared at her for a moment before recognizing her and hurrying off. Not that she noticed. "There is no rubrik. I don't care how you make the chart or how you display it. You could make it with crayons and I wouldn't care so long as it's easily readable. I make it and all the other assignments vague so you have independence."

"Do you mean the entire school or just the class leaders?" Weiss frowned.

"I shouldn't have to hold your hand for this." I said in slight reprimand. Weiss frowned somewhat. "Is the school's hierarchy linear?"

"Of course not! There are cliques and outsiders and…" Weiss slowed down as she saw my point.

"I want to see you think." I confirmed what she was just grasping. "Being capable is useless if you can't think for yourself. Learn independence. It's more than a state of location or the law. It's a mental state as well. You're not going to be free of anybody if you're incapable of following your own directions."

"But that breeds chaos! People could interpret your orders a hundred different ways to do as they please!" Weiss looked extremely disapproving of my method. I dodged a lamppost. Weiss nearly did too but she sidestepped at the last second.

"If they interpreted it as a way that was sloppy or nearly incomplete there would be consequences. Luckily there's only good people in subI so I'm not expecting anyone to be so sloppy. Everyone but you and Blake, being new, respect me enough to realize that my orders have a purpose even if they can't see them. A few plans have gone awry before but nothing has become truly unsalvageable.

"I… see. I suppose it would work in a smaller group." Weiss relented. "However among a group of people that are being trained in espionage isn't using what amounts to an honor system somewhat foo-risky?"

I gave Weiss a narrowed look, which was my way of saying I was not at all happy that she nearly called me foolish. I'm not stupid for trusting in my friends. The look was cut short as we arrived at the dust shop.

"Was the class the only reason you wanted to talk to me?" I asked while looking over the bullets available. Would Ruby prefer the momentum rounds with more kick to them so she can go faster with her scythe or the high impact rounds so she can shoot harder… probably the first. She has to limit the runes in the scythe anyways so she doesn't kill anyone.

"I'd like to know whether you do background checks on people you interact with at the school." I rolled my eyes facing away from her. This is about Blake, obviously.

"Anyone in particular?" Weiss hesitated.

"Being the heiress of the SDC I'm often under one threat or another. I'd like to know if any of my teachers are under the influence of any organizations that may have the opposite of my wellbeing in mind. I would guess that you have similar issues?"

"Not really." I grinned a little. Telling the truth would be fun. I made sure to get a view of her face. "The white fang likes me a lot so they stop terrorist attacks against me. They're quite nice, actually." Weiss was just speechless as she stared at me. Her mouth was just slightly open in shock.

"The white fang… But they're terrorists!"

"One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter." I retort. I had planned out this conversation for a while. "Besides, I'm not supporting their cause. I and my uncle just passively improve the lives of faunus by doing as we please in business. The larger and more public we get the more respect faunus have as a whole not to mention that we hire mostly faunus since we mainly need dumb labor for our agriculture. All of this makes us practically celebrities to the white fang. Only a few people might want my head on a platter and even then there are more people that want me alive than dead."

Weiss scowled and seemed a little envious although it was hidden under a practiced facade. Yes, going outside without a security detail is nice. I'm sure one day you'll be doing the same.

"Back to my original point do you run background checks?"

"Only for the people I need to know. I ran checks on everyone in first year except Bella. It was the first task I assigned." I gave up deciding on what incendiary round Ruby could use and just took five of each. If she doesn't want one then she should have given me a list.

"Have you done the same this year?"

"Obviously." Weiss noticed a box on her right that held some magazines. She grabbed one on dust wielding and another with an article on the SDC before responding.

"Did anything suspicious appear?"

"Blake's business is her own." I said in an even tone, tiring of the wordplay. "She's not going to kill you in your sleep or poison your food. At worst she'll be biased towards you. She has some bad experiences with the SDC and being the heiress she likely thinks you're a spoiled princess, which, to be fair you have some traits of."

"I am not spoiled simply because of my lineage!" She said hotly. I stood in front of the dust dispensers on the wall and wondered if I should just take it all. I would use it all eventually, after all. Dust didn't go bad. I'm a little low on lightning dust as well. I always use a pinch of it with my lightning based attacks since it aligns my storm mana far more quickly towards lightning than if I were to do it myself manually. I do have to weaken my strikes but it's not a big issue. I'm quite wealthy, after all, being the head of a prestigious company with expensive goods.

"You're currently accusing a classmate of being a terrorist after barely being around her for just one day because she's a faunus with experience in espionage." Weiss blinked in surprise, as though she wasn't being transparent about her motives, and I continued. "Today you showed confidence in your lackluster abilities and were firmly the second worst in the class with Cesium below you in terms of combat just barely and even then he's far more versatile than you with his experience in stealth. I'm sure he's more charismatic than you as well. Ocean is better against opponents other than myself so I would rank her just above you."

"I'll admit my skills were overshadowed today and numerous flaws have appeared in my technique however confidence is not arrogance."

"It is when you lose." I could faintly hear Weiss' teeth press hard against each other. She must think I'm insufferable. "Besides all that it doesn't matter really. You've not properly fought anybody and it showed. That indicates a lack of hardship that everyone in the class went through except Ocean, who is just mentally mature. Kerrigan had to be trained in brutality since his life was under the scrutiny of the criminal underworld since he was young, Cesium grew up in the slums and still rose up through his own merits, Bella has had a whole career in military service, and I grew up in the slums of Vacuo briefly before being orphaned and making my own in the world."

Weiss seemed to hold herself back from commenting on my childhood and took a moment to collect herself. I inspected the gravity dust. I never use the stuff but I really should. I would cultivate an affinity for it but it apparently takes a ton of work to raise to an acceptable level in it's affinity judging by Ozpin's old books. It's powerful to be sure but I can use motion instead. However, I had the thought to negate the gravitational fields that keep a person's atoms all bound together. I could send a breeze to them and like dust they'd just float away in a spray of red. Sadly aura blocks direct magic on a person without their permission but there's more to use the affinity for. It's just not worth the effort for me. I'm still working on the origin affinity anyways. I think I'm almost halfway there. Or maybe a quarter. It's hard to tell but purity and corruption have been less hostile to each other.

I sighed and decided against using the new dust. I instead stuck with what I know. Lightning, fire, water, ice, earth (though I don't often use it), air, and some other less common stuff. I just piled all the dust into plastic bins I kept in my inventory. The shopkeeper was used to this. He'd understand. I'll loot all his crystals when I get to the front. He keeps some good stuff in the back as well.

"I've had my own share of hardship." Weiss said confident. I think she missed my point. I'm not having a terrible childhood contest. I'm saying she lacks the perspective we've all had.

"Weiss why did you join signal?" I ask while switching to a second plastic bin for the dust. Man I use a lot of this stuff. Oh well. Better now than when somebody starts stealing a ton of it.

"I want to be a huntress." She said immediately.

"And why subI?"

"It seemed useful." I almost missed the signs of a lie. That was a very good lie. So she is good at something the class can use.

"For you it's not." She narrowed her eyes as though in challenge. "You lack the attitude to properly make use of it. Everyone can tell."

"I got in, didn't I? That says to me that I at least have potential." I nearly facepalmed at her ignorance. It really doesn't say anything about whether you can get in to a class. Passing it says something though.

"You didn't actually." Weiss doesn't respond to that, too confused to make a retort. "Bella was originally going to reject you but I vouched for you. I know you're not the pretty princess a lot of people think you are. You have potential but it's going to be a complete pain to drag it out. You're never going to be a person who sneaks about in the dark like Ocean or Blake and you'll never be as adept at criminal matters as Kerrigan. You can, however, learn something. A dose of reality would do you well and you can use the time you have at signal to make yourself into a proper huntress. For now, though, everyone thinks your a spoiled princess and they're not very interested in looking deeper to see who you are."

Weiss didn't reply, seemingly thinking about something. I don't think she's quite taken what I've said to heart but that's really not my problem. If she can clean up her act I'll be fine associating with her. Otherwise I'll toss her out of subI and let her mature into the person she was when she arrived at beacon.

Come to think of it, Ruby had quite an effect on her in canon didn't she? Maybe I should introduce them. They probably won't click and become friends but being familiar with each other could help them in the future. Fixing Weiss' problems could be solved plenty of ways but it was solved handedly by friendship in the show. I'll use that one eventually. It's going to take a lot of patience to get this done.

I bought all the dust from the store, paid about two and a half thousand lien (which is cheap for how much I bought) and opened a portal. Weiss didn't talk about anything important for the last few minutes of the trip. It was just small talk while she considered everything we had talked about. I really do hope she figures out what it is she's going to do.

[|||| == ||||]

" _You're Leonardo Lionheart?"_

" _Y-yes."_

" _I'm Watts. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I will be your correspondent between you and my lady."_

" _Alright…"_

" _Now, we will start with the basics. Information on the location of huntsmen and huntresses of mistral out on their lonesome."_

" _What are you going to do with them?!"_

" _That is none of your concern for the moment."_

" _They are MY huntsmen and huntresses. I won't have you seeing them killed!"_

" _I had assumed you were more subservient than this… would you care to inquire to my lady on this matter?"_

"…"

" _If you do not then you may wish to do as she commands. I am her proxy in this matter. The information?"_

" _I'll … I'll send you a code."_

" _It is appreciated."_

" _Please, do not kill my people needlessly."_

" _Every death will have a purpose, I assure you. I will return when we have further need of you. Goodbye… my friend."_

[|||| == ||||]

Ruby stood resolutely, eclipse rose in sword form firmly grasped in her two hands. She briefly closed her eyes and the weapon's innate purity began to grow and resonate with her own. The metal seemed to become a little lighter and a strange air seemed to emanate from the weapon. It was good practice for when she would fight grimm.

Linking your affinity with a weapon seemed to be a trait only Ruby was capable of. While a weapons affinity seemed ridiculous it was really quite useful and she had grown it as much as she could and treated it like it was a favorite child she liked to spoil. It was at almost two hundred now rather than the nineteen or so it had been at before. Ruby loved weapons and the affinity let her use them more effectively than ever before. Eclipse rose performed better in her hands because of it, becoming sharper and lighter and hitting harder than before.

When Ruby was using a weapon she was faster and stronger herself as well. She wielded all weapons like they were a part of her, which they sort of were due to the nature of affinities. Even her mana subtly felt like it was meant to be a weapon. Like it was meant to attack and be wielded.

I stood calmly but my aura and mana were both primed to take action. Like rubber bands set to fly the two energies were set to act as soon as I released them.

At a small shift in Ruby's aura we both acted.

My body's physical form changed suddenly. The body of worlds skill, armed with my affinity for the storm, turned my body to a dark cloud. Lightning was far easier to throw when you were lightning.

Ruby, on the other hand, was racing towards me in her usual flurry of petals. She dodged the lightning I threw at her with with ease. Her affinity for electricity, inherited from me, and her ability to sense aura and mana allowed her to tell where the strikes would come from easily and respond quickly enough to dodge. Still, though, I poured a small amount of mana into my storm affinity and lightning swarmed over me, granting me a small storm of the electricity and plasma swirling around me.

Unfortunately Ruby's weapon wasn't deterred by my lack of a body. She struck gracefully and quickly at me, taking the blow to her aura from the lightning and slicing through my form. My mana dropped somewhat from the disruption to my form.

I lashed out with a huge blast of heat enhanced with a weakening of space to make it more quickly travel through it. Ruby wasn't deterred and pulled on one of the most annoying elements to exist.

Earth. The one affinity I don't have. Metal doesn't count since most rocks and such aren't metal and my affinity isn't strong enough to affect the tiny deposits of metals in rocks. I can summon precious metals from deep beneath the earth though if I ever need money.

In a blink she disappeared from the arena, submerged in dirt and rock. Just a moment later a scythe lashed upwards from the ground where I was standing. My composition turned to light and in less than a millisecond I was on the other side of the arena in physical form.

Ruby had barely come out of the ground before she was a storm of petals coming for me. Suddenly she appeared physically and a round of insane velocities was blasted from the barrel of eclipse rose.

The bullet travelled so fast the very air around it was ignited. A trail of fire cloaked the projectile and had it hit me it would nearly deplete my aura.

That's why I wasn't there when it hit. Prediction and Instinctual had agreed - in the tenth of a second I had to think - that I was in danger and that Ruby would likely fire her gun. I did not like her bullets one bit, being that they were bad for my health.

The hard light illusion of me disappeared as the bullet crashed through it and I, still made of light, pushed mana into my space affinity. Around Ruby space became crushing, converging on her like she was some sort of spatial black hole. Suddenly the ten feet between us became miles and miles made of dirt. It hardly mattered for me.

All the light I could grasp with my affinity was taken and using roughly one hundred thousand units of mana I produced a powerful laser of light so high in energy it went off the visual scale and became gamma radiation. From that point it was outside the domain of my affinity for light, becoming something more inside the influence of a radiation affinity or electromagnetic affinity. However, it didn't matter. It's relation to light, being a wave of extreme energy, allowed me to create it.

Just not control it.

Ruby's aura took a huge hit, decreasing by nearly three quarters. The only reason she was alive was because she had her aura infused with her earth affinity. Earth naturally cancels out light and radiation after all. She had changed it from wind to be swifter to earth when she dived under the rock and dirt and she hadn't had a chance to change it.

The spar wasn't yet over, though. Ruby pushed her own mana in a spike of air infused mana. Spikes being a form of weapons and her affinity for wind being stronger than mine for space she reached outside the space my space attuned mana created. She disappeared outside the space through her spike of mana in a teleport and sliced with eclipse rose, pushing the remainder of her mana through it with fire. The slash produced an arc of fire that roared towards me.

Simple stuff, Ruby. I barely waved my hand and all the air in front of me disappeared, courtesy of my storm affinity. The fire immediately died as it hit the vacuum. I then allowed the vacuum to fill in.

"Not fair!" Ruby protested.

"Vacuums are certainly fair game." I corrected her. "You could use electricity to cross it."

"But a vacuum is still a perfect insulator!" She argued. "The electrons have to gather the energy to jump all that distance and it just makes the attack pointless…"

"True." I acknowledged, turning physical once more. "However, it's still feasible. Besides that a physical projectile would easily cross it. Like your bullets."

"You would just move all that space attuned mana go in front of you." She muttered, waving at the miles of empty space she was just trapped in. "And you would teleport from the path of the bullet like a weenie the moment I so much as waved eclipse rose at you while you were still in a physical form."

"Well yes." I admitted. I pulled on my space mana, deconstructing the spell. Consumption 'ate' the mana, making it one with my once more and unity flawlessly integrated it once more into my soul. No mana was wasted at all. "However, it would prove to be more of a challenge."

"Can we do weapons training?" Ruby said, the puppy eyes in full effect.

"Ugh." I said in distaste. Ruby was unfair to go against with a weapon in hand. If I couldn't abuse my insane affinities and mana what was the point? To get stronger? At this point?! I may be just a little OP but weapons training grates on me.

But the puppy eyes are a fearsome weapon. There were little tears in her eyes. Sure she was abusing her water affinity to make them artificially but then again that hardly mattered. It looked heartbreaking. I think Vernal gave her lessons on making effective puppy eyes. Will of steel clearly told me that she was faking it but… the eyes.

"Fine." All sense of sadness disappeared from Ruby's eyes.

"Yes!" Ugh, I'm such a pushover.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Awwww, thank you my honey poo!"_

" _It's no big deal cuddle buns! I loooove you!"_

" _And you're just a regular good luck charm! Hehehe!"_

" _Please, mister Branwen… please stop flirting with your girlfriend. It's so…"_

" _Kid do you have a problem with me and my girlfriend?"_

" _Wha-! No! It's very sweet but, uh, it's very VERY-"_

" _Then shut up!… now back to you my beautiful flower!"_

"… _Okay they're distracted. When are we going to stop messing with them?"_

" _When Ruby, Abyss, or Yang are here. The others in his little group are in on it. I just want to screw with the other brats. They cause me enough trouble as it is."_

" _HAHAHA! That's so funny sweetie!"_

" _I loooove-OI! Stop sleeping, brat!"_

" _I hate this class."_

"Roman what the hell do you want at this hour?" I growled as I exited a portal. Roman looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Well Raven isn't here… I'm sorry boss."

"Talk."

"Vacuo got their shit somewhat together." He started simply. "Some upstart named Sand, no other name given, managed to wrestle about a forth of the underworld under his control somehow. The thing is, he's got the whole rest of the underworld clawing at him to bring him down. Now this upstart is going down but holding together for the moment. He sent me an offer. Seventy percent of his future profits if I stabilize him and put the underworld he has under his control. It's a good deal. I had a few guys check out the validity of the deal. Sand's desperate and he respects me a lot for bringing Vale's underworld under my control. This is a chance to take Vacuo, boss."

I stayed silent… do I even care about Vacuo? It's, to my knowledge, a shithole for the most part.

"Why would we go to Vacuo in the first place?" I asked in a softer tone.

"They have mines." Roman said immediately. "The desert is terrible for growing but it's pretty rich in metals though forging isn't common or well developed over there. They sell to Mistral or Atlas for the most part. There's also the gambling rings of Vacuo, which were famous before and with a little effort I would personally oversee they could be again. The same goes for the fighting rings in Vacuo. They were the prime source for underground fighting while Mistral takes the legal fighting rings' top position in remnant."

"Is there anything to gain for nature's bounty?" I asked.

"Not a thing." He admitted. "Agriculture in Vacuo sucks and they're only need for hunters is to keep the land they have. Their ocean business is huge but way too far out of our specialization to properly take advantage of. The faunus population is equal there far more than any of the other kingdoms too so you can't take advantage of your white fang contacts or your pro-faunus reputation."

"And why would we go into Vacuo for their gambling rings and pit fighting when the two businesses have been destroyed?" I questioned further. "Surely the power vacuum is filled by now."

"Vacuo has a strong audience for gambling and pit fighting." He said simply.

"You're not allowed into Vacuo. There's always an audience for crime in any city." I denied. Roman frowned. "Now tell me why you want into there in the first place. Obviously Vacuo holds nothing for us. Mistral has a well established crime ring and a land fit for nature's bounty to take advantage of should we need more land, which we quite clearly don't considering more than a fourth of patch is bought by us. So what are you looking for?"

Roman still hesitated. I gave him a moment.

"Vacuo is tough." He admitted. "The crime there has grown rugged and violent, not that they ever weren't. Every gang member is a fighter. Even before the killing years ago that set off the gang war the crime there was rough and tumble to the extreme. It's also vulnerable right now and nobody's made a move. I want those tough people with me. I want to recruit them."

"Why?" I questioned.

"Mistral is established as far as crime goes. Very, VERY established. A few families stretch back over a hundred years. Before the great war started sort of old. They're powerful too. I want that power they have but for that, continuing the violence you and the boss seem to support, I need fighters. Attacking Mistral means bringing all the alliances down on me. I need support for that. Power. Vacuo is a well of untapped power but just for right now. I need to go there if I want at the holy grail of crime, being Mistral."

"I see." I mutter.

"No, you don't boss." Roman says seriously. I narrow my eyes at him as he sits straighter in his chair. "Do you know how many crime bosses have had control of a whole city before?"

I don't answer.

"None." He says crisply. "Not one. Never ever in the history of ever. Sure there have been conglomerates of five families or so forming a council that controls the crime of the city but never has there ever been a boss like me. I have all of Vale with me. I have the throne right here under my ass." Roman slapped the arm of his chair for emphasis.

"But I can go farther." He continued, a fervent tone entering his voice. "I can BE more! Right now Vacuo looks like shit and Atlas keeps crime in a deathgrip, military fanatics that they are, but imagine what the future could hold? I could have all of REMNANT with me if I have their crime. Every lowlife, robber, and thug would know me."

A little pride and longing went into Roman's voice. "I'm already going to be in the history textbooks as is but I could be more than a significant figure in some class. I could be the man who united all of remnant under one banner. I could be the guy. People would think of crime and think of me. I could be the king. That's a dream but it could be more. I want it to be my goal because that could happen. It doesn't have to be something I only see when I'm asleep. I could see it every minute of every day."

"But there's a problem, obviously." Roman said, some anger coloring his tone. "Unity. I'm a puppet, boss. I know that damn well. Raven beats that into me plenty and you don't say it but you prove it through her. I'm just a figurehead even if I'm slowly getting to be the real thing. A real king. I can't move without you on board. I need your to move myself as much as I hate it. You put the crown on my head and you can make my little empire more than just one city under us. It could be the world. You just have to reach out and take it. Take a risk, boss, and the world is yours."

I was silent. Take over the world? I could. Vacuo is easy to grab and it has tough people at least though it has no wealth. It's wealth is in people. I could have them and from there, the people of the harsh desert, ride out and forge an empire like some sort of Genghis Khan and own everything.

Mistral could fall if I threw everything at it. It really could. A little forged evidence here, a little murder here and I have a gang war there where Roman can swoop in and steal the show. It could all be his. It could all be mine.

But why would I do that?

I don't want to be the crime boss. I don't want to be the pawn. I want to be me no matter who that is. So why would I disturb what's not hurting me? Roman's greed isn't my own…

I fought back a sigh and looked towards Neo. In her eyes was admiration for Roman and some sort of devotion. Not like an obsession but more of a respect so profound that she would follow Roman anywhere.

"You don't care." Roman says in a sort or revelation. I glance away from Neo and back at him. "You don't want the world." He speaks like I'm doing something completely illogical. Like my lack of ambition for Roman is insane.

"You don't want to expand. You don't care for the money or the fame you could have. Do you even care for the power?"

"Somewhat." I admit. "The convenience of having others under my employ can't be denied. Plenty of problems have been solved by you, Roman. However, I don't care if you expand beyond Vale or not. I just want Vale and even then that may change in a few years and I would let the gang fall to you. Raven doesn't care about Vale as a whole either… Do you know why she follows me?"

Roman is silent, just staring at me trying to wrap his mind around how I wouldn't want the world on my shoulders.

"Because I care about family only." I say easily. "My sister and her specifically. I come second to them. Friends come third to me. Beyond that I do whatever feels best to me. Raven is the same. She chose the tribe of hers to be her family. She would throw away a daughter by blood of hers if it meant her tribe and it's principles were whole. Besides that I'm more powerful than her and so she follows me. I don't care about the world being in my hand. I want the world to do what it can for my family and myself. That's why the gang of yours is where it is now. Because it benefits my family. That is all."

"If you want to take Vacuo go ahead… but you won't receive any help from me and if Vale is in any way compromised, if I see your control over it slipping, you'll be properly punished. Raven will do the same as I. none of the tribe's members will go to Vacuo with you. You say you want to be king? Do it yourself. I'm not bringing you any further than it suits me."

Roman was grim. "Alright… how can you just not care?"

"Because I don't see the value in the world." I say with a small tired smile. "What's the use in owning everything if all that matters is a few things?" I make a portal and step into it. It closes quickly with Roman looking down blankly at his desk. With a breath I get back to what I was doing.

Sleeping.

" _But teacher-sama! I… I want to be taught!"_

" _Oh? Taught what, my cute little student?"_

" _I want to be… I want to learn to… to…"_

" _To what?"_

" _To be beautiful!"_

" _Ah, but my adorable student you are already the most beautiful person in the room."_

" _Says who?"_

" _Says I-"_

" _Hey, Bella, want to…"_

" _AGH! Qrow! What, um, it's not what it looks like!"_

"…"

" _Umm… hi mister Branwen."_

" _What the… Bella you're dressed like Glynda decided to seduce some poor bastard and left a bra at home, the cat-girl is in a MINI SKIRT and some stupid sailor outfit… what the hell is this?!"_

" _I lost a bet to Blake damnit! Shut up!"_

" _Usagi-chan's outfit is NOT stupid you old drunkard!"_

" _Blake please just be quiet."_

" _Bella while I appreciate that you decided to have a threesome with your student and I she's pretty young for-"_

" _SHUT UP!"_


	37. Chapter 37

**AN: Another chapter that's almost a timeskip but not quite. It's sort of like a compressed chapter. I want the second year done and this is my solution. The next two chapters should be similar in content. A whole year in about ten thousand words or so for each… I'm really trying here to get through this all and keep it interesting. I don't want to drag onwards any more but I don't want to rush and either way I have to get all the important stuff done… Ugh. writing is hard. I'm sorry if this chapter and the next two are feeling off. I'm trying here, guys. At the very least I'm releasing somewhat earlier than I could.**

 **Oh, and you know how I said that Weiss would only be there at Signal for a short while? Well I got through second year quicker than I thought I would. This chapter actually. I really only wanted her and Abyss to be introduced. She's a very minor character in this fic. So if you skipped the Weiss segments that's fine. Just know Abyss met her and that they know each other.**

 **Finally, the hint at something greater comes into play here. It's not full blown yet but the repercussions of Abyss' playing with powers beyond him will echo from here on out. You'll see what I mean. That little important segment will define a lot.**

 **I have the next chapter half done already. It might be early. Signal will end by chapter 39 or 40. Tell me if you think I should slow down a little or not please. I could use a little advice even if it's just a few sentances.**

[||||= **LEVEL 37** = ||||]

My only thought was how stunningly beautiful Blake was. The dimming light shined on her skin like ethereal moonlight. Something in me clearly said my perception of her was being manipulated but I ignored the voice. Her eyes glinted like hardened amber polished to a sheen yet retaining a perfect softness. Every curve was pronounced and-

Bella smacked Blake from the back of her head and she made a squeak of surprise. Suddenly the illusion was broken. I blinked. Suddenly it was just Blake. Sure she was good-looking but not gorgeously so. I hadn't noticed Bella either. What the hell?

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Mental resistance**

" _ **It's hard to defend against a feeling. It takes mental maturity, which is shockingly rare in this day and age."**_

 **-Ozpin Meridian, the last wizard**

"Blake don't do that to the poor kids!" Bella admonished. "Look! You even did it to Ocean. Don't screw with your friend's sexuality unless it's clearly for giggles. You even did it full blast. No subtlety whatsoever in it!"

I glanced at Ocean. She was staring wide-eyed at Blake with a hazy and unfocused look. I leaned over to her and poked her hard in the shoulder and she jerked and clarity returned. She blinked rapidly and frowned as she pinched herself and focused on Blake again without the haze. I noticed Cesium and Kerrigan with similar looks. Thank dust Weiss is sick today. I walked over to them and punched each of their shoulders hard and they had differing reactions.

Cesium flailed at me and a wild look entered his eyes. I grabbed his head and stared calmly at him. His mouth dropped and he suddenly recoiled and took the situation over in his mind.

Kerrigan stood stock still but the look dimmed in his eyes. I hit him again and it was gone. He frowned and furrowed his brow as he glanced around the room quietly.

"-and it's generally just plain rude!" Bella finished. One more angry look was directed at a sullen looking Blake.

"So what did you do exactly?" I asked, just a little bit angry I had some sort of mental manipulation on me.

"My secret technique for seducing anyone with an active aura." Bella grumbled. "Blake wasn't supposed to use it outside of practice."

"I never saw it actually work before." Blake muttered.

"How does it work?" I asked.

"You push emotion into aura and fling it at somebody is the basics of it." Bella said dismissively. Oh so it's just like talking to elementals but with emotion rather than raw information and words.

To try it out I focused on a single thought. How devastatingly beautiful Bella was. I focused all that feeling on a shard of my aura and sent it out as a sort of pulse at Blake like I was talking to a spirit. Blake blinked once and a hazy look entered her eyes. She looked at Bella and before Bella did anything Blake leapt at her and smashed her lips against hers.

… Oops. Weird that I didn't get a skill for that. I guess it's more of a trick than a skill.

…

…

I should probably get Blake off of Bella now.

Bella flipped Blake under her and Blake's eyes almost seemed to shine as she clawed at Bella's clothing. "Damnit Blake!" Bella slammed Blake against the floor and she snapped out of it.

Kerrigan and Cesium looked at the two with slightly open mouths. "That was…" Cesium didn't quite manage to voice that thought but we all got what he was saying.

"Yes. Yes it was." Kerrigan agreed.

"Wha… did I…" Blake's eyes widened and she blushed intensely and looked away towards Kerrigan, Cesium, Ocean, and I, where she blushed harder.

"Lets not use that particular technique until we can control it." I suggested. Bella looked at me angrily.

"Did you just steal my technique?!" She demanded.

"I've used a similar technique to 'speak' to… animals. I never considered that it could be used against people. It never crossed my mind." My pause clued Bella in that it was a magical thing and she sighed angrily.

"Fine, fine." She looked at me appraisingly. "You know, maybe you should join in on our-"

"No." I said flatly. No way in hell I'm learning seduction from Bella. That's like asking to be teased. Besides, that's a thing for her and Blake. Not really me. I have a talent for aura and magic. Not seduction in the slightest.

"Can we learn how to do that?" Cesium asked hopefully. Bella looked at him for a moment.

"I'll teach you the basics and only that to you since you're sort of the manipulator type." She muttered. "Work on aura control until you can make a pulse of it and sense things through it. It's called the Gellert pulse in the aura control textbooks. With aura sensing you can sort of see through the pulse. Figure out how to direct it." Cesium smiled and nodded gratefully.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Tomorrow?"_

" _Yup!"_

" _You're sure?"_

" _Yup!"_

" _He's free that day?"_

" _Yes, Yang. Abyss is free, he's going to be home, I already booked a ferry ship for him, I asked dad if you could leave school early and he was fine with it, and so on. He's also gone that day so the house is for you, me, and him. Dad and Abyss will make up eventually… probably."_

" _And he's really coming over?"_

" _Hehe. He owes me one. He kicked my butt too hard in practice and I played it up. He apologized and still feels bad for it. He'll come."_

" _Sneaky."_

" _I can be sneaky!… sometimes."_

" _I'll bet he saw right through you."_

" _No he didn't! He'll be shocked and everyone will go 'Wow Ruby! You genius! You reunited the family like a pro! You should just be a councillor! All of remnant's problems will be solved!'"_

" _Not a chance! Although you could act more… flowery!"_

"… _Oh because… rose. Right… can you not drive Abyss off with puns? I kind of worked hard for this."_

" _I have a checklist ready with all the puns I can make with him."_

" _Oh dust no."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"This is why I'm here?" I asked, not really surprised at Ruby's lack of deviousness. When she had played up her mild injury that training session I had immediately suspected her of planning something. This was my first guess. "Wow, you really got me."

"Hah!" Ruby crowed.

"It's sarcasm, sis." Yang said with crossed arms and an eye roll.

"He totally said it!"

"It was sarcasm." I said blandly. "So you want the family back together?"

"Yup!"

"Took you long enough." Ruby blinked at that. I'll just giver her a moment.

"Eh?" A rather long moment.

"Yang hated having the family apart and you always felt bad seeing Yang every day. It was only a matter of time really. I thought you would drag me here last year and set everything out all at once."

"Um, yeah." Ruby looked sort of out of it for a moment before she shook it off. "So can we just… stop being weird? Nobody even did anything really wrong but we're so far apart! Maybe Yang can even live with us?"

"Absolutely not. That's… that's her decision. Her business."

"Her?" Yang frowned. We ignored her.

"But she's-! And Yang's her…" Ruby looked torn. Yang looked curiously between Ruby and I. "I just want a family that's not… messed up."

"You can have that." Ruby didn't react, knowing some sort of twist was coming. "But not everybody can have that. Besides, do you really want Yang dragged into the secret?"

"No…" Ruby looked sad. Then she perked up. "But can you make up with her?!"

"Mmmm…" I looked at Yang. She looked hopeful. "You never did anything wrong, you know." I told her. She narrowed her eyes.

"It's what I didn't do. I'm sorry." I raised an eyebrow to clarify and she grimaced. "I… I should have been there for Ruby. You shouldn't have had to take care of her by yourself. I was as bad as my mother-" Ruby flinched behind Yang. "-When I left her to you. I was… I was in a bad place. I can't be more than sorry and do what I was supposed to do." Yang locked eyes with me but she looked almost afraid, like she she expected to be rejected.

I was silent for a moment. Both Yang and Ruby stared at me. Ruby looked really nervous while Yang was doing her best to show a strong front. "I'll forgive you." I admitted. "But I'm not accepting nothing. I want you to get over your mother."

"What?" Yang's voice had ice in it.

"You want to be an older sister to Ruby. The best sister you can. But you're not. You haven't sacrificed anything. You haven't given anything up for her. You still want answers from your mother but you don't fool anyone that you don't hold _something_ for her. Summer was your mother. Have you not accepted that maybe you had a mother?"

"Summer was my mom." She said heatedly, as though daring me to refute that. "My love for my sister and my desire for answers aren't mutually exclusive."

"Of course not." I scoffed. "But you can't want both and actively pursue both and have me approve. Call me a hardass or whatever you want but I'm not accepting less than your full effort to be a good sister to Ruby and making up for the missed years. Accept what you have or keep the hope that you'll have more. That's my term."

Yang was silent but I could tell she was angry at me. It's better than acting like a kicked dog at least. Sulking didn't suit her. With a snarl she reached out to hug me, like she's make me family by force or something, and I waved her hands aside. I was stronger than her. Something shined in her eyes and she grabbed my wrist and pulled me upwards. She sat down and plopped me right down onto her.

Oh shit. I'm not good at hand to hand. I didn't consider that.

Yang hugged me firmly into her and laid her head on top of mine. It irked me that she was taller than me enough to do that. "I'll stop looking for my… for Raven." She gave me. Unspoken was that she would ignore Raven's motherhood to her or at least give up on calling Raven her mom and trying to fill the void Summer left. "But if I find something worth pursuing I'm looking for her. I can't leave a loose end in my life forever whether it's Ruby or Raven. But you're… right." It was obvious that saying I was right grated on her nerves. "I'll focus on what I have rather than what I could have."

I stood still. "Fine." I agreed. "That's fair. Good to have you back… sis." Yang's grin was brighter than the sun.

"Ruby get in here!" Yang reached out and snatched Ruby's wrist. She probably could have dodged but didn't. Still she protested if only for the sake of it but Yang settled her in my lap while I was, in turn, on Yang's.

"So we're all family again?" Ruby asked hopefully while she squirmed uncomfortably.

"Yup!" Yang said happily. She was enjoying this. "Say, um, Abyss? You're loaded, right? Want to go clubbing?"

"I may have made a mistake." I despaired. "I can barely survive your affection myself. How will my wallet ever survive you?"

"Bear through the pain like a man!" Ruby cheered me on. "So that I don't have to. " She stage-whispered.

"I heard that you know." I deadpanned. Ruby let out a 'hmph!' disdainfully.

"These are useful, huh?" Yang scratched behind my right faunus ear. I winced.

"Don't-!" I could almost feel the shit-eating grin on Yang's face as she used both hands to scratch my ears.

"No!" I protested weakly.

"Ooh! His only weakness! Nice job Yang!" Ruby cheered. Yang cackled. Those places are sensitive damnit! They're like the soles of your feet but less like convulsions but more like you go limp…

What have I done?

"So who's this 'her' I've heard about?"

"We're not telling."

"Yeah you're not getting that out of us, sis. Sorry."

"Fine… just introduce me eventually."

"Fine."

"Okay…" Ruby clearly had a desire to get Yang and Raven on speaking terms but even she knew that it would take a long while before that ever happened.

At least a small part of the family is mended. Good job Ruby.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _We haven't talked in a while. How are you?"_

" _Tired."_

" _You just woke up."_

" _Yeah after only… oh."_

" _Yes an eight hour nap. I have another job for you."_

" _Fuck."_

" _You have a month before you head out though. Didn't you survive off of leaves and fresh air and in the wilds once?"_

" _Once upon a time. Such a long time ago."_

" _It's only been about two years Raven. A little more maybe."_

" _Ugh…"_

" _You're just a big softie now. Family, friends, sedentary lifestyle… you're practically retir-"_

 _*Swish*_

" _Flinging fire at me doesn't make you younger. Look, you've got a month. The school year ends in three months in early may. You're to observe a person of extreme interest for a little while in his summer. A mistake I made spontaneously a while ago. I'm hoping he's turned out well and not… well, not like me. I need him to be pliable. Anyways, you go see this guy and report back to me. Seriously though you've got magic but I'm genuinely concerned for your strength. You need some training and live action. A still stone gathers moss and all."_

" _A rolling stone gathers no moss."_

" _Right. Look, rest up and check on Roman. I have a week long video conference tomorrow that's being televised. Fun."_

" _You don't know my pain. Pyrrha can fly now. Do you know how to track a person who can fly?"_

" _No but that's your problem."_

" _Brat."_

" _I like this new little rivalry between us. Don't old ladies call people young whippersnappers though?"_

" _I'll call you out on your bullshit if you don't let me take my nap."_

" _Your grey hairs are showing."_

" _Ugh… when did you get so snarky?"_

" _I've been hanging out with your daughter. She's rather nice actually. She's much less mopey and more confident now that she has Ruby and I back."_

" _The apocalypse must be coming with your powers of irritation combined."_

" _Why Raven an apocalypse means nothing to irritate."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Nice to meet you master Abyss!" Penny said cheerily.

"Master… well technically you're not wrong I suppose." I mused. "Nice to meet you Penny.

As soon as Polendina messaged me that Penny was functional I had teleported out of class to his workshop. Damn the absence. It's january and I have two unexcused absences. Whatever. I can miss one.

"It's a pleasure master Abyss!" She said with equal cheer as before.

"Just Abyss please."

"Of course Abyss!" I sighed and looked towards Poledina, who looked at Penny with pride.

"You haven't taught her social etiquette yet, have you?"

"It's cute!" He defended.

"Pronouns, Poledina. Pronouns and silent subjects. Even if language is a mess it's still the common language."

"But they're so inefficient! The subject of your speech is unclear and implied! Using a verbal indication of the subject leaves no room for double meanings and clearly expresses the subject of your discussion to avoid confusion!" Penny defended herself.

"Please adjust to normal human and faunus speech." I asked. She grudgingly nodded. "Talk however you please in private but in public you have to maintain the illusion that you're human for now."

"Okay master Abyss." She said without a hint of snark… I'm pretty sure she just mocked me by calling me master Abyss.

"Was that mocking?" I asked.

"Nooooo" She said in a long and lilting tone. She's totally mocking me.

"I like her." I said with a smile.

"Yes!" Poledina did a fist pump. "Hi-five!" He held up his hand and Penny gave him a high-five. Poledina then realized I was in the room and coughed uncomfortably.

"Right, so spatial runic matrix is fully operational with ten safeties in place. Penny calculated the risk of failure to be less than point zero zero nine percent. Her emotions are tied to her aura, which is… well it's a copy of mine sketched onto viventium with a hint of moribus in the alloy to better hold my aura. It's held together with… laces of mana I suppose would be the best term for the binding of her soul. Over time the viventium will hopefully grow to be her true body since it grows properties and all."

"My body is composed of advanced Atlas alloys and bluesteel! Bluesteel is a magical alloy friend Ruby developed at my father's askance." Penny smiled but it looked a little stiff. Her face didn't move subtly like a human's and her head didn't sway, rather her eyes moved to the edge of her vision before her head moved, giving her an eerie effect to her vision when mixed with her jubilant attitude. Poledina would have to fix that.

"Ruby developed an alloy?" I asked curiously, ignoring Penny's unnaturalness.

"It's just steel with a large infusal of the earth element and some runes helping to infuse the ambient order affinity into the earth affinity to make metal affinity in the metal. It's like metal that's more amplified in it's expression of… being a metal. It's harder, more conductive, less malleable, heavier, and more." Poledina explained.

"Good." I acknowledged. "So what are you going to do now, Penny?" Something in Penny's expression shifted to show some hesitance.

"I… don't know. I think I want to help father in the lab." She said shyly.

"Penny has trouble acting independently still." Poledina said, a hint of happiness at Penny's admission in his voice. "I plan on slowly opening her up ot the outside world. Sadly I can't always be with her."

"Hmph. Fine." Something occurred to me. "Do you have a plan to help the company?"

"Oh absolutely!" Poledina said excitedly. "I have a whole journal of ways we can apply the technology used in Penny's birth to the more mundane things. It's all economically viable and so on. I had the supercomputer run the scenarios in an economic simulator Penny made! You know you could quadruple your profits if you increased how much white sap you sell, right?"

"I know." I said. "I have my reasons. Money isn't everything."

"True, true. Now, the biggest advancement is a slow infuser! I took the idea from a crock pot. You slowly infuse small amounts of affinity into an element instead of trying to infuse the whole thing at once."

"I tried that." I said calmly. "Slowly infusing affinity only works so long as there's a far greater amount of affinity outside it. Affinity can only be infused with a far greater concentration of affinity present."

"With affinity you would be right!" Poledina said smugly. "But with mana you can condense it as you slowly compress the space the mana makes up. The concentration of affinity in the space agitated by the mana increases and affects the object in the center of my matrix more strongly. How much the space compression amplifies the infusal depends on the concentration of spatially attuned mana fueling the runic matrix, which is one of the few affinities that can't be compressed."

"So you amplified the affinities by compressing them in space and the object inside said space." I summarized.

"Yes!"

"Father is very good at what he does!" Penny said happily.

"… Yes." I said. A large smirk entered my face. My mind was whirring with ideas on how to use Poledina's compressor. So many options. "Yes he is."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _What the hell are these?"_

" _Your new crops."_

" _The hell is this?!"_

" _Flameroot. It burns and emits heat constantly without producing smoke. It's a highly efficient and self-igniting fuelsource that could replace typical fire dust in dust burners albeit for a smaller output but it would be a lot cheaper than the dust since it's far easier to acquire."_

" _Once more… the hell is this?!"_

" _Let me just point them out. Flameroot, which produces small amounts of heat constantly for an indeterminate amount of time. It might be a few years or a few months well, separated from the main tree that is. Next is zipis. It's a weed but it spreads quicker and it will NOT die. It regenerates from damn near anything. It's also stuffed with nutrients to an extreme degree. Two or three of the smaller ones a day feed you the entire day and they grow in nearly anything, having an adjustable metabolism and a rather ridiculous vitality. Next is water fruit. This one grows on land or in water. Whether the water is filled with salt or so on doesn't matter. It grows stalks filled with pure water. It'll solve Vacuo's water problem. Finally is the light bulb despite not having a bulb. I didn't make the name. Ruby's sister made it and it stuck. The leaves of the tree produce about fifty to two hundred watts of bioelectricity per day each and it's all stored in the wood to repel predators of all sorts. It's the most efficient form of solar panel in history."_

"… _Huh?"_

" _Imagine a field of these trees, all the electricity channeled through wires going from trunk to trunk. Imagine farmers harvesting the zips, solving hunger worldwide although they taste like shit. Imagine water being supplied freely in vacuo and how rich we'd get for it. Imagine a factory of sorts where these roots are compressed to become cheap and reusable heat. Crack two open on a cold winter's day and your home is heated for dirt prices. Air conditioning is solved. Power is so easily given that we could literally give it away for nickels and dimes."_

" _That's… selling all the power would put the dust plants out of business. The SDC could get pissed at losing one of their biggest clients. A good fifth or third or so of their profit comes from selling to dust harnessing power plants."_

" _You think I have a clue how to make a factory to harness these? Make a joint deal with the SDC. Hire faunus from their mines and have them make the factories since we don't know how. Offer a cut of the profits but have them provide security, land, and so on. They'll jump at the association with us due to our reputation and the advancing technology."_

" _Boss… I'm sorry."_

" _For what?"_

" _For wanting to conquer Vacuo. I'll put the mobs out of business with this. I just became Jacques Schnee anyways so I probably shouldn't have been complaining in the first place."_

" _Go conquer the world, Roman. It's ripe for the taking."_

" _And you just started it with a pun. Fucking fantastic."_

" _Quit swearing. Didn't you just become Jacques?"_

" _It was a metaphor. The day I wear a suit with the collar down is the day I call myself an old man. Fucking dyed his own hair white… pretentious prick. Ignore my swearing. I'll be dealing with Jacques fucking Schnee. I need to let this out so I don't swear him to oblivion."_

" _Oh, and I'm working Weiss Schnee in on this. Don't ask why. Give her good PR. Whitley Schnee, the prick, can't take control of the company and Winter isn't viable. Weiss needs to take control. Now go frolic among your piles of money."_

" _How did you find about about those?!"_

"… _What?"_

" _Uh… right I'll get started on these."_

" _Yeah. I'll pretend I don't know you have money piles. Oh, and send a thank you to Poledina. He did the gene splicing to make these trees."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"HOW?!" Weiss demanded. "HOW DID YOU DO THIS?!"

"ABYSS WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Blake yelled as she stormed in right behind Weiss.

"Do what?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Weiss tore through her bag - because such a stately heiress couldn't use a backpack like the rest of us heathens - and shover her scroll in my hands. Blake looked like she was torn between strangling and hugging me. I focused on the scroll, opened to the Vale news network.

'The new deal! SDC/NB alliance?'

'Today the SDC announced a joint effort project in which use of several new crops produced by the efforts of NB's cutting edge science team. Nature's bounty desires to use these new crops to their full potential and released the statement "We believe we are capable of using these new crops. However, to release their full potential we want the guidance of a company as old and experienced as the SDC, who we will defer to in using these most efficiently. We hope that with the business sense of the SDC and the innovation and agricultural experience of Nature's bounty we will enjoy offering cheap power, affordable food, and new opportunities to pioneer a new step in the history of remnant. We offer our thanks to our respective heirs, Weiss Schnee and Abyss Mavros for smoothing over this deal."

"Father is recalling me to the company to smoothly implement the deal." Weiss looked frustrated. "With the mention of me I'm getting attention from the media. I won't be here for finals and I can't get out of it."

"What if I ask?"

"He would drop me like lit fire dust." She said, still irritated.

"Then what's wrong?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We didn't smooth anything over! I didn't do anything! I didn't…" She didn't earn it.

"So what?" I asked. "You can do good with the mention you have. I trust that you can guide your father down a less exploitive path than he usually takes. Do so."

"But I want to have my efforts make the world a better place!"

"How are you NOT going to make the world a better place?! I asked disbelievingly. "You can go smooth the deal over, making things better for people everywhere, or you can not go and become a huntress."

"But I-…" Weiss held something back. Probably a desire to be a huntress and the head of the SDC.

"Just study to be a huntress at the SDC!" I barked. "That's what you were doing before, wasn't it?" Weiss looked irritated but nodded. "Then go change remnant first and become a huntress later. You can become a huntress later. You can't ever change remnant so effectively as right now so go do stuff. There's a conference in three days. My uncle, Mahogany, your father, general Ironwood, and your sister will all be there. Get there."

Weiss bit her lip before her eyes lit up. "Could you teleport me back and forth between Signal and the conference?"

"No." I denied. "I've never been to Atlas." Except for the black site and some wilderness but lets ignore that bit. Weiss looked like she wanted to scream in frustration.

"Fine… I guess I'm going to Atlas." She said angrily.

"Enjoy doing exactly what you've always said you wanted to do." I snapped, rather annoyed at her. Weiss never really fit at signal. She's upstanding, polite, rich, and somewhat spoiled. Sadly Signal isn't a boarding school like beacon and so the traits were never really pounded out of her. She never quite clicked with Blake or the others. She almost worked with Cesium but he's not quite suited for the high society Weiss fits so well in so they didn't hit a friendship.

At least she learned a lot. Weiss is the third best in the class now. Kerrigan and Yang have been tied for months now. Qrow just puts them both at second all the time now. Blake takes forth and then comes Ocean and finally Cesium at sixth after some random guy I never bothered to look at.

"Now why are you here?" I asked Blake.

"How can I help?!" She said, a fire in her eyes. I sighed.

"I'm getting the faunus equal rights as far as labor comes from this new deal. Weiss might be able to get a real retroactive inspection of the faunus conditions in the SDC. Honestly the biggest problem is a rogue faction of the white fang breaking out and disrupting us as far as you can help us. Jacques can be dealt with and Atlas will undoubtedly try to get an exclusive deal with nature's bounty. They maintain their edge over remnant with their military, tech, and the SDC so no doubt they'll make themselves known here if they can."

"So you want me to keep the white fang docile here?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty much." I agreed.

"Can we get representation in the deal?" She asked hopefully.

"Get me a call with Sienna and the white fang higher-ups so we can talk about that." Blake immediately whipped out her scroll and called Sienna. Or, I assume it's Sienna. I leaned back for a moment. This is a bit bigger than I thought it would get.

"Here. It's Sienna and the most important lieutenants of the fang." Blake said. I blinked.

"That quickly?" The call showed eight speakers.

"They've been waiting and on call since the deal was announced."

"Oh." I took the scroll from Blake. "Hello there. I'm Abyss, as most of you probably know. Now you all want different things so please just call 'here' so the call doesn't get too cluttered with voices. I like being able to hear the people speaking. Now, how many of you want the deal to be voided?"

"Here." Wait that's Adam Taurus. 

"Me." He just sounds like an asshole.

"I see." I acknowledged. "I'll let you all in on a little secret. We don't really need the SDC for this deal. We could technically oust them in electricals, take a generous chunk of remnant's food supply market, and solve water shortages everywhere. However, if we did that we would gain the ire of the SDC. If you're all willing to somehow stop the SDC's attempts to disrupt our infringement into their economic territory then great but I think a peaceful solution accomplished through innovation causes less bloodshed and proves that faunus as a whole can compete as a world power. Could you, Adam Taurus, voice why you believe contrary to this belief?"

"The faunus should be independent of humanity economically. Association through business degrades our worth as people and furthers it as only objects for economic gain. We should be treated as people because we are people. Not just because we are useful to humanity as a whole."

I blinked. That was… that was really persuasive and thought out. Holy shit I actually like the guy and he's just said a few sentences. He's dangerous in more than just the madman sort of way.

"And you?" I said, referencing the other guy.

"I'm lieutenant Cast of Mistral I agree with Taurus." He said. "However, I'd like to protest the direct association to the SDC rather than having a major economic presence. I don't believe we can trust the Schnees to truly treat the faunus well even with your intervention."

"Both are valid concerns." I agreed. "Those are both concerns that would be perfectly valid were Jacques Schnee to have an actual voice in the discussion."

"He's the head of the SDC." Sienna pointed out obviously.

"He's obsessed with his ruined image." I pointed out. "He's also an asshole beyond levels thought possible. Me, my uncle, and even his daughters are well aware of this. I myself have associated with Weiss Schnee, the heiress, and learned of her desire to change the company for the better for the faunus. Granted, it's to 'redeem' her family but it's still a goal that helps the faunus. If you want confirmation on this please look to Blake Belladonna's reports or take my word for it. Jacques Schnee is not beneficial for equality. However, his daughter is. When the company shifts to her hands she intends to initiate a reform of the labor ethics of her company. I have her word on this and I believe it trustworthy."

"Will this deal improve the conditions of the faunus in the SDC?" Someone asked.

I laughed. "This deal will improve conditions for EVERYONE in remnant. I will ask for better conditions in the mines. I doubt Jacques will really care so long as I pay for most of the improved conditions. Money isn't a large concern for me. I'll pay for the better conditions in his mines. If you want to donate and receive good reputation I don't really care. Most faunus already consider me a racial symbol even more so than my uncle due to PR and statements from my uncle and yourselves. Getting more goodwill isn't a large concern of mine."

"Could you give us a moment mister Mavros?" Sienna asked.

"Of course. I'll hand the scroll to Blake until you're finished discussing." I did so and leaned back. She stared at me for a moment before glancing at the scroll and listening in for a moment. By the wince she expressed nothing good was going on.

I waited for a few moments before Blake handed the scroll back.

"Your terms are acceptable." Sienna said. "The white fang will gather and donate one million lien to help the efforts of your charity to the faunus in the mines."

"It isn't a charity. It's a donation. I clarified.

"Yes. Fine. However, we still want a seat on the conference to voice our opinion on the labor treatments of the faunus by the SDC and a voice at the deal."

"Who would be your representative?" I asked curiously.

"I and Ghira Belladonna, former leader and chieftain of menagerie, would both be attending on behalf of the white fang and menagerie. You will be representing the faunus as a whole as a champion of… our rights but we still have a voice and we would like it expressed by more people than just you."

"I see." I muttered. "Menagerie has no bearing in this deal and I recall they have little interaction with the SDC in general. I will not support Ghira Belladonna's presence at the meeting, though I appreciate his stance towards equality."

Sienna growled. "That's the point you idiot! We want menagerie to become a partner and exporter of labor to nature's bounty."

I frowned. A country, albeit a fledgling one… as my partner in business. "Oh." Menagerie wants to become a real country rather than a few villages in what's basically rural remnant australia. Menagerie barely has any economic power at all. They don't supply any dust, important goods, or anything. I have their in on the world market and they're trying to open it.

"Yes oh! Could you lend menagerie a hand damnit?!"

I took a moment of silence and focused on will of steel to regain my composure. "That's actually very convenient. See, Patch can only farm so much. Would Menagerie be willing to provide that farmland and labor do you think? Might I mention that all the new crops being used are extremely able to survive in tropical environments."

"He would." Sienna said confidently. "I'll send you his number."

"You have it?"

"Blake sent it to me."

"Fine. I'll see you at the conference." I could almost hear the vicious grin on her face.

"Oh I'll enjoy it. Thank you, Abyss." The call ended and I handed the scroll back to Blake.

"Good talk." I said. "I expected worse, honestly."

"I think Sienna likes you." Blake said with a shiver. I raised an eyebrow but didn't question her. I'm kind of tired. Politics do that to me.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Do you have any idea how hard it was to track you down? Four months on the road tracking you down!"_

" _Uhm…"_

" _How did you even manage to get through that canyon in Vacuo?!"_

" _I sort of flew."_

" _You flew… of course you did. You show up at Kuchinashi's ruins and then just… waltz your way to Atlas city's red light district right after."_

" _The red light district?"_

" _Your mother and father I'm guessing."_

" … _Daaaad!"_

" _What is it sweet - oh hi Raven! How did you find us?"_

" _I flew"_

"… _Right. Nice to see you. So why are you here?"_

" _A social call."_

" _You really don't seem the type."_

" _Abyss' social calls."_

" _Ah."_

" _He doesn't seem the type either. I got the railgun down by the way! It's sort of draining though."_

"…"

" _I also met two friends! I never had friends before!"_

" _What are their names?"_

" _Ren and Nora. We met a month ago. They want to become hunters like me. I showed them some tips and we went our separate ways but we keep in touch."_

" _Fine. Do you have any tea?"_

" _Right this way. "_

" _Do you want to spar?"_

" _Sure, later. You mentioned flying?"_

" _I control my armor's metal and lift myself up in the air. I can go a lot faster when I use my semblance to augment my movements too! I'm as fast as my dad now."_

" _It's bullshit…"_

" _Kids these days are like that. Abyss can beat me and Ruby if he's mildly serious. He can't beat me without his semblance though."_

" _Ooh! That sounds fun! I can beat my dad if he doesn't use his semblance."_

" _Mind if I stay a while? I'm sore after so much tracking. I also need to get in shape apparently. Abyss complained that I was too sedentary after so long in the city."_

" _Sure."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I gasped at the pain in my chest and leaned back in my chair at the table. It's coming. "Abyss!" Ruby called out. Raven grabbed my shoulder and kept me steady.

I grabbed her and looked at her eyes intensely. "Origin." I said. Raven's eyes widened and she pulled me from the room. Just a moment later I was in my bed. A burning feeling was in my soul. Like it was changing much like how I felt way back when my soul changed.

It was weird. Like the burn you get when you touch dry ice. Like the burn of frostfire but more… spiritual. I growled at the notification I recieved.

 ***Ding!* New affinity acquired! - Origin**

" _ **ITISTHEBEGINNINGANDTHEENDENDENDNEWOLDPASTPRESENTFUTUREPRESENT**_ _ **NOW**_ _ **LIFEDEATHBEGINNINGENDBEGINNINGENDBEGINNINGEND-"**_

 **-'Othos' on the hymnal of the world's birth**

 ***Ding!* New trait acquired! - Origin**

" _ **ITISTHEBEGINNINGANDTHEENDENDENDNEWOLDPASTPRESENTFUTUREPRESENT**_ _ **NOW**_ _ **LIFEDEATHBEGINNINGENDBEGINNINGENDBEGINNINGEND-"**_

 **-'Althea' on the hymnal of the world's birth**

 **-+1000% mana**

 **-All affinities unlocked at XXXXXX-corruptedcorruptedcorruptedcorrupted-**

 **-the world burns as it is reborn in fire and frozen in frost and yet still it is whole. You have become that which is death to all and itself. Begone, mage, for this is not your place.**

 **Administrator rights invoked under prime user 'Angel'. Clearance accepted. Trait modifying under administrator rights. Pending.**

 **FATE core destabilized. Conflict being resolved by admin/prime user 'Devil'. Clearance accepted. Core being modified under administrator rights. Pending.**

The quote is odd but I have bigger things to worry about. Like the admin… I have to act. I looked inside myself with meditation at my affinities. They were in chaos. Origin was… immense. It was like a black hole of affinities. My storm affinity, my strongest, shielded the other affinities against it, warring a war between the unstoppable potency of origin and the immenseness of the storm within me.

I tugged on the origin affinity to do something with it and a pulse of force flung out of me. Raven was flung back hard but she crouched down and clawed the ground, leaving a skid mark on my floor. I saw the air around me… sizzling. Popping with energy. My mana. I'm unstable.

With a growl I grabbed the origin within me and tried to seperate it into purity and corruption again but failed. It wasn't purity and corruption anymore. It was origin. The components facilitating it's birth may as well have never existed.

I gasped once more as my origin affinity hir my eyes. The innate purity affinity in my eyes was pulled on. "No!" Raven yelled. "Your eyes!"

"What's happening?" I asked, feeling faint. My vision was blurred.

"Your eyes are turning red is what's happening!" I growled and made a shard of ice. I meant to make a tiny mirror but made a jagged, shield-like formation of ice instead. I still saw my eyes though. It was like the silver was bleeding out of them, making the red marbling that had always spread throughout them expand. Fuck. that's bad. Very very bad.

I was helpless as the origin in me consumed the purity in my eyes. My vision blurred and refocused, seeming much sharper than before.

Something in the origin snapped and it froze. The pain immediately stopped. I let out a ragged gasp once more. "Abyss what's going on?!" Ruby asked urgently.

"Fucking higher powers are interfering." I hissed. A wrack of pain hit me and the origin in me exploded and everything went black for a moment.

I felt dizzy as I came back to consciousness. I saw Raven and Ruby still over me, Raven's eyes being her only sign of concern.

"It's gone." I whispered. A flood of _something_ entered my mind.

 ***Ding!***

 **FATE core upgraded with ORIGIN engine. System 2.0 in action. Boot sequence activating. Testing…**

 **Soul stability - 94%**

 **Mana stability - 100%/99L**

 **Mana stability upgrading… … … process completed.**

 **Resuming testing…**

 **Mana stability - 100%/100L**

 **Physical output - 18% (Acceptable parameters under admin ruling)**

 **FATE input - online**

 **ORIGIN engine - online**

 **Party - corrupted**

 **Attempting recovery… failure**

 **Attempting recovery… failure**

 **Attempting recovery… failure**

 **Attempting recovery… failure**

 **Attempting recovery… success**

 **Attempting integration… failure**

 **Attempting recycle program… success**

 **Party scrapped. System resources reassigned**

 **Resuming testing…**

 **Status system - online**

 **Aura system - online**

 **System user 'Abyss/Davey Cross' login**

 **ORIGIN engine activated**

 **System user 'Ember/Emma Cross' login failure - FATE system resources reassigned**

 **Error; process completed prior**

 **Process cancelled under admin permissions 'Angel'**

 **System prime user login error**

 **Error; process completed prior**

 **Process cancelled under FATE system authority**

 **ORIGIN engine assigned under admin rights 'Devil'**

 **Resources outsourced for /reality**

 **System prime user login error**

 **Error; process completed prior**

 **Process cancelled under FATE system authority**

 **ORIGIN engine assigned under admin rights 'Angel'**

 **Resources outsourced for /reality**

 **Boot sequence completed.**

 **PRIVATE MESSAGE RECEIVED - (Angel): You don't have a single clue what you just did do you? Don't use origin. That was literally one of only eighteen or so affinities out of the near infinite affinities we DIDN'T want you to have. For further warning don't attempt to obtain an affinity for large extrasolar bodies (black holes, supernovas, etc.), divinity, atomic fission or similar veins of nuclear physics ideas (We don't want that in remnant), or concepts beyond your comprehension.**

 **Although you've royally screwed the system (and yourself) we aren't completely taking your eyes. Without the FATE system's influences the origin affinity would have been too potent for your eyes and ripped the purity affinity from them before moving on to assimilate your other affinities. This did not happen because due to the divine nature of origin the origin was repurposed to make the ORIGIN engine, which is based in the system.**

 **Instead of losing your eyes, which I know you treasure, the innate purity affinity is being assimilated into your soul, which is actually easier than returning the affinity to your body. Eyes are physical and delicate. Your soul is weathered and strong. The bonuses will be kept and the abilities will be functionally exactly the same. If you're so concerned with looks then use illusions. You must re-earn your purity and corruption affinities, however. I would give my condolences but I don't care.**

 **The ORIGIN system runs off of the origin affinity you cultured similarly to how the FATE system runs off of the fate affinity you naturally had before it was repurposed before your rebirth. The ORIGIN engine is a new addition to the FATE system, naturally, and is to be used for constructing new functions from the fabric of origin to bring these new functions into being. We believe this to be a far better function than your shitty idea of making physical items or new affinities or the sort. Be grateful. We'll inform you of new functions as they come.**

 **Don't fuck with higher powers and I don't mean space and time and so on. I mean origin, demise, reality, soul, and some others, some of which have no word for them since you mortals haven't discovered them yet. I could go on with them but the general lesson here is to not fuck with what's above you as a mortal. Do not mistake immortality for eternal existence.**

 **Do not believe everything you hear. The truth may be a lie at the same time. You're strong but you don't know what you need to right now. It will come to you. Have patience.**

 **-Angel**

"Everything is fucked." I muttered. "I just screwed with the gods and got a slap on the wrist for it. But something happened. Something changed. I just have no idea what. My eyes are fine by the way."

"Will you be okay?" Ruby asked with the same urgency as before.

"I think so."

"What, exactly, just happened?" Raven growled.

"The origin affinity was of interest to Althea and Othos and it would have killed me by consuming my affinities… and maybe my existence." Raven glared at me. Yes, yes, so I got arrogant and played with a higher power. We all make mistakes. "They took it, created it into… something, and as a sort of paying off of favors my eyes' essence was infused into my soul as well as my purity and corruption affinities getting erased entirely. Gem is asleep. I can feel her in my soul still. She's just hibernating."

"They just took your purity affinity?" Ruby asked, stunned.

"And saved my life." I added. "Not that they deserve any praise for it. I'm nearly certain they did this for almost entirely selfish reasons."

"You were reckless." Raven scolded, though she stated it as a fact.

"And now I know not to be reckless. I also know what to avoid in the future so I don't repeat this process again."

"Do so."

"Now go away. Tell the tribe I'm fine. I'll be up in about an hour. I need some sleep." And to think about the message I was just given.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Who are you?"_

" _I am Mahogany. A pleasure to meet you mister Schnee."_

" _Oh. Likewise. I have tried to reach you many times in invitation for gatherings."_

" _I prefer my hobbies and company. Social niceties are not to my taste despite the benefits they might bring."_

" _I see. Are you sure you wouldn't care to-"_

" _Mister Schnee, had I cared to visit your gatherings I would not have blocked your messages."_

" _*Cough! Cough!*"_

" _Why Winter perhaps you should leave so you might tend to that cough. Weiss assist your sister, would you?"_

" _Yes father."_

" _I… yes. I think *cough* I will. Come along Weiss."_

" _I like her."_

" _You don't care for formality, do you? Like the Mavros'?"_

" _I have formality. I have a lack of care for politeness when it suits me."_

" _I see. I hope to see you at the meeting?"_

" _You will. Mystic and Abyss will be there on scroll call. Ah, and for the future might I remind you that to kick out a guest is in bad taste."_

" _Dust… who are they bringing?"_

" _Please note it was not my idea."_

" _They brought Sienna Khan."_

" _WHAT?!"_

" _She's right over there by the way. Be grateful they didn't bring Raven Branwen. She was their first choice but she didn't feel like coming. Goodbye."_

"… _The damned Mavros'."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I was currently skipping out of a particularly tedious meeting. Roman - that is to say, Mahogany, can handle it fine. Jacques just needs to pretend to put up a fight against a censure for racism among the humans before we agree to finance a retroactive search for employee breaches in conduct towards workers. It's all really planned out for the media mainly for Jacques' reputation. It's fine to play around. Being a dick to the man with a metaphorical big stick isn't really a good idea. It's not like it hurts us to play along.

It is kind of funny that I took such an important call at home. I took a break to make cookies during the call and since all the scrolls have video when it was my turn to speak everyone got confused to see me making cookies. I, the mighty and powerful Abyss Mavros, made cookies on a whim. I teleported a batch to Roman and everyone at the conference had one. That started up a ten minute conversation about how good my cooking was. That's right. Extremely important businessmen from around remnant discussed the quality of my baking for ten minutes televised live across remnant.

Okay so the conference wasn't all boring. Roman was laughing his ass off screwing with his power and mystique since he's always busy being a gang boss. Neo's taking a vacation since she's too stabby to be around Jacques.

At the moment, however, I'm using a spell not dissimilar to the avatar spell and soul hearth combined. The short of it is that I get to see through Raven's eyes so long as mana and aura is completely shared through our shared inventory.

This is why we're staring at Jaune while he's sleeping. We spoke with wind whisper so we didn't wake him. At the moment he's with his family on a camping trip since the school year for Beacon just ended and his sisters are all back except for Crimson for some reason. I accidentally caught him at the perfect time. My luck stat is potentially one of my most useful stats honestly.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Forced hero**

 **Level – 160**

 **HP – 23,512.5**

 **AP – 104,000**

 **MP - Innate**

 **STR - 178 (x2)(+300%)= 1424**

 **VIT - 209 (x1.5)(x2)(+315%)= 2602.05**

 **DEX - 123 (x2)(+295%)= 971.7**

 **INT - 96 = 96**

 **WIS - (x2)130 = 260**

 **LUK - 64 = 64**

 **Semblance: Amplification - Aura, mana, and all targeted supernatural abilities are enhanced by a factor based on your willpower, emotional closeness, and the strength of your soul. Abilities enhanced are always increased by minimum of a factor of two. Transfers of aura between you and another are efficient with no loss of aura whatsoever.**

 **Affinities: [LOCKED]**

 **Perks:**

 **Arc lineage (Male)- As a male of the Arc clan you have awoken abilities inherent to yours due to your magical lineage through the awakening of your soul. The mana in your bloodline has manifested into a guardian of your soul, as has been true of all Arcs. Should one consume your soul they will gain your powers. Guard thyself well kinsman.**

 **-10x maximum aura capacity and regen**

 **-2x potency of your aura**

 **-x2 WIS**

 **-1.5x effectiveness of vitality (calculated as a x1.5 bonus)**

 **-30% resistance to magical effects of all sorts. Some magical effects may be completely negated**

 **\- Aura based semblance**

 **-50% cheaper semblance to use**

 **-Innate mana**

 **Bodily runic matrix (3 layered) - A master of runes has inscribed upon your body a matrix of three parts. The effects are:**

 **-+40% VIT from enhanced bones and organs**

 **-+25% enhanced STR from enhanced muscles and bones**

 **-+20% DEX from enhanced eyesight and sensory organs**

 **-+1% HP per every 3 seconds**

 **-Within your runic matrix you may store (3,947,274/4,000,000) units of aura**

 **-With a strong mental image and focus you may project an illusion upon yourself changing your appearance and hiding your full tattoo. However, the marking on your right hand may never be under an illusion.**

 **-The runic matrix and stored aura can be shut off by the command of the creator of this mark, Abyss Mavros.**

 **-Empathetic link to the creator of this tattoo, Abyss Mavros, that alerts the creator of extreme danger to the possessor of this tattoo based on the possessor's judgement.**

 **-Acts as a teleport marker for the creator of this tattoo, Abyss Mavros.**

 **Bio: [Blocked]**

"BULLSHIT!" I yelled at Raven's ear. She nearly cawed in surprise before a flash of irritation ran through her. "Absolute bullshit." I hissed in a more even tone.

"What is so surprising that you have to yell?!" She said back in a raised voice.

"The blood of the Arcs gives him a resistance to minor magics and at least negates a third of magics that would actually harm him."

"That is unfair." She agreed.

"I'm not even close to done!" I said in a raised voice, just a little hysterical. "He gets twenty times the maximum aura of a normal person! Besides that he's smarter too. Then his aura is twice as potent so it's more like he has twenty times the aura capacity with double the effectiveness."

"He has forty times the aura of a normal person in conclusion." Raven said softly. I heard a little jealousy in her voice.

"That's not all! He gets a stronger vitality - roughly double again of a normal person, his semblance is efficient to the extreme and entirely BASED on aura. Not to mention that he has one of my runic matrixes already and some abilities to come with it."

"He has a WHAT?!" Raven demanded. "How does this child have one of your matrixes?!"

"I gave it to him." I said obviously, just a little anger left in my tone. "Jaune is a… a mistake of mine. Well not quite a mistake but… he isn't something I'm proud of. He's going to grow up to be very important. It's written everywhere. His ideals, his bloodline, his family. However, as things were going he would have turned out weak. I planned to meet with him. Show him some tricks and get him started on a path to make him my ally rather than my enemy. To drive away Ozpin's influence before he gets a word in. But then his family… well they saw me as a threat and… it escalated."

"Details." Raven said sternly.

"I was hidden in a tree invisible." I started. "Jane was getting faux-trained by his sister. They didn't want to awaken the bloodline and gain the attention of Ozpin or Salem and be forced to work for either one. They wanted a normal life away from the huntsmen so they couldn't be pawns anymore. At least that's my interpretation of it. When they somehow detected me I reacted as I felt best and defeated Jaune's family. I thought up a moniker on the fly and called myself the villain, citing my name as unimportant and that I wouldn't give it. Then I realized that I just lose Jaune's trust completely. He stood between his little sister and me looking as brave as he could but… he was so very weak. So I gave him my matrix and tore the veil of ignorance from him. Now he knows and he's… this."

Raven was silent for a moment. "I think I understand." She said. A hint of sadness colored her tone. If I hadn't known her for so long i doubt I would have picked up on it. "Once, when I was eleven, Qrow and I were raiding a small caravan. We didn't expect it. We just ran across it. It looked unguarded except for one huntsman. A tree fell down right in front of them - Qrow's semblance, you see. It was perfect for a bandit attack. I opened a portal to the current tribe chief and he came through and the tribe was on the three wagons in minutes. It wasn't a trap… but the civilians stood up to us and we were forced to kill them. That's just one of many situations like it Qrow and I - and team STRQ - found ourselves in. Sometimes things spiral out of control. Yours just did so severely."

"Yes." I said quietly. Raven took a moment to look at Jaune sleeping once more. He and the rest of his family were asleep. Then I saw something shift under his sleeping bag. I bent the light and got a view closer through Raven. His sister was under the sleeping bag cuddling him. The one he was defending before. Lavender.

I was silent as I took a wide view of the whole camp. Suddenly it seemed different. Jaune was in the middle of the many sleeping bags arranged in a sort of rough circle. His stronger sisters slept on the outside. The side most likely to be attacked. His youngest and most vulnerable sister slept in the middle with him, the most likely to be targeted and possibly one of the strongest. His mother was in a tent with Jaune's father, who had picked up some muscle and some levels. Not enough to be useful but enough to last against a first year Beacon student maybe.

They were family, yes, but they were strong together. They unconsciously defended each other, relied on each other, and tried to get the best for each other.

And I took that innocent little brother of theirs away from them.

Raven must have sensed my darkening mood but she didn't say anything.

I sighed though wind whisper. "I messed up didn't I?"

"Obviously."

"Don't tell Ruby about this. Jaune is one of the three biggest skeletons in my closet she doesn't know about."

"I won't. Is there anything else than observation you need to do on this child?"

"No."

"Fine. I'm hungry. Did you already make dinner?"

"Yeah but I'll whip something up for you. You earned it."

"Get me a steak."

"I don't have any marinated."

"Damnit. Such a useless nephew."

"I'll get you some alcohol and a burger."

"Fine. No alcohol. I want tea."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _You're Mahogany?"_

" _Ah! Miss Khan!"_

" _Sienna. You're a human."_

" _Yup!"_

"… _You're not racist are you?"_

" _I'm highly discriminatory. I treat pretty women better than everyone else."_

" _Hm. You're Mystic Mavros' partner, yes?"_

" _More like his paperworker but yes. I do run the company and bask in money while he reaps the glory."_

" _Sounds fun."_

" _It is."_

" _I like you."_

" _You remind me of my assistant if she could talk but less vicious."_

" _In the middle of a ballroom I'm not being vicious? Real shocker."_

" _My assistant would have stabbed Jacques. You just glared at him. Pussy."_

" _Was that an insult against my ears?"_

" _That one word had three meanings at once."_

"… _I can think of two. What's the third?"_

" _Oh so you're not a pervert. I was sure you were…"_

" _What?!"_

" _Oh haven't you heard the rumors?"_

"… _You're messing with me."_

" _Damnit. I planned that one out and everything."_

" _Have you been doing nothing but messing with high society cowards this entire time?"_

" _I'll have you know I'm a coward myself… also yes."_

" _I want in."_

" _You're in. Come on. Kierran Noiral has been cheating on his wife for years and everyone knows it. I'm sure we can think of something."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

 **(AN: This is an unnecessary scene since it repeats already known information so skipping it is acceptable. You won't miss anything. I felt, though, that it should be shown.)**

"So what are we doing today?" I asked casually as I walked into subI. The days had been really flying.

Bella raised an eyebrow and waved at everyone looking at me. I frowned.

"What?"

"It's the last day of school." Cesium said expactantly.

"So?"

"We were doing something special today." Kerrigan hinted. He almost sounded… excited?! No. I was hallucinating surely.

"What's planned then?" I asked, feeling slightly stupid for some reason.

"Abyss come on. It's in that head of yours somewhere." Bella said in exasperation. I looked down for a moment. My head gets cluttered sometimes. Wait…

"Oh. I remember now. Right, step in. I may as well do this with flair." I flicked my wrist and a portal to our 'personal' island opened. Everyone filed in to the shore of the beach and I stepped through easily. Then I put my hand on Blake's shoulder.

"Sorry Blake. Seniority matters here." I said apologetically. She scowled. "Look I'll show you next year. It wouldn't be fair to leave everyone hanging for a year and a half and just show you your first year."

"Fine." She muttered. Her ears looked less perky than normal. That usually means she's annoyed. Too bad. "At least Weiss isn't here anymore." I barely heard the last part since I was already walking through.

"

It was quite nice today although there was a storm on the horizon. I suppose we'll make this quick.

"Right so magic is real." I said. Kerrigan raised an eyebrow but that was really all the reaction I got. It was obvious nobody believed me. "Only about six people I know of can do it in all of remnant, some examples being myself, my aunt, Ruby, and I. Some people can do lesser forms of magic such as the Arc clan, who have vastly superior souls compared to the rest of humanity, the silver eyed warriors who can defeat grimm with supernatural powers, the runed, who are humans augmented with runes to grant some powers and enhanced abilities, and there are species of supernatural creatures living in remote locations around remnant. Qrow can actually turn into a crow if he wants. Ozpin gifted him and his sister with that power when they entered his service."

"Qrow has a sister?" Ocean asked in confusion.

"Ignoring Ocean it's obvious none of you believe me." I continued. "That's perfectly fine. Here. This might shock you into a little belief." I raised my hand and collected about half my collective mana into heat attuned mana. It barely took two seconds. The air above my hands turned to plasma but went no further than a small ball above my hand. I waved my hand at the ocean and the massive heat shot sprang out towards the ocean. The water evaporated into steam easily for almost a mile, giving everyone a glimpse of the bare seafloor. The heat shot quickly lost it's energy and flagged for a moment. That was all it took for the wall of water to envelop the empty space and surge back towards the sandy moat it once owned.

As the water surged back I waved my hand again and air roared at the water, pushing it back from approaching the shore too quickly. The water ended up softly lapping at the shores, making it seem that nothing had happened save for slightly hot waters for a brief few seconds.

Everyone was silent for a solid thirty seconds. I let them process that and glanced at Bella, who was smirking at their reactions.

"Quit smirking, Bella. You were about the same as them when you were introduced to magic." Her smirk didn't drop. At least the ice was broken.

Violently.

"What are the applications of magic we can use?" Ocean asked with an unusual quickness.

"Is Vale under any threat from magical sources?" Kerrigan seemed genuinely worried.

"Are nature's bounty crops magical?" I grinned at the last question from Cesium. Smart kid. I'm totally playing favorites with him but this is why.

"Lets start with Ocean's question. You all can be runed to have various effects of varying complexity. Increased strength, toggleable invisibility, fireballs, teleportation, and more. You could also be simply flat out stronger or faster if not that. There's fancier things too."

"Fancier than teleportation." Ocean said flatly.

"I can rune you to store motion so you can temporarily ignore gravity." I stated. I swear Kerrigan almost started salivating. Is he a magic nerd or something? "Then you can use the motion you've stored to eject it from parts of your body. No you can't fly from this. Everyone always flips over and faceplants unless you absorb motion from gravity and expel force from your feet, which is significantly more complicated, but you can certainly run faster than normal. To give you an example of a rune set Bella has one. Bella?"

Bella looked smug. "I can go invisible," She flickered out of view for a moment before immediately coming back, "with scentlessness and soundlessness included in that package. I can also do a short range teleport and taze people with my fists. I'm also more durably and much more flexible, stronger, and faster than before. All my clothes are runed to not emit body heat but that's temporary since the heat your body produces has to go somewhere. It only lasts about twenty minutes before the rune fills and I have to empty it out. I have a few other runed things I bargained from Abyss one way or another."

Another moment of silence followed. "All magic is bullshit." Cesium sighed. "Can I have some?"

"I already have a set of clothes for all of you with runes I think you would like." I said. I brought out three boxes from my inventory that Ruby had made look like christmas presents at her insistence. I was just going to use cardboard but she caught me. "I'll be doing body tattoos on you all to grant abilities. You'll be working on them during the summer. That is, on the condition you don't tell your parents or authority figures."

"Why?" Kerrigan asked. Bella's face turned a lot more neutral than the smug look she had earlier.

"Abyss is… he does not get along with Ozpin. At all." She said with a flat look at me.

"He's untrustworthy. Mark my words." I said neutrally. "The government already likely knows over a hundred layers of red tape and secrecy but they can't use it. It's too rare and hard to use in national use and the change or reveal would cause a worldwide panic. The only people you could really go to about magic would be Ozpin, who has Qrow, Glynda Goodwitch, and general Ironwood on his side or Salem, who's the queen of the grimm, and her posse of generally terrible and strong people."

"There's a queen of grimm?" Kerrigan asked. His face was pale.

"She's reclusive. Don't worry." I assured him. "She's gotten more active as of late but she isn't going to run out of her castle and terrorize innocents. She'a a manipulator and has people to do that for her. Cinder Fall, Tyrian, Watts, Hazel, and possibly someone I heard of named Ember Fall. She's probably dead though."

"Oh. Good." A small breath of relief went around the group.

"But where do you fit in?" Cesium asked. Instantly every eye was on me.

"My family and friends come first. Over civilians, Vale, and the world. If anyone survives it's may family first and then myself. If I can save Vale I would but saving the world isn't my first priority. On the other hand Ozpin is all about keeping humanity alive and defeating Salem over all else. He's immortal so he's been doing that for ages. Salem is more for personal gain. She has the grimm on her side and the people with her are those who want to be on the winning team. That's my understanding of the two anyways. I know for certain that Salem is destructive and against the general good while Ozpin is for something like the greater good."

"I like your philosophy best." Cesium immediately said.

"Agreed. My family is the same as I am." Kerrigan agreed.

Ocean was silent.

"Let me guess, you're all for the greater good, save the world, self sacrifice deal, right?" I asked. She looked hesitant.

"I almost went to Ozpin." Bella said suddenly. "I'm not actually with Abyss. I'm more of neutral party. I would have gone to Ozpin if Abyss hadn't convinced me that he's actually doing more good for remnant as he is now than Ozpin is. Going to Ozpin and telling him everything, which I still want to do, isn't the right move sadly."

"I want to be a huntress. I want to be like you." Ocean said with eyes on Bella. She looked towards me again. "I agree. Friends and family are more important than… normal people. Within reason. A single life isn't worth a thousand civilians."

"That's fine." I said with a shrug. "I want you all to be agents of mine ideally. Fighters, operatives, spies, whatever. Whatever you want to do be it ally yourself directly with me or just be contacts like Bella I want you all to be friends with me and more than that allies."

"I'm in." Cesium said without hesitation again. "I owe you almost everything, you know? Without even Dad's working as a manager at the mall and he's in college with mom. He's happier than he's ever been. I have a little sister on the way too. I learned last week. I have a nice home, plenty of contacts and more friends than I can handle at times. I want to be strong. Important. Call me greedy but I want to be the next Roman Torchwick. The next Mahogany. Whatever it is I can be that. I owe you and if working for you my entire life makes up for you fixing my life to what I could only dream it could be then so be it."

A respectful silence passed for a moment. I was smiling. Cesium was my second best friend. Raven still came first, of course, but damn he was a diamond in the rough.

"I don't have as good a reason for it as Cesium." Kerrigan started. "I have my family. I owe my loyalty to them and them to Roman Torchwick." His eyes narrowed. "Does Roman know of magic?"

"No but while we're on the subject Roman does work for me. He manages the underworld alongside Neo-" Kerrigan shivered "-and acts as Mahogany for nature's bounty. He manages pretty much the entire company and all of Vale's underworld. I don't plan on ever introducing him to magic. He's self serving and disloyal. He's cunning, smart, resourceful, and a great asset to me - I don't know how I would live without him - but unless he has some sort of massive change in character he doesn't have my full trust."

"I see." Kerrigan looked down calculatively. "I suppose that leaves a position of yours open, hmm?"

"I doubt I'll need to replace Roman anytime soon. I would prefer that you did something other than manage Vale's criminal underworld. Nature's bounty will, if my plans go accordingly, be acquired by the SDC in a merger with Weiss at it's head. She can use it appropriately I believe. The best place I could use you would be as an all-rounder. Hazel Rainheart, who works for Salem, is what I'm basing my ideal of you off of. He can do a little of everything and change roles as needed. He can negotiate, fight, and so on. That's what I'd have you do if you worked under me."

"I believe I can do that." Kerrigan confirmed. "So long as my family is safe and I can visit them."

"I wouldn't have you actually begin working for quite some time, you realize?" Kerrigan shrugged as if that wasn't really an issue. I rolled my eyes. Five minutes after I played Moses and he's unshaken. "I believe the war between Ozpin and Salem will re-ignite in three years. I, unfortunately, have to attend beacon. I have a deal with Ozpin sadly and I don't believe I can get out of it."

"I want the same thing as Bella." Ocean spoke up with confidence. "I want to live a normal life but if the world starts falling I want to be there. I can't be helpless."

"Fine." I had hoped for all three of them to join me firmly at my side but two out of three of my classmates is alright. Cesium was certain to join me. Kerrigan and Ocean were more shakey on whether they'd join me. That none of them are leaving what could be vaguely called 'my side' is good.

"So now that that's all done what do you all want on your runes?"

The looks on their faces were not reassuring.


	38. Chapter 38

**AN: I'd like to give a quick thank you to** **Wynaut-Zoidberg. He helped me a lot with his review but I couldn't PM him for some reason. He pointed out some habits of mine that I should consider fixing. It was good advice in my opinion.**

 **And yes, I do proof-read my stories. I just don't meticulously go word for word but rather speed-read the chapter two or three times. It leaves in some small mistakes sometimes but I'd fall asleep going word for word. That's why most people have betas.**

 **On a different note I've got a small surplus of chapters right now because I had a little free time over the weekend and reading has been harder since my tablet (which I read on) has been acting up. I'm almost to Beacon (Ch. 40 by the way) where we have the adventure part of the tags come into play again.**

 **I think I might post the next chapter early since I have that surplus and I was late by a few days before. I like to repay my debts. I consider my previous lateness to be one.**

 **Oh, and we're still going with the fast pacing we had before. It's a bit more slice-of-life this chapter too because of the pacing and slight lull in the plot for right now.**

[||||= **LEVEL 38** = ||||]

"What the hell do I even do?" I muttered. "I have my parallels training all the time since them doing nothing is counterproductive but Roman's having an outing with Raven and a friend of his, Weiss is still annoyed with me for some reason, Blake and Bella are on a trip with Ocean, Kerrigan is doing family stuff, Cesium is busy with a friend of his… who else? Poledina's teaching Penny speech and working on his things, which I have no interest in… Oh, and I've spent enough time with Ruby as is."

I was bored. Everyone was out doing something I didn't care to intrude in or didn't want to. I have a surprisingly large social circle actually for not being very outgoing. Sure Roman and Poledina are technically employees but I do visit Poledina from time to time and so does Ruby. Roman isn't too much of a prick since he has a healthy fear for me as Abyss or Mystic.

I could go see how the factories are coming. Jacques conceded a fair number of faunus rights to his workers and pulled off a legitimate audit of his company for abuses of authority and racism with Sienna making sure he doesn't cut corners. How Roman pulled that off I don't know. I wasn't paying attention. Probably a backroom deal.

In exchange for the audit we conceded for the factories for processing to be built in Atlas so that they're under the SDC's tax reductions by the kingdom however the crops themselves are going to grow on Patch primarily with secondary plantations on menagerie.

Nobody ever considered the shitty tropical islands to be worth anything since there's no dust deposits but the fire root will grow fantastically there since it's so hot and the water fruit grows fine in the saltwater and menagerie happens to have several still bodies of saltwater to grow the things. The water fruit is also growing in patch too and the light bulbs (damn it Yang) are only growing on patch because they need decent soil and the tropical storms in menagerie would ruin them.

The light bulbs are a little fragile as far as trees go. They have somewhat big leaves to collect sunlight and with intense wind they might get ripped off. The SDC doesn't get an in on those crops since they don't need processing. We can just attack a cable to the trees and siphon off power. Stretching a line of power across the strait to Vale is easy enough for us and there's even been talk of winding a cable down the coast to Vacuo through some villages.

The SDC with their side of the deal does the shipping and builds and maintains the factories while nature's bounty grows the crops and sells the actual products although the SDC gets a cut of the profits.

That's the basics of it anyways. There's a whole lot of legal fine print and such. Roman hired some of the best lawyers in the kingdoms so I'm not very worried. Jacques probably won't pull one over me. I got a very strongly worded letter and what could be called a threat for my invitation to Sienna but it's not too worrying. The white fang conceded that they won't attack the SDC factories associated with nature's bounty anyways.

Everyone profited off of the conference from the SDC to the fang. It was extremely successful. I was worried that a lot of useless people would be invited to make them feel important but that wasn't the case.

But with the SDC making the factories and all the skilled experienced workers Roman's cultivated building the new plantations I have nothing to do.

Considering that I was bored I grabbed my scroll and flipped through my contacts to call Qrow. His girlfriend's on another trip and we don't talk much. He's a lot closer to Ruby and Yang than me so I think it's a family thing. Bella also takes up a lot of his time. She likes the attention from him, which probably ties into her semblance making people not notice her.

I also personally think Qrow likes girls more than boys. Raven mentioned once that Qrow wasn't well liked around the tribe since he was so unlucky and when they figured out it was his semblance things didn't get much better. The same goes for Beacon where Taiyang was his only guy friend.

Either way we aren't too close as friends or family.

Wait a second… Yang. She's not busy, right?

Flipping away from Qrow I tapped her picture and waited for the call to connect. It barely took a second.

"Abyss! What's up?"

"I'm bored. Are you busy?"

"Nope! All my friends are on trips or something and Char moved to Mistral and transferred to sanctum."

"Wasn't Char your last boyfriend?" I remembered a guy with dark hair that got lighter as it neared the tips to a dark grey and a face that made me want to punch him and the attitude to go with it. Yang thought it was endearing and he treated her alright apparently.

"Yup. You remember him? I don't think you met him."

"Don't worry about it." Ocean sure could be creepy sometimes. Under the bed? Seriously? Weirdo. "Want to hang out?"

"Hell yeah! Wanna ride bumblebee?"

"I don't have a license for a motorbike. Only an airship. Isn't your bike unfinished?"

"I got the last piece delivered two months-wait you can fly airships?"

"I learned last summer."

"Do you HAVE and airship?"

"Of course I do. I do maintenance on it and everything. Ruby knows how to do emergency repairs and fly it too."

"Can we fly?" Yang sounded like a puppy dog that saw a new toy.

"Fine."

"YES!" I pulled my scroll away from my ears at the volume of Yang's voice. She noticed from the video and looked at least a little embarrassed.

"Yang pipe down!" I faintly heard Taiyang yell in the background.

"Okay dad! Sorry!" Yang turned back towards the scroll again, still grinning. "Can we turn up at a bar in an airship? That would be so cool! What color is it? Is it big?"

"I'll see you at your place."

"Sure! I'll see you soon. Can you send a pic?"

"Wouldn't it be more fun to see it with your own eyes not knowing what to expect?" In other words no. I can't be bothered to take ten pictures of the ship with my scroll. It's really easier to fly it there since I can lean back and read a book. Just now I'm realizing that going out on the town with a party animal like Yang may not be a good idea.

"Well yeah that's true. Kay, I'll see you in what, an hour?"

"More like forty minutes. I have a fast ship. Being rich is nice more often than not in my experience. I don't spend a lot though. The airship is actually the second most expensive thing I own."

"Okay then. Bye! I'm going to go get ready for a night on the town! We can talk more when you get here! We need to save some stuff to talk about here and I've only flown a few times before and only commercially. Bye!" I blinked at the scroll hanging up. That was a little sudden. But anyways…

You need to get ready for this sort of stuff? I thought you just had fun going to a club unless you were trying to impress someone. It must be a girl thing to look nice in public. I look nice almost all the time thanks to my vitality making me look fit and healthy all the time.

The closest thing I had to trying to look nice is just taking a shower and brushing my ears. My faunus ears I mean. Sometimes the fur and my hair get tangled up a little and I have to trim the hair. It's annoying since they're so irritatingly sensitive. It's still better to be able to listen to everything though.

I shrugged off Yang's preparations as a girl thing and picked out some nicer clothes and some casual ones. I'm not sure what she's planning but it's better to be prepared.

I teleported to a clearing outside of Vale at random and dropped the ship from my inventory before hanging the two clothing sets in the bedroom, where there's a tiny closet and a smaller than normal laundry machine built into the ship. It's only made to fit about five shirts rather than the laundry machine found in most homes.

About then I was more concerned with what book to read than flying. I guess I can be bored for about another half hour. Going out on the town with Yang should be the opposite of boring. I haven't brought her to the tropical island subI visits every week have I? We built a treehouse there this year since we visit the island so often for 'wilderness training'.

I wonder how many bars Yang and I are going to go to? Actually I'm more concerned with getting arrested. That would be bad and might tick Roman off since no way in hell Raven would bail out her daughter.

You know what? Lets just not get arrested. How about that. That sounds like a good low bar to set. Really how bad can it be?

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Report?"_

" _Mavros is unaware of my observations. The items you provided have been more than sufficient to track him accordingly. The times I have lost him are few and never for more than a week or two. I have still been unable to follow him into his apartments. I do not know what sort of runes are responsible for this impediment but I've considered that they are likely hidden by more runes."_

" _Don't worry about entering his abode. Maintaining some privacy is fine. Keep your observations unobtrusive when it comes to heavily defended secrets."_

" _Of course. At the vytal festival, my most recent observations, he made a deal with general Ironwood for a scientist of his in exchange for his firearm he used in the mistralian regional tournament. Other than that he spent time with miss Nikos and threw popcorn at the students of signal through his false semblance."_

" _Amusing. I once did such things when I was a student. It's good to see some traditions hold throughout the ages. Ironwood likely won't find anything in the sidearm Abyss used. It was quite clearly a miniaturized railgun of some sort or runes and enchantments, though I don't know if he is an accomplished enchanter. I doubt it. The two fields are rather diverse and I don't believe Mavros to favor the short term solutions enchantment offers. Anything more?"_

" _No."_

" _Hmm… go spend time with your family Crimson. If I see any more activity from Abyss I'll inform you so you might begin tracking him."_

" _Thank you. Are you sure I shouldn't look for Raven Branwen?"_

" _She's unimportant. Strong but weak willed and too prideful to work for Salem. She won't be an issue. I'll have you checkup on the maidens during the school year I believe."_

" _Alright. Goodbye."_

" _Enjoy your break."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Holy shit." Yang said in some slight awe. "That's a big ship. I thought you had like a larger than average bullhead. This is like… an actual airship."

Well my ship wasn't huge by any means. There were plenty of bigger ones but it was owned solely by me so I suppose that is impressive by most standards.

"Yang what is - oh." Taiyang walked out in a T-shirt and shorts. House clothes.

"Hello Taiyang." I nodded at him. He blinked.

"Ah, hi." Taiyang said awkwardly. I still don't like him. I agree with Raven that he's weak willed. Yang eventually pushed herself to reconcile with Ruby and eventually me but Taiyang was still leaving things be. I don't hate him but it's better to face your mistakes than not. I'm content to leave him out of my life for good.

"Ready to go Yang?" I asked. She nodded, taking a glance at her dad.

"Bye dad! I'm off with bro for a night on the town." Yang waved and ran in with me right after her. The door closed as I pressed a switch at the doors and I came to terms with being called a bro. That feels weird. Nobody thinks of me as a 'bro'. "This place is big on the inside too." Yang muttered.

"You can stop admiring my big… thing now Yang." I teased slightly. Yang's face scrunched up for a moment before a playful grin emerged.

"Oh Abyss! You have such a big _thing_! I bet it feels great _riding_ your _big thing_!"

I rolled my eyes. "I doubt we can get started. You're too heavy to get off the ground." Yang's hair bursted into flames and she glared at me with glowing eyes.

"What was that?" She growled. I chuckled slightly at her anger. She's more volatile than Raven I see. She really is her kid though. I doubt Taiyang would get so mad over quip like that. He'd probably crack a joke over a dad bod or something.

"Nothing sister dearest." I said in a less teasing tone of voice.

"Damn right I'm dear." She retorted. I hit the ignition and felt the little jolt as they fired up. "What was that?!"

"The engines firing up."

"Then why did the ship shake?!"

"They're powerful engines."

Yang looked at me suspiciously and I just shrugged. I went on another airship once before. Most of them shake a little when they start up except for the big ones that are mostly restricted to military or commercial use. Dust is stronger than gasoline and airships had to be light for the most part so they're a little weak to tremors.

As soon as Yang stepped forward she stumbled as I got to taking off. I flipped a few switches and the struts folded in and the gravity dust got ignited. Yang was quiet as we started rising quickly, going above the treetops easily and rising further above without a problem.

"This is really cool." Yang said. "Can we do this more often?"

"Lets focus on where we're going first. Vale?"

"A place called Junior's."

"Please no."

"I think you mean yes. Forwards!"

I sighed in resignation. Tonight would be a night to remember at least…

Four hours later Juniors was booming with business as Yang had a dance-off with Junior himself, we met and fought with Roman as he was going on a robbery for publicity an hour after that (his face when I pretended to attack him with Yang was hilarious), and I woke up wearing my shirt as pants and my pants as a shirt on a rooftop snuggling a puppy with a collar that named her Maples and property of Yang Branwen as well as a legally binding paper allowing Yang to paint my airship yellow and black and naming it hornet.

"That was awesome! Let's do it again!"

"No Yang. Never again."

"Can I still paint your airship then? I want to do some color scheme matchups with bumblebee."

"I don't think I have a choice legal document or not."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Boss what the hell?!"_

" _Roman I barely remember what happened. I just know that I should never go partying with Yang again ever."_

" _But you made me look amazing!"_

" _What?!"_

" _Everyone is saying I fought off Abyss Mavros, prodigy huntsman. I mean sure you were utterly sloshed at the time and wearing your sister's bra but nobody recorded you so…"_

" _Never again Roman."_

" _We've all had those nights, boss."_

" _Never. Again."_

" _Also was that girl your sister? She called you 'little bro' before."_

" _She's Ruby's half sister. I was a part of the family for a few months and Ruby and her got attached. We reconciled a rather major problem a few months back."_

" _Ah… how old is your sister?"_

" _Ruby is almost thirteen. Yang is fifteen though she'll be sixteen in three weeks."_

" _Holy shit. Sixteen with those huge-… uh, that… those hugely horrible words coming out of her mouth! Why, she said 'screw you, Torchwick'! Really, when I was her age I had a far more varying vocabulary!"_

" _Roman."_

"…"

" _Don't bring up Yang's breasts again. We both knew what you meant."_

" _Yes boss."_

" _On a lighter note my uncle is happy with how you did with the negotiations. You have the summer mostly free."_

" _I have a lot more free time these days. Last night was one of them."_

" _You pull heists in your free time?!"_

" _Well yeah. I enjoy it and I don't want to just fade into the criminal background. I kind of like the spotlight."_

" _Heists just seem like a lot of work to me. Whatever. Enjoy your break. Now I have the whole summer off. On another note I recall you mentioned a slave running gang in vacuo?"_

" _Uh, yeah."_

" _Good. What's their name? I have some need for them and not in their business."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Test number two." I spoke into the scroll. "Infusion of affinity into living beings has so far been entirely unsuccessful with living beings. This test will attempt to infuse affinity into a living human's soul. Be aware that the subject has been convicted of the high crime of murder, assistance in kidnapping, and work in the slave trade. Admittedly the subject is one of the less terrible people collected from the raid and was drugged before her induction to the criminal underworld however she is still a rather shitty person and a detriment to society in general of no apparent use or skill other than cleaning up after human and faunus cargo, essentially an underworld maid."

"Mrrrf!" the woman protested, a slightly tanned girl of nineteen with dark red curly hair. I had her muffled because the stray birds I had used before screamed before they died. I'm not doing tests so intense this time but I have the habit.

"Prior testing on birds and mice resulted in multiple effects. In heat they accumulated spots of frostbite, burns of various degrees, and hypo and hyperthermia in differing portions of their body depending on amounts infused. The same result was observed on the least valuable of the captured criminals." The slaver started yelling into her rag and struggling again. I continued to ignore her.

"Storm resulted in oversaturation of water in the body, electrical shocks, and presumably air being dispersed throughout the body though most of these were weaker than direct affinity of a single element being infused. Tiny amounts of infused affinity resulted in survival yet pains from electrically induced cramps. Larger doses resulted in the stated effects at a more extreme level. For further detailed effects on affinity see the corresponding file."

The object of this experiment is on activated aura and infusal. Animals have weak souls incapable of holding an aura and are thus incapable of holding affinity. Plants, on the other hand, are strangely adaptable in that if accumulated slowly they may morph to a different species. This is presumably due to their lack of a soul, containing only traces of plant and nature affinities at any noticeably level. It is with this conclusion that I have determined that with an exceptionally strong aura and an affinity not opposed to a foreign affinity the foreign affinity may be assimilated into the host. With this in mind I have devised a way to test affinities of a being."

Semblances are clearly indicative of affinity, as shown in my sister, Raven, and other tested individuals. This indicates mana and attunement play a strong role in aura as well as mana. Not exactly shocking. By forcefully taking a sample of a subject's aura and presenting it with differing samples of affinities it will become more volatile near affinities closely related to it similar to cohesion in water."

Through this method I have determined the current subjects attunements to be light and fire. Only two attunement are present rather than the average three. The highest recorded natural attunements is eight in Weiss Schnee, all of which were significantly stronger than average and including two never before seen affinities all due to her bloodline. Again, see the corresponding file for details."

This subject has a semblance capable of intensifying light to extreme degrees. Light becomes far more intense in their activation of aura. These two attunements are extremely close to the heat affinity and thus will hopefully allow assimilation of the new affinity. Later testing will test the use of identical affinities on empowering semblances and auras. Beginning now."

I ignored the sudden increase in muffled screaming and begging once more and put my hand to the woman's face. She pulled herself back from my hand but I grabbed her forehead and began infusing heat affinity into her. When nothing happened she calmed down although her eyes were still wild and her pulse was pounding.

"Hm…" I thought for a moment. Then I formed a small dagger of ice. Maybe the affinity was inert if the aura wasn't activated?

I lightly poked the slaver and she yelped at it. Wimp. My eyes widened as I saw her aura shift and deplete slightly. "Fascinating. Her aura is depleting faster than usual. In the activity it ejected the foreign affinity similar to a body ejecting a toxin.

I pushed more affinity into the woman and observed her. "If you're polite I'll try to keep you alive more resolutely and ungag you." The woman hesitated before nodding jerkily. I removed the gag and she spat and licked her mouth for a moment. "How do you feel?"

"I, um, feel a little cold and hungry but isn't that normal?" the woman looked a little fearfully at me.

"Yes." I acknowledged, though I have no idea. I pushed more heat affinity into her. The foreign amount of affinity was nearing four hundred. "Affinity accumulated near four hundred… five hundred. Any effects felt?" I glanced at the woman.

"Um… no?"

"Be clear."

"No."

"Attempting to disturb aura." I stabbed my ice dagger at the woman's stomach and her aura flared. I noticed a slight shimmer around her stomach. The foreign affinity I inserted dropped once more. "Hm." I stabbed a few more times, depleting the woman's aura, and was on the cusp of breaking it.

"Oh… Oh I don't feel very good." The woman said. I noticed her eyes seem unfocused. I put my hand to her forehead and felt heat. A fever? Likely an artificial one caused from the heat rather than one induced by a sickness.

"Subject has accumulated a fever. Likely due to heat affinity warming internal body temperature." I ignored modesty and looked over the woman clothed only in bandages over her breasts and lady bits. Small patches of skin showed very minor frostbite and burns as though from hot water. "Frostbite patches have also appeared, though all this is in lower intensity than the prior auraless tests significantly. Infusing aura."

I pushed my aura into the subject and a little life mana. Instantly she perked up. "Whoa! What sort of drug was that!? I feel great!"

"My aura." I stated. "Along with a little life affinity. It heals people."

"Cool. What's affinity anyways?" This woman is probably the most chill person I've ever met. She doesn't even seem all that mad. I guess she's just happy she's not being sold into slavery like her sort-of-friends did.

I'm still ignoring her question though.

"Foreign attunement was likely too much to handle for subject two's aura and leakage began to appear as soon as her aura weakened. Breakage would have most certainly allowed the same effects as prior seen." The woman paled again.

"One hundred seven affinity has been ejected from the subject. I will be putting subject two aside for the moment to observe whether affinity passively drains from her." I glanced towards subject two - ah, the woman. "Do not agitate your aura."

"Can I get some pudding then?" She asked hopefully. "Since I'll probably die soon and I'm technically helping you?"

"If you don't agitate your aura." I said with a frown. She didn't seem to be taking me all that seriously.

"I won't use aura then."

"Good."

Two hours later it was confirmed. The affinity reduced by one point.

"You didn't use your aura?"

"No. When I focused on it it felt… uncomfortable. I didn't do anything other than feel it, which wasn't so much interacting with it as not ignoring it." I nodded. That was expected. It was like leaving a needle in your arm. You noticed it whether you wanted to or not.

"I see. I have a theory on why the affinity isn't activating. First, however, would you do something for me Vera?"

"Um, okay. Can I get more pudding or some sort of sweet?" Vera, who's name I hadn't bothered to learn until she became useful and shown she wasn't an ass, blinked slowly at me.

"I'll bake you some cookies and give you some milk."

"I'm up for anything."

"Attempt to use your semblance." Vera frowned and focused for a moment, closing her eyes in the process.

Suddenly the room became scorching hot. Blistering hot. Vera screamed. I felt the heat and countered it with water I produced with my storm affinity and mana. Soon the water's high heat capacity reduced the room to merely hot.

I narrowed my eyes and looked to Vera. She was mostly fine but her skin was red and sunburned. With the light as high as it was it should have harmed her a lot more. That light would probably have caused second degree burns on me had I not countered it immediately.

"Does your semblance normally harm you?" I asked. She stared at me with wide eyes.

"How are you alive?' She whispered. "So much power…"

"Does your semblance normally harm you?" I said slowed, adding a little darker tone to my voice. Vera snapped out of her stare.

"Uh, no."

"It did this time. Having affinity stored in your body appears to have drastically overpowered your semblance in exchange for making it extremely uncontrollable."

"It usually takes a second or two." Vera added. "It was instant this time. I felt something come… come _out_ of me."

"Attempt to use your semblance." I ordered. Vera focused and frowned. Then she gasped.

"Nope! Nope! Can't do it."

"Pain?"

"It's like a… a soreness."

"Interesting." I muttered. I looked downwards. Could semblances be trained to be more potent? Like a muscle grows to be stronger but uses more ATP to fuel those muscle cells and more aura could be used to fuel a more powerful semblance that was trained to get stronger through strain. This could be a breakthrough.

"Good job Vera. You just became valuable. A shame no affinity stayed with you permanently. One more test before we're done." I pushed two fingers onto her skin and infused her with affinity. She looked scared.

"What?" I asked.

"I can feel it." She whimpered. "Like a tiny stream of fire and frost." I raised an eyebrow. That was indeed what heat affinity felt like. So she became sensitive to the affinity. Does exposure breed familiarity? Or was it like a body adapting to a virus?

"Is your aura rejecting it?"

"No… but it feels uncomfortable."

"Don't do anything with your aura."

As I was done infusing twenty heat affinity into her I then pushed in a little unattuned mana. Vera screamed in what sounded like fright more than pain.

"How do you feel?"

"That hurt you sadistic fucker!" Language geez. And I'm not sadistic. Just a bit amoral.

"It burned?"

"Hell yes it did! Like you dipped me in fire and ice!"

So the affinity became active when I infused mana into her. I theorized mana acted as a catalyst for affinities but this confirms it. I've added mana to a person's soul before but they just shrugged it off. I've never done it in large doses though.

If I were to infuse light affinity into Vera would her aura reject it as foreign? Would it alter her semblance to be more volatile or simply more powerful? If I continue to add heat attuned mana would her semblance change to help fit the new affinity? Would she gain the heat affinity with continued exposure?

"I have the next test planned out. We'll continue tomorrow."

"Fuck you."

"You really don't like pain do you?"

"…"

I like her. Sure she's a little bitchy but that's alright. She's tolerable and useful. Good enough.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Eh… how'd you get those?"_

" _I asked."_

" _All the kid fed us was soup. Really damn good soup but it was just soup. How did you get cookies? And I saw you with pudding earlier."_

" _I was today's test subject. It was… well scary but I didn't die."_

" _I heard Irrie's screams from in here. We all did. Then he got gagged or his vocal cords cut."_

" _A gag. He had one on me before I agreed to be… polite."_

" _Is Mavros a dick? I heard nothing but good things in Vacuo, being practically a saint, but I know some high society folk that bought from us."_

" _He's… sort of a bastard but he took us shitty people and not innocent people so I guess he's still better than us. He mentioned that he didn't hurt innocents on purpose."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"So I was wondering… how long will we be here?" Vera asked as I infused the smoothie with light attunement.

"Until you die or we work something out." I said easily.

"Oh."

"You're a shitty person. More so than me by far. At least I give back for the shitty things I do. Now drink this and this. Tell me which tastes better." I handed Vera the berry smoothie with light attunement and another one from the same batch from the blender. They were both in tiny cups like you would see at a water cooler but slightly larger.

I had stuffed as much light attunement into the attuned smoothie as possible. I had three thousand seven hundred affinity to infuse. Using Poledina's affinity compressor helped make infusing affinity seventy five times more efficient roughly. So she was drinking about two thousand eight hundred light affinity.

"Okay." Vera took the smoothie without attunement into her hands and drank, not questioning whether this had a purpose. I waited a moment to let her savor it. I knew she loved sweet things.

She stopped drinking with a small sigh. "It's good. Sweet." I nodded and handed her the second cup with the light attunement. She took a small sip before her eyes widened. She downed the whole thing like a shot and then began vigorously licking the sides of the cup. After a few seconds of this there was nothing left and she ran a finger along the edge. She swallowed and her eyes shined with a desperate desire.

They were also literally shining a little.

I observed her and saw, right under her light affinity, an innate light affinity in her body with steadily rising numbers. Her actual light affinity in her soul was rising too at a much slower pace of about one point every four seconds compared to the twenty points per second the innate affinity seemed to be gaining at.

"Wait." I commanded. Vera hesitated.

"What was in that?" She asked hungrily. There was something off with her.

"Distilled light affinity."

"Can I have more."

"No."

Vera was silent and I considered giving her more. I'll test adding small doses to her food. It probably made her semblance stronger. The heat affinity hadn't taken yet. I had a feeling it would soon though. The reactions with her semblance were getting less intense and more controllable as the days passed.

The problem with giving Vera more light affinity was how addictive it might be to her. It was vastly more light affinity than her meagre, ah, fifty five right now, could handle. Her affinity would almost certainly act as a tolerance that grows as she has more. I don't want to turn her into an addict and then have to deprive her because she grew too tolerant.

Vera's eyes changed a little and her aura changed with it. Something seemed to break a little in it. I felt a little aura emanate off of her as well that seemed involuntarily. Vera was too out of it and not at all skilled in use of her aura. For one thing it became more attuned to light and not temporarily either. But of more immediate interest was the emotion coming from her.

A crapton of lust.

"Um… Abyss." Vera seemed to be almost physically restraining herself. "Uhm…" I frowned at Vera.

This is problematic at the very least.

"I don't mean to… Did you slip aphrodisiacs into the smoothie?"

"As it turns out large amounts of affinity you are attuned to act as a… hm." I glanced towards the door to the other prisoners. "Follow me." I walked calmly towards the door and Vera followed eagerly. I opened it up to the other prisoners clothed somewhat decently. "Do you feel lust towards them?" Vera looked towards them and squinted.

"Uhm… no… no I don't." She seemed puzzled by that. Then she glanced towards me. "But I really… REALLY want to, um… can we?"

Something clicked in my mind and I zoned out for a moment as the pieces fell into place. Essentially I was a magical beast but in a human body. Magical beast auras could be awakened pretty easily. They were natural users of mana and aura like I was. It made sense from an evolutionary perspective to breed with a strong mate. Magical beasts thrived with strong affinities. It made sense theoretically that affinities acted as signals for mates in the magical beasts.

Huntsmen and huntresses almost exclusively dated and had children with each other. Most people attributed that to people with supermodel looks, extreme strength, and deadly skill all preferring someone who can relate to their lifestyle and profession as well as their social sphere. However, what if aura acted as a lure for mates based on affinity? It was plausible at least. It also explained why none of the other prisoners appealed to Vera even as desperate as she was. None of them had a strong light affinity. On the other hand, I might as well shine like the sun to her.

I can use a straight male and see if he's attracted to me after having the same process as Vera. that should confirm my theory. For now I only have Vera though.

"Can you sense aura?" I asked. I glanced towards her to

This thought process ground to a halt as Vera's lips crashed into mine. The jaws of prisoners dropped. I grabbed Vera and pushed her to the right and shut the door before turning back to her. Then I narrowed my eyes and not because of the kiss. That was mostly my fault.

Vera looked more appealing than she did before. Much more appealing. What the-?

"Wait." I commanded. I ran over to the smoothies and made another one from the light affinity and the actual smoothie. I turned to Vera and handed it to her. Her eyes widened and she gulped it down. I closely looked at her and then turned my eyes and waited two minutes. Then I looked back.

Holy shit she looked way hotter.

Vera grabbed me and kissed me again and my mind went blank.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Who's this?"_

" _This is Vera. My assistant."_

" _Nice to meet you miss Raven."_

" _Just Raven. Why do you need an assistant?"_

" _To handle trivial things with nature's bounty and help me in the lab. Vera managed some records in her earlier employment and she isn't stupid so she can help in my workshop., which I'm using more now because I'm bored and have some ideas that might as well be tested. I'm refining an alternate way to make mages at the moment."_

" _What?!"_

" _I've already discovered a way to massively improve the potency of a semblance rather than training. They get more efficient and more powerful as you undergo the treatment. It also unlocks a sort of sense for sensing affinities and auras. It's quite convenient."_

" _Would this work with the tribe?"_

" _Well there's a complication. You see, a side-effect of the treatment is what I'm calling the mate effect. After a large increase in innate affinity, which is directly related to semblance power, the soul has evolved to encourage mingling with another soul to stabilize itself and further strengthen itself. It's more complicated than just that but the end result is that after the treatment boosting your innate affinity you get extraordinarily horny and have to sleep with somebody. Drugs are flushed from your system by your aura as it's sent into overdrive to compensate for the new recognized affinity to assimilate and abstaining from the soul mingling is that almost all of the formerly gained innate affinity doesn't stick and you lose most of the effectiveness of the treatment. It's also somewhat excruciating."_

" _I… I see. The treatment doesn't work if the side effect isn't sated?"_

" _Not really at all."_

" _So it wouldn't work with me."_

" _Well… I have a significantly greater affinity than you. If I slept with you-"_

" _No."_

" _Yes I was getting to that. So there's no way. You can't just open your soul to another either. Soul hearth causes death sadly. My soul has mana in it and mana would ignite all that spare affinity, which is extremely unpleasant and normally deadly."_

" _There is truly no way? I believe I can resist the effect. I'm more strong willed than the average person."_

" _You have a powerful aura. More aura means it affects you more."_

" _I shudder to think what would happen if you underwent the… treatment."_

" _I did try it. I went four rounds with Vera right after. I just have to use a weak affinity. I have a fire affinity now by the way. It was the only affinity I could properly test with."_

" _Ah. Alright then. How did you meet Vera?"_

" _Lets not talk about that."_

" _Fine. Are you dating?"_

" _No."_

" _Nope. We agreed that as his assistant I'll be assisting him with this before I learn the basics of how to defend myself during his school year. We don't like-like each other. We both just like the sex and power of it. It's kind of addicting but it doesn't breed depandance. We tested. There aren't any withdrawal effects other than being kind of pissed off for a while."_

" _I believe you'll excel at beacon's romantic side with that attitude."_

" _Of course I will. I would measure beacon not by how well I can do in it but rather how irritating it is."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

So I got rid of my virgin problem. Vera agreed to act as my lab assistant and the summer has progressed mostly smoothly. I learned a lot about aura and affinities and even a bit about mana but nothing beyond the immense enhancement of semblances. About three quarters of the tribe has someone they take the treatment with. It caused some strife among the current couples since they didn't have compatible affinities but people worked it out eventually.

For most people they couldn't have a fire affinity and just get a water affinity super soon. You had to have in-between elements to bridge the gap. You would need to go to heat then steam than finally water. I'm exempt from this rule since I'm a wizard though.

Affinities also couldn't grow too fast. More than two cups a day of the stuff between two people of vaguely equivalent affinities let them stabilize enough to go about their business and have another cup about six or seven hours later. With me and Vera it was different in that my affinities and aura were both far larger than hers. I could also have as many cups a day as I like. I blame it on my grand soul. Sadly the effects became exponentially weaker as the affinities went past two hundred as a base.

Stronger doses worked better and bypassed this cap but Poledina's affinity compressor worked based on my space affinity. I had all of my parallels meditating on it at all hours of the day now but it always was a slow to increase affinity. I got to seven hundred fifty two and it increased all of my affinities in parallel with it, leading to impressive improvement.

Sadly all my other advances were minor in comparison to my breakthrough with affinities and semblances. For those who didn't know their semblances the quickly discovered them. Increased affinities seemed to help with the activation of semblances. It made me a little pissed that my affinities were so high but I hadn't found my semblance.

Then it hit me.

" _-Similarly to how the FATE system runs off of the fate affinity you naturally had before it was repurposed before your rebirth."_

I couldn't activate my semblance because the primary component of it was missing… activating my semblance was impossible unless I gained a fate affinity.

But the message from Angel, who was probably Althea, warned me to not use higher affinities. But then again I apparently had a fate affinity that was made into the system somehow so it's probably okay, right? I mean, Weiss has a dimension affinity that seems pretty high up on the list of things to never use so it's likely perfectly fine albeit rather useless… unless I decide to become a dimensional traveller but I like remnant a lot so I think I'll stay here, although dimensional travelling sounds like an excellent plan for summer travels. I'll consider getting the affinity.

If I took a sample of Weiss' aura I could get the affinity easily. Just absorb and assimilate her aura like I did with the mimic. With unity and consumption it gets easier and easier to do that. However, it's a shortcut that seems too good to be true. Abusing the assimilation likely has side-effects I'd rather not know about.

I don't know about the fate affinity really. I have no idea if getting a fate affinity is a good idea or not. Getting rejected by origin shook me. My own affinity nearly killed me. I made that thing from scratch and nearly died from it. Only because some gods had a use for it I was saved. Could fate be the same? What could I even do with a fate affinity? Bend around things that are supposed to happen? It sounds untrustworthy as far as affinities go. I prefer my power rather than a gamble like fate.

But is fate my power that was turned into the system? The name and crafting of my origin affinity into the ORIGIN engine, whatever that is, would indicate so.

Or maybe taking my fate affinity from me was a way to gain a warrior of power and bind him to fate and the gods rather than whatever fate I had before. It might explain reincarnation. My fate changed and so too did my body…

Or maybe I'm thinking about this too hard. The naming scheme seems pretty obvious actually.

Worrying over my own semblance, which was most likely broken, was a waste of time. I do, however, have a solution. I could replace the core fate affinity of my affinity with something else. I was able to do so with my storm affinity before. If I acquire an affinity of similar power I could assimilate it with my broken affinity… probably.

It was as good a plan as any assuming I'm correct, whic I probably am. It's a better theory than any other. Now which affinity to go after…

How about… an energy affinity? From motion, heat, and force… but I don't have a title to go with that. I recall the title made the augmentation and my secondary semblance possible.

Oh? Now that I consider it air and water were my natural starting affinities and merged together they might be more potent. Not to mention that electricity was at the top of the list of affinities. It was almost a fifth affinity but not quite there yet.

So that leaves light and space. What can I compound light into because all I could compound space into is time and I don't want to stumble onto a higher power.

Hey hold on a damned second… I had shadow third on the list past what affinities I didn't have, didn't I? And then I have void and so on…

Like the void of space? Emptiness? Or maybe the void as in termination. It might serve as a weak anti-origin then. I should look into that.

Then there's shadow and light. That can be nothing but good considering shadow is the absence of light. Opposites attract, right?

Do I have a fate affinity? Because I see a lot of magic in my future!

I've been hanging out with Yang too much.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Oh shit."_

" _Ozpin!"_

" _The language is certainly warranted, Glynda. My potential protege and problem student just acquired something he most certainly shouldn't have."_

" _A relic?"_

" _Not that serious. Only his own life is in danger-and it's gone. Strange. There's no trace of it any more… what could have taken that particular affinity away?"_

" _What?!"_

" _He acquired a truly dangerous affinity closely tied with creation. I wonder what drove him to acquire it? So few wizard's have survived what he just did. I don't believe him foolish enough to work towards an unknown result."_

" _He's fifteen Ozpin."_

" _Sixteen. I see your point, however. I don't believe checking on him would earn his gratitude, however."_

" _Nothing you do will earn that child's gratitude from what you've told me."_

" _He cannot be stubborn forever. I will show him I truly mean no harm. In fact, I know just the person to assist me in this."_

" _Who?"_

" _Mister Arc."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

 ***Ding!* Light and shadow affinities melded. Void affinity unlocked.**

"That's the opposite of what I wanted." I growled. A void. A place where nothing existed. An empty space. I'm sure I'll have a blast being the first wizard in space. I know light and darkness paired together make…

Hold on. Shadow is the absence of light. So when they combine naturally they would make… nothing. They cancelled out. I got a whole pile of nothing. Literally nothing. An affinity geared towards nothing.

"Mister Mavros is something the matter?" Miss… you know what I don't even remember this lady's name. More teachers after such a short Summer. Those months blitzed past really.

"I'm fine." I grumbled. "I just realized that I forgot to do some chores. Uncle Mystic's going to be annoyed." Miss something looked curiously at me for a moment longer before turning back to the board and droning onwards about… wait what class is this? Ah, politics. I forget about this class sometimes. It's okay but it's always so technical and the teacher always drones on about modern politics rather than general politics. I asked for some books she's recommend a while back and read all of them in a week. Now I just suffer through the class.

But that's all moot. I have more important things to do right now.

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Wizard; The Storm**

 **Level – 475**

 **HP – 16,456 (41.14/min)**

 **AP – 137,540 (6877/min)**

 **MP - 2,760,780 (138,039/min)**

 **STR - 247 (+555%)= 1,617.85**

 **VIT - 242 (+580%)= 1,645.6**

 **DEX - 299 (+585%)= 2,048.15**

 **INT - 534 (+450%)= 2,937**

 **WIS - 529 (+550%) = 3,438.5**

 **LUK - 153 (+0%)=**

 **POINTS - 1655**

 **Semblances -**

 **[Locked]**

 **Storm of souls - Emit your aura as a field and mimic the components of a storm. While this consumes no aura you my not partially use this semblance and its use takes away any possibility of barriers during its use. Intensity of storm and control over it depends on affinity for storm and is controllable.**

 **Affinities:**

 **Storm: 2654 (+800) (x64) (240%)= 530,534.4**

 **Space: 752 (+400) (x16) (140%)= 74,188.8**

 **Heat: 358 (+300) (x16) (140%)= 14,739.2**

 **Ice: 346 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4995.2**

 **Consumption: 314 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4636.8**

 **Motion: 288 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4345.6**

 **Light: 274 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4188.8**

 **Unity: 268 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4121.6**

 **Purity: 239 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 3796.8**

 **Life: 232 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 3718.4**

 **Metal: 157 (x8) (140%)= 1758.4**

 **Nature: 134 (+23) (x8)(140%)= 1758.4**

 **Fire: 134 (x8) (140%)= 1500.8**

 **Shadow: 51 (x8) (140%)= 571.2**

 **Void: 1 (x8) (140%)= 11.2**

Now I feel better. Purity was still too low for my taste but I don't really need it to deal with grimm, most grimm being too weak to even bother with, but I still needed it up into my top three to deal with Salem or corrupted humans. I don't want to be caught with my pants down.

Seriously what can I use void for? Teleporting? Already done easily. Especially since I was grinding my space affinity with my purity affinity. Maybe eliminating things? That sounds like the most likely solution. Like a vacuum of space. I'll try infusing the affinity to some things and work it out.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _And then we found out… it wasn't a sloth! It was a koala!"_

" _How terrible!"_

" _Please don't encourage her."_

" _Be quiet betrayer! We went all the way down into those awesome islands and we didn't see a single sloth! You promised!"_

" _You want more pancakes."_

" _You really have to ask?"_

" _I made her breakfast every morning for a month."_

" _But don't you do that anyways?"_

" _Hey P is right…"_

" _You had to bring it up."_

" _I'm sorry!"_

" _It's fine."_

" _I've been tricked! Manipulated! Connived against! Betrayed by my own Rennie-bear!"_

" _How many pancakes?"_

" _A lifetime supply!"_

" _Actually I have a better option."_

" _You don't-"_

" _I brought it up. Besides, I'll never manage to get rid of the white sap I h-"_

" _WHITE SAP?!"_

" _Nora please be a little more-"_

" _WHERE IS IT?!"_

" _In the wagon!"_

" _AHAHAHAHA! SYRUP OF THE FINEST QUALITY FOR THE QUEEN OF THE ROADS! COME SERVANT! PANCAKES OF THE DIVINE AWAIT!"_

" _Where did you get the sap?"_

" _Oh Abyss sent some. He called us at the right time and we talked a little. He pointed us towards a post office and we stopped by to get a package. He thought I might be able to use it well. I have a jar of red sap too but it's too sweet for me."_

" _Thankfully Nora prefers white sap. She gets hyper on red sap. She's always calmer after eating it strangely."_

" _I know. Everyone feels calm and happy after eating it. Nobody really knows what makes it work so well but it works more potently on people with unlocked auras. I've heard some theories that it's infused with aura somehow but the company doesn't say and Abyss just said that it wasn't aura and that it was harmless. It is quite delicious though."_

" _Very much so. I would use a dash of it in my herbal mixes but it's far too expensive."_

" _You can have a jar for your veggie smoothies if you like. I have five and no idea what to do with it."_

" _Lets not let Nora eat it all. I believe there are better uses than eating it all in one sitting."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The void was weird… and extremely terrifying.

The metal ingot in front of me was nothing. It was empty. A shell. Nothing but empty atoms devoid of purpose and identity.

To mage sight it was invisible. To my mana sense it was invisible. To every magical sense in my body the object wasn't there. Yet I looked with my eyes and saw what seemed to be a perfectly normal ingot of metal. A copper/aluminum alloy specifically.

I tentatively poked the ingot. It was normal metal. I scowled and focused on my void affinity, minute as it may be. Suddenly the ingot seemed to light up. Void affinity was sparsely infused in the ingot. I could faintly see the metal affinity the ingot SHOULD have try to appear again. Just being an ingot naturally made the ingot collect affinity for metal. Well, and the slew of other trace affinities that made the ingot what it was. It would have the ingot affinity, the copper affinity, the aluminium affinity, and so on. Instead it's like it doesn't exist except for it's little physical shell.

With a grim pit in my stomach I collected void affinity, not an easy task with how tiny my affinity for it was. I spread out the affinity in the air in front of me and shuddered at the sensory input.

The affinities in the air disappeared. Mana fled from the unnatural absence of anything, leaving a barren spot of air in front of me that could only be sensed through my connection to void.

So to summarize, void was the anti-magic. It consumed affinities, repelled mana - and maybe consumed it if it came into conflict with it - and made a hole in my senses.

This was frightening for more than one reason. For one thing, affinities were something like a cosmic identity. They made an object what it is to my understanding. Everything had an affinity. Sure void was technically an affinity but it felt thin. Normal affinities were like fire or wind. Things you could touch. Feel. See. Perceive. Space could be felt and walked through. Time could be perceived. Even origin was a concept you could wrap your head around. Void wasn't something. It was the idea of the lack of it.

Weird…

The only thing I could see to not be affected by the void was matter. In that sense that void was purely a magical void, which made some sense considering it was immaterial. But I haven't added mana yet…

Tentatively I pushed my mana towards the collection of void in my control. I was shocked when it actually resisted. My own mana, my own soul, was actively fighting against me.

That's… I should probably stop. Probably.

I stripped the mana I was controlling of aura. I want to keep my soul out of this. The mana seemed to fight even more strongly against me without my aura. With a more pure concentration of mana rather than my mixture of mana and aura the resistance increased. So aura was perfectly capable of going near void with less if any resistance. Mana was the one fighting me.

I forced my mana to go towards the void and felt it buck against me just like the opposite end of a magnet going towards another. Void, rather than fight against me, seemed slightly attracted to the mana I was funneling towards it.

I watched closely as the mana came barely touching the void. Sparks seemed to fly between the void and the mana. Fascinating. I gave the mana the final push towards the conglomeration of void.

In under a twentieth of a second the void imploded with the mana in a chain reaction where mana coursed through the void affinity. Ambient affinity from all over surged towards the center in that time. Mana fled the scene at greatly increased speeds. That twentieth of a second was enough time for everything to jerk towards the void for just a moment. Sans mana at least.

I blinked at the new appearance of the lab. It was barren. Affinity was gone from near everywhere. Not completely, I mean, but the Room was certainly less filled with ambient affinity than before.

So that's how you make a magical black hole.

Having anti-magic will be immensely useful. If I can learn to control it… i could clear out the thick ambient affinity at the magical hotspots and emergency teleport out. Ozpin would be at a disadvantage. Grimm would fall before the void like cardboard to fire. I'll run some tests to see if purity is better than void at anti-magic but it certainly seems to be a suitable replacement in theory.

I suppose I just found myself a side-project. I'll stick to the animagus thing first. How the hell does Raven turn into a raven anyways? It's clearly using nature affinity…

I felt a little shiver in the back of my mind at the room as it so slowly turned to a more natural state. It took four hours before the marks left by such a brief time of the void returned to normal and that was with only about twenty affinity.

How long would it take before a larger black hole's area of effect returned to normal? Hmm…

This needs more testing. It's nice to stretch my inner scientist, though I'll bet people would scream at my lack of scientific method. Well it works for me. Trial and error works fine so far.


	39. Chapter 39

**AN: This chapter is early because I felt like being nice. I also have a** **VERY IMPORTANT DECISION ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS CHAPTER** **. Please read it.**

 **Big strides in plot this chapter. Cinder's plans begin and the changes accumulated slowly throughout the story begin to take precedence. There will be another interlude chapter soon. Chapter 41 specifically.**

 **I want to round out the characters besides the ones revolving around Abyss into people with depth. Sure Jaune and Pyrrha and everyone have some depth to them but they've changed. I want to show that. They aren't the people that we saw in those first few episodes of volume one. Hell, not even just them. Beacon itself has warped from what it was. Abyss' impact on the world hasn't been small.**

 **Thank you all for the kind reviews of the last chapter. I'm usually happy with one but we got four! (Well five but one guy left two short ones) Thank you all for that.**

 **Finally, a little of what's happened here might seem a little sudden. It's the biggest display of that speeding up that I've put here as we blast through signal. I'm sorry for that. Just know that I'm aware of how sudden it seems to people.**

[||||= **LEVEL 39** = ||||]

"Lack of response from the subject." I noted.

"I'm not your subject." Raven muttered back.

"Subject is being rebellious." I snarked.

"Doctor, I recommend immediate treatment via blunt force trauma." Vera giggled off to the side. She was training her semblance's new power at the moment. It had changed from controlling sunlight to controlling sunlight and fire at the same time. Basically, light that's on fire, which was a bit strange but not the weirdest semblance ever.

I could mimic her semblance with light and fire affinities combined but hers was always better. It was her semblance so that made sense. She was hardwired to perform better than me with light and fire. Her increased affinities only enhanced her semblance.

"Do I have patient's rights?" Raven asked dryly. In response I sent a hard jolt of mana at the knot of foreign mana laced subtly in her aura. She immediately disappeared in a puff of feathers, having been forcefully transformed.

"Birds don't have rights." I said with a stoic look. She cawed irritably and transformed back into a person.

"You really don't feel anything when I do that?" I asked, a frown on my face.

"I feel the transformation a little harsher than normal. Nothing else." She shook her head.

"Odd. How about… this?" I sent a light spark of mana into the knot, practically a love-tap compared to the jolt earlier. Feathers sprung up all over Raven's body, sprouting from her skin. She looked with a frown at them. They fell from her skin easily. By her uncomfortable shifting I knew there were feathers stuck between her clothes and her skin, rubbing the tickly things over her. I scoured over her with my aura and burned the feathers to ashes and less with highly controlled infusions of heat.

"I do feel that. It's rather painful actually." She seemed more fascinated by the partial transformation that annoyed by the pain.

"You can't normally do partial transformations?"

"No. It's like a switch in my head. On or off."

"I think I have all the facts but let's go over it all one more time." I reached my hand out and my clipboard was in my hands. It wasn't magic. Just Vera. She was really a great assistant. I think the fact that she was a magic researcher now was also part of her enthusiasm towards her job.

"Ozpin's ritual was you going up to a shady room. Ozpin took a live raven, put his hand on it and did something to it with his aura, and then touched a cat with the same hand. His aura fizzed again and the cat switched between a raven and a cat a few more times. He monologued a bit about joining his council of goodness and you lied for the power. He pulled something from his cat and pressed his hand against you. According to you, it felt like he slid something into your aura. Something foreign. It fit after a few minutes, seeming more at-home but nonetheless foreign. That foreign feeling is what lets you transform into a bird. You, and I quote, "push into the foreign feeling", and you're suddenly a bird. That's it?"

Raven nodded. I closed my eyes for a moment, letting my mind run through everything one more time.

"You didn't have to learn to fly or anything? Did it come naturally? And you have aura as a bird too but it's weaker both for sensing and shields?"

"Yes to all of that." Raven's eyes narrowed at me. "How did you know?"

"I know what it is that transforms you." I said finally. Raven looked to me with interest. Vera had the recorder ready for my final hypothesis and a pen ready to make notes. She already knew I wanted a little pamphlet for the bandits so they could get the animal transformation upgrade.

I didn't have a huge use for the transformation but I couldn't turn into an animal. No matter what I tried before I couldn't just change forms. That was what got me interested in Ozpin's bit of wizardry in the first place.

"The 'knot' in your soul is a prison for the raven's soul." I started. "When you focus on the raven's soul your soul turns inside out, pushing the raven's soul to a sort of bubble over your soul, letting you use the lesser soul as camouflage. Your two souls are linked so you can control the raven almost effortlessly although you may have some urges as a raven might. This is also why you have consciousness. You're not using a raven's brain. You're using your soul to puppet the raven's soul."

"Then why does she transform?" Vera asked.

"The knot isn't just a prison for the raven's soul." I paused a moment for dramatic effect. "It also houses the raven's affinities, which are linked to Raven's body."

A moment of silence passed. "So Raven puppets the raven form and soul through her soul." Vera said slowly. "But just having the raven's affinities in her soul would just lead her to absorb them like you've done a few times, right?"

"The raven affinities switch out with her human body's affinities, letting them essentially switch places. The bodies and their mass are transformed to their base affinities and stored in the knot and switch out whenever you turn your soul to go inside out again."

"How does the body get turned into an affinity and back again?" Raven asked.

"A basic enchantment called 'disassemble'. It's a component of the knot. It'll take some testing but I'm certain I have the mechanism used for the transformation down." I glanced at the clipboard, which was full of my scribbles to sort my thoughts, and then to Vera.

"You got all of that?" She nodded. "Good. Made a sketch of the process and mechanisms of the transformation and the knot. Distribute it amongst the clan. Tell them I'll likely have it ready soon. I just need to run some more tests to make sure it's completely safe." Vera nodded, a small gleam in her eyes. She turned to the table but paused.

"Can you have more than one 'knot' in your soul and have multiple forms?" It wasn't like Vera to often ask questions like this. Something's up.

"Probably. I don't know if it's safe though. I'll test for a maximum limit. I can probably hold a soul together with the mana stitches Poledina used and let the soul grow over the wound, sealing the knot. But you would also need to be able to sense mana to distinguish the forms individually. Most people could only have one. I suppose I could store other knots and creatures to transform into in containers but I don't think it's really worth it. Better to just have one."

"Yeah… can I become a cat?" Vera glanced to me as she revealed her real question.

"Fine."

"I'm rather tired of being a raven myself." Raven mused. "It's worn out it's novelty, though flying is nice. Maybe a wolf?"

"I'll need to test if long term exposure to a knot means it binds to your soul." I said with a flat look to Raven, who looked lost in thought. "And I get first dibs." I felt a small smile come on at the thought of turning into a jaguar. Hey, don't look at me. I'm living up my faunus heritage! A big, deadly, stealthy cat… mmm. That'll be nice.

I might be able to do grimm transformations with some research. It'll probably take a corruption affinity though… ugh. I don't like that affinity. I might have to get it again soon.

"I wonder what Ruby would want to be?" Raven asked idly.

Oh, that'll be fun for her. "I'm betting on a canine of some sort. She always did want a puppy. I nearly got her one last year. Come to think of it… I'm going to get a camera when we break the news to her. I'm going to get testing.

[|||| == ||||]

" _EEEEEEEEEE! OHMYGOSH! Uh… oh so you're not… Auntie! There's a… a cat on my bed."_

" _Ruby what are you - Abyss get off of there. Nobody wants to deal with your shedding."_

 _*rrrrrrrr*_

" _Shut it furball."_

" _How did Abyss become a panther?"_

" _He pieced together how to change forms from the ritual Ozpin used on me so long ago. This is his way of showing off."_

" _I was demonstrating for Ruby. I felt it was more effective than just telling her, which is rather underwhelming."_

" _And leave your fur everywhere as a result."_

" _Can I be an animal too?!"_

" _I'm going to be giving you the runic matrix too. You're old enough for it now. We'll be working on training the two new powers of yours over winter break next week. Pick out which animal you want to be and put it on your christmas list. Raven and I will track down a good specimen and do the ritual around christmas. I'm doing the same thing for the subI class around then."_

" _I want to be a cardinal!"_

" _A cardinal? Well flying is quite pleasant."_

" _I just lost a bet. I thought you would want to be a puppy or a fox."_

" _Why would I want to be a dog? I get to fly as a cardinal. Puppies and stuff have soft fur and are adorable but I wouldn't want to be one."_

" _Fine. Raven and I will track down a cardinal in peak condition. Shouldn't be hard."_

" _What did your class pick for their animals?"_

" _Cesium chose a tiger. Kerrigan chose a falcon. Ocean chose a spider. One of the really big ones that eats birds and doesn't spin webs I mean. Bella chose a snake but she has a friend that sells extremely exotic and dangerous creatures and things. She's ordering a black mamba or something."_

" _One of the dangerous venomous ones from anima?"_

" _Yeah. I don't mind snakes but I'm not exactly thrilled that Ocean can turn into a giant spider now. She's terrifyingly stealthy now. On par with Bella. Probably better with her spider transformation. She just lacks experience and combat technique. Cesium could probably take over the criminal underworld from Roman right now. I'm proud of them."_

" _Your pet projects have come far. They'll make fine minions."_

" _I prefer to think of them as captains serving under my lieutenants."_

[|||| == ||||]

I picked up the call with a feeling of irritation. What could Roman possibly have that's so important that he'd call my emergency line (Which was just my normal scroll) in the middle of a somewhat late dinner?

"Problem?" Raven asked with focused eyes, all traces of relaxation gone from her entirely. Ruby eyed us both with interest.

"Most likely. Follow me. Put on your armor in case of trouble." Raven nodded and walked to her room with a quicker step than usual. She could have her armor on in under a minute. I walked to my own room, where my DEX helped my put on my outfit just as quickly.

"Roman," I said in Mystic's voice. "What's the emergency?"

"You have a visitor." He said calmly, though from my experience with him I noticed a strain in his voice.

"She'll be there in under a minute." Just then I heard Raven's door opening several doors away and her heels quietly hitting the floor with each step. "More like now actually." I hung up and finished pulling over my combat suit, an illusion of Mystic seamlessly going over me, indistinguishable from a real person.

"Emergency," I said swiftly. "No portal. Pretend that you're making the decisions for now unless I show myself, in which case make clear your position. I don't want her making the connection to nature's bounty if possible but this situation might be too delicate to allow anything less than a personal touch. Make sure your mana hiding rune is activated."

"Understood." Raven acknowledged. Her rune was already on but there was no reason to not emphasize that hiding her mana was important right now.

"Here." I put a hand out and she touched it. Without a sound she disappeared, appearing at my marker a building over from Roman's HQ, where he was if a meeting was taking place.

Cinder certainly wouldn't wait too long.

I disappeared from the room to the same marker I teleported Raven to quickly under invisibility. Everything was suppressed from mana to aura and so on.

Mage sight showed Cinder clearly. She looked as she did in the flashbacks of RWBY. She had her hair cut short over a dress hanging by twin straps around her neck. Most noticeable to me were the two swords at her waist and what appeared to be a foldable bow hidden at her waist. A ring that gleamed of magic in the familiar mark of spatially attuned mana lay on her finger. It seemed one-use and was most likely for a marked teleport.

Raven was at the door to Roman's office, Mercury blocking the way. Mercury had an unfamiliar scar over his left cheek. A knife wound. Curious. Likely the butterfly effect taking place. Emerald seemed unchanged and stood behind Cinder on her right looking every bit the loyal subordinate. Neo was no different with Roman, though she was sitting down and almost seeming relaxed.

Without paying Mercury any mind Raven strolled through the door. He didn't stop her but smirked at her as he stepped aside and waved at the door welcomingly. It looked irritating.

I blinked silently into the corner of Roman's office, making absolutely sure that I wouldn't be detected by carefully handling my mana. Cinder didn't seem to notice me. I doubt she did. I worked hard to be stealthy.

 **Cinder Fall**

 **Title: Queen's finest; Maiden aspirant**

 **Level – 299**

 **HP – 11,040**

 **AP – 14,600**

 **MP - Locked**

 **STR - 214 (+500%)=**

 **VIT - 164 (+500%)=**

 **DEX - 353 (+500%)=**

 **INT - 331 (+0%)= 331**

 **WIS - 365 (+0%)= 365**

 **LUK - 88 (+0%)= 88**

 **Semblance: Shatter - Create and manipulate glass constructs ranging from weaponry to statues.**

 **Affinities: Locked**

 **Perks:**

 **Favor of the queen - The queen of grimm, Salem, has grown attached to you. You have devoted yourself to her and been granted a unique boon as well as other effects. You are damaged by purity affinity. Some grimm will obey you and none will attack you. All entities with a natural born purity affinity will be able to sense your alignment and will be naturally hostile in nature to you.**

 **Boon: Grimm aspect: Inside your left hand dwells a grimm parasite capable of sapping aura, mana, affinities, and special powers from foes to whom the parasite attaches. Given time this boon may be expressed more powerfully as it develops. Additionally, this trait causes Grimm to instinctively avoid prioritizing you as a target as you are recognized partially as kin.**

 **Bio: [Blocked]**

A grimace met her status screen. She was nearly as powerful as Raven besides her lack of magical ability. She was strong as all hell. I have no doubt that she was drilled from dawn to dusk every day on combat and conditioning. I recall she knows how to use dust extremely well in the show too. So skilled, deadly, and well conditioned. She's born and bred to be the strongest of Salem's side and she certainly reaches the high standards Salem no doubt established.

"And you are?" A trimmed eyebrow of Cinder's raised at Raven's appearance and mask. A glimmer of what might be recognition showed in her eyes. Perhaps Salem already knows about Raven being the spring maiden. I doubt it. I hadn't changed much up to the point of the spring maiden being killed.

"I am Roman's superior," Raven said simply. A tilt of her mask showed her attention turning to Roman. "Why did you let her in?"

"She knocked out security." He explained. A flash of mage sight showed that Cinder and her team had indeed knocked out every gangster in the headquarters.

"I see." Raven's attention turned to Cinder and she let a hand rest on her sword. Cinder didn't look phased. "Explain why I shouldn't gut you and hang your corpse in the streets for disrupting my operations."

"Because, miss Branwen," Cinder said in the same elegant voice. She simultaneously confirmed that she had been educated on possible enemies she might face. "My plans will benefit you and your… clan greatly. In more ways than a profitable venture."

"Explain." Raven's hand didn't leave her sword.

"It is to my awareness that Ozpin and his group have troublesome feelings towards you. If he were to be removed it would benefit us both greatly and will certainly allow you multiple opportunities. You wouldn't even have to do much to benefit."

Raven stayed silent for a moment, seemingly contemplating the offer. "What would I need to assist you with? My time and resources are valuable."

"Only the use of your underling for less than a year." A glance at Roman elicited a scowl from him. "That and some small reign in your city. I assure you I will leave it mainly undamaged." Lies. She'll jump ship before Raven can properly punish her for the fall I believe. And the maiden's power would certainly offer an advantage against Raven, a supposedly normal huntress albeit one of immense skill.

"So you barge into my underling's compound," Roman didn't give any signs of offense from Raven calling him her underling, "Use my emergency number of all things in the middle of a rather delicate piece of business," Raven's sword inched out a little. Just enough to gleam menacingly. Cinder merely glanced at it.

"And you expect that I will simply offer you my city to your hands on your words of what, opportunity? Don't make me laugh."

"Of course my words are cheap. That's why I offer you something a little more… substantial." Two of Cinder's fingers slipped into a concealed pocket and reached out to hand Raven an envelope.

"My employer has offered you thirty million lien-" Roman coughed off to the side at the lien just being given to Raven "-a contact with Adam Taurus, acting lieutenant of the Vale branch of the white fang, the use of my comrades Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai, and several other contacts I believe you may well enjoy.

"I can assure you that all expenses will be paid for by my employer for my time in this city. Is there something else you require for me to prove my honesty?"

Raven was silent for a moment. I was the same. Thirty million lien was quite a sizable amount of money and the contacts she was offering, even if only Adam Taurus, were alluring to any crime syndicate.

Not to mention the others. The all-expenses-paid operations for the year was also extremely appealing. She wouldn't impact the annual profit of the city-wide gang at all. It was all profit for us.

That all said profit was utterly useless to me.

Nature's bounty brought in about eighty to one hundred twenty million lien a year from all its sales. The SDC brought in around four to six point five hundred million a year but they were remnant's biggest company so they somewhat dwarf us.

Nature's bounty isn't really in business for the profit, however, leaning more towards political power and improving remnant for the better.

Even so, I have half a billion stored away from all my time doing nothing with the money. So profit is worthless to me. I have all the money I'd ever need.

The contacts are slightly more appealing. Adam and I already know each other and have each other's numbers so that doesn't matter. The other contacts might be slightly more interesting but not quite worthwhile to me.

I'd prefer the one contact that Cinder can give me that matters. Of course it's risky but I hope that I can prove my general trustworthiness with some talking down and assurances. Maybe prove I can kill her if I care to. Yes. that will help. Cinder respects strength. I'll show I have that and that I'm no friend of Ozpin's. I'm not eager to piss off Salem.

Come to think of it I should be powerful enough to enter the game between Ozpin and Salem, assert myself as a power. Not to Ozpin I mean. But I could stand against Salem and make clear my unfriendly nature towards Ozpin. I don't see any huge downsides to that…

But there are no real benefits to it either. I suppose meeting with Salem could be beneficial but then again do I really want to deal with her early? Probably not. Having Raven deal with Cinder is fine though.

"I will consider your deal." Raven said finally. Cinder didn't look surprised or irritated at all. She expected this.

"On a separate matter, I would quite like to purchase any information you have on the Mavros family." Raven didn't appear to react behind her mask, though her body language changed slightly. Oh no. I know that posture. That's her defensive posture.

"Why?" Raven's voice held some aggressiveness to it. Cinder seemingly sensed the change like I did. Roman certainly did. He pressed backwards in his chair slightly and he looked nervously between the super-powered and very violent women.

"They are of interest to me." She said simply. I could tell that she was watching Raven closely for her reactions.

"You will have to find your information elsewhere. We do not deal with that family." Cinder seemingly sensed information. Reading closely makes it sound as though the clan or the gang dealt with the Mavros family in the past.

"Certainly you must know something of interest." Cinder pressed. "The family is very important to me and my employers. We have plenty to offer in exchange."

Saying you have plenty to offer in a business meeting was like putting chum in the water. Even so Raven was clearly having none of it.

"This meeting is over. Contact Roman in a week for my answer." Cinder paused at that.

"Very well then." Rather suddenly the meeting came to a complete end. Cinder briskly walked out, a natural grace in her steps and a seductive sway to her waist. Blake could do the same but not quite as well.

"Mystic." Raven said. I put down a portal to the apartment and she stepped in without hesitation. I walked in right after and closed the portal.

Immediately Raven turned around.

"Who does she work for?"

"Salem." I said with as little hesitation as she'd had. "She's her second in command of a sort. The closest thing she has to one anyways. An irreplaceable member of her operations."

"Shit." Raven cursed. "You have a plan?"

I didn't try to stop the frown on my face from showing. I was worried. I had a few different plans but only a few held appeal and several had murder deeply involved in them.

"Perhaps the best plan is to follow Amber, the fall maiden, and wait until Cinder kills her, which she most certainly is. I'll step in and help to assure my bad intentions towards Ozpin while avoiding his wrath."

"A good plan." Raven nods. She remembered her mask and took it off in a practiced movement. "How do you know Amber will be attacked?"

"Wizard things." I said blandly, which was just me saying to not ask.

"Fine." An eye roll followed her easy acceptance of my half-hearted excuse. "Be careful with her. If she's as close to Salem as you say then we shouldn't kill her. Making an enemy of the queen of Grimm would be… rather unwise of us."

"Absolutely." I agree completely. Making an enemy of one of the two most powerful and famous beings on the continent is sort of a bad thing.

"Allying ourselves with either side seems out of the question." Raven muttered.

"Definitely. Salem and Ozpin are completely focused on each other and the relics. They're aggressors in a war against each other.

"We, on the other hand, are defensive. We don't quite want to fight but rather preserve what we have. Besides that the morality between our three sides is too different for a true stable alliance would be difficult if not impossible to accomplish.

"Maybe if Ozpin was desperate enough we could work something out. I doubt Salem would ever be open to anything similar to an equal alliance. She's rather controlling, as you might see in her subordinates."

"Yes, I believe she is quite like that." Raven looked down contemplatively, apparently mulling something over. "Rather than an alliance… What about a trade?" She glanced back into my eyes. "Salem is not somebody I would consider working under. Perhaps as an equal, though I highly doubt that you are her equal at the moment."

I couldn't really fault that. Salem was ancient and powerful with remnant's entire dominant species at her beck and call. I'm a teenaged wizard with loose morals and powerful magic.

"Salem, however, doubtlessly possesses powerful magics. Dark magics, even. Things Ozpin wouldn't dare give you. He fits the good wizard stereotype enough to assume that, though he likely knows magics some would consider forbidden in his old age. Magics he wouldn't share with you to preserve his power."

"You're saying we play both sides." I said in slight awe. I never considered that.

"Precisely," Raven smirked.

"Ozpin values you immensely. That value no doubt will be mirrored by Salem if not only due to his interest than your potential and power and not just in magic. You're smart enough to see the value in manipulation even if your methods are blunt and rather unrefined to the elegant games Salem and Ozpin play. You are valuable and more importantly, you are available to either side."

"Drive the two to grab my allegiance with gifts… like a kid with two divorced parents." Raven snickered at the analogy.

"There will be resistance obviously." Raven pointed out. "You will have to prove your value as a player in their games. Display yourself as a neutral to be swayed. A deciding vote between two conflicting parties. Do not show arrogance but rather an assurance to the other party's devastation should you join them. An offhand comment on your intention to gain mastery of the arcane and you will likely see yourself receiving a great many ancient tomes of magic."

"All I have to do to start this scheme is get in contact with Salem…" Another broad smirk crept onto my face. Old memories of Lionheart speaking with Salem entered my mind. What were they called? Seers? Perhaps there would be one in forever fall's darkest depths. Or I could just ask Cinder. "I believe I have an idea. I don't think I'll have to hide from Cinder at all."

[|||| == ||||]

" _Next year, Crimson…"_

" _Don't remind me."_

" _How were the last two?"_

" _Hellish. Glynda has a spine of steel and the patience of a stone. I saw everything from a student's perspective. It's so much worse as a teacher."_

" _It is, isn't it? Glynda is a fantastic secretary by the way. I barely need to lift a finger to manage beacon."_

" _How did she deal with… anything?! It's like all of them think with their genitals and the other half don't bother to think at all! I treasure the rare few that seem to have a brain. And why do we have co-ed dorms?! They always smell like sex too."_

" _The teams have to learn to get along somehow."_

" _Make-up sex isn't exactly the best way to work through problems."_

" _They're teenagers. They're prideful, gloomy, hormonal, emotional, and quite often they make bad decisions. That's why schools exist. To provide a safety net for those children to make mistakes."_

" _So many mistakes. I mean sure my team had a few… experiences. We were never this bad though."_

" _A team of four girls rarely has such problems to the extent that mixed gender teams have it. Anyways, how has your monitoring of Abyss gone?"_

" _I've had less time than normal to monitor him but he hasn't gone on any excursions. He goes to school, sleeps through half the classes, does the things he always does with his subterfuge group and goes home to do dust knows what. His teleportation is the most terrible counter for reconnaissance to ever exist."_

" _Aren't you thrilled that he's finally coming this year?"_

" _No. Not at all."_

" _I have an offer for him actually."_

" _Please no."_

" _He rejected my apprenticeship before but he has advanced startlingly quickly. He is quite capable as a wizard, though that he keeps his affinity increasing techniques active constantly is rather foolish. I suppose he doesn't consider that I or Salem might sense them. Nevertheless, he is competent and powerful. He might truly consider learning from me now. When Beacon begins I will give the offer for his free time."_

" _No means no. He's grown in power and shown independence. Not to mention political power. His 'white sap' was a stroke of genius. I've no idea where he got those magical plants and he rose as a company so quickly…"_

" _Making magical plants is rather easy so long as you have the required affinities. I have a few ideas as to how he managed to make the sap so powerful but whatever he did to make the affinity so concentrated was advanced even for me. That's part of why I want to bring him close once more. I'm losing track of him. Not just in loyalty, if there ever was any, but ability. I don't know quite what he is capable of. That needs to be rectified. I still doubt that he knows nothing about the murder of the winter maiden as well."_

" _I'm going to my home for the summer. Are you still planning on matching Jaune with Abyss?"_

" _Yes. They will complement each other well I believe. Mister Mavros is cunning in ways mister Arc is not but lacks the perspective Mister Arc has. There are other compliments as well. Mister Mavros is smart but doesn't listen to council freely, only trusting his family and closest friends. Mister Arc lacks the smarts mister Mavros has but will happily lend an ear to anyone. I could go on but suffice to say that they are quite opposites. I have high hopes."_

[|||| == ||||]

"This is not what I meant when I said I wanted information on the Mavros family." Cinder said neutrally.

"I felt that a primary source would be more useful to you." Raven said innocently. A malicious playfulness was behind her tone. She was enjoying this meeting immensely.

"Besides, I work for Abyss personally." Cinder didn't bat an eye at that.

"Is that why you dress like a whore? So you can sell yourself to a teenager?"

Raven's sword was naked in her hand. "Care to say that again?"

Cinder rolled her eyes. Bitch.

"Quit your catfighting." I spoke dismissively. Cinder's irritation and Raven's ire turned towards me. I immediately wanted to run away and hide but sadly that's not an option.

"Let's be blunt here. Raven works for me because I respect her and I'm powerful enough to compete with Ozpin and Salem." Cinder's expression tightened at hearing her mistress' name.

"I am here because after deciding that the criminal underworld might be marginally useful to me and my following conquest of it you've arrived with all sorts of fun little questions and requests."

Cinder's ring finger curled a little and I remembered her teleportation ring. A flex of void and the enchantment collapsed on itself. I don't really want her escaping before I make my intentions clear.

"Of course, it's rather obvious that this all revolves around harming Ozpin and acquiring the maiden's powers. I'd be entirely unsurprised if this was a sort of campaign towards acquiring a superiority over the other.

"I want in."

Cinder's eyes narrowed on me.

"Not to join Salem." I clarified. "But in case you haven't noticed I'm a wizard. I am not, however, Ozpin's apprentice to shuffle around this grand chessboard called remnant. I want what he won't give me. Power."

A glimmer of understanding showed in Cinder's eyes. I recalled that a desire for power was something she could relate to. I wasn't quite lying about my desire either. I just thought of power as a tool to be used rather than a goal to fulfill.

"Salem doubtlessly has darker magics. I want some. Supply me with them and I will help you. I suppose you want to kill Amber with that boon in your hand?"

Cinder scowled at how informed I was. Her hand with the parasite in it drifted a little closer to her body defensively.

"I'll help so long as you accept. Send one of your master's seers here in case she wants a negotiation of my bargain. Would I be correct in assuming there's one in forever fall's depths?"

"I will speak with her on this." Cinder said in a clipped tone. "We will consider your offer."

I shrugged. "You should consider it personally as well. I've made plenty of advancements in magic. Do you think you can just wave your hands and learn a maiden's magic? Spewing fire is so very crude a magic. Besides, I control Vale's underworld and influence the white fang. Do you think Taurus would prefer a lady who can cause a few sparks as an ally or the figurehead of the faunus?"

Cinder glared at me but she certainly saw my point. "Goodbye Mavros." I rolled my eyes.

"Sure. I took away the enchantment on your ring so do you want a portal to northern Vacuo? To my understanding it's quite a long walk to the continent."

I barely saw Cinder's teeth grit for a moment before she swallowed her emotions.

"I will be fine. Goodbye." Cinder turned and began walking away. Don't leave just yet now. I have one more thing to get on.

"I'd love to meet your sister Ember by the way."

Cinder's right hand touched her sword for a moment. I faintly heard a growl from her and smiled.

What a productive meeting.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Milady."_

" _Cinder… why are you contacting me so soon?"_

" _I have met Abyss Mavros."_

" _Explain."_

" _I approached Roman Torchwick as planned. His boss was revealed to be Raven Branwen. I scheduled a meeting after making my offer. She responded with hostility and vague warnings after making my request for information on the Mavros clear._

" _In the next meeting I was surprised with not just Raven Branwen but also Abyss Mavros. He revealed that he knows about me and my servitude to you and requested a meeting with you and a deal to me. He asked to meet with you also and mentioned the seer Grimm, theorizing that there was one in forever fall."_

" _Fascinating. Do you know how powerful he is?"_

" _No Milady."_

" _And this deal he proposed?"_

" _He offered two. He would assist us in our goals in exchange for knowledge of magic. He believes you possess knowledge of darker or more powerful magic Ozpin would not reveal to him._

" _His second offer was to me personally. What he desired from me was unclear though he hinted that it would be related to power. He offered to teach me magic as well as his assistance I dependant of my affiliation to you."_

" _How troublesome. Inform him that there will be a seer at the railroad tracks of forever fall. Let him find it's exact location himself if he claims to be so powerful."_

" _Yes, my queen."_

" _Anything else?"_

" _He deactivated the enchantment on my escape ring."_

" _Oh dear… that is troublesome. Knowledge of enchantments is not quite a common art and my enchantments are nothing if not masterful. I will send you a spare through your sister's shadows. Did he touch the ring?"_

" _No Milady. He simply said that it was deactivated. I did not see him even move near it, though I later tried the ring and found that he was not lying. When he could have gotten to the ring to disenchanted it is unknown to me."_

" _You've done well. Inform Mavros of the seer and accompany him to it. Observe his power to later report to me on it."_

" _Yes, Milady."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Oh no. A beowolf." I droned. The beowolf roared. I looked at it in mild annoyance. Cinder sighed in irritation behind me. I took at least some mild amusement with messing with her.

"Behold. I shall unleash my full power against this mighty beast of legend."

I flicked my wrist and just because I felt like it I discharged about a tenth of my mana against the beowolf with the storm affinity. The wind facet of it, some lightning specifically, was in there as well. In less than a second the entire area in a half-mile radius was nothing but wood chips.

Trees were thrown for miles away. The wind screamed as it tore them to bits. A stray ursa was caught in the carnage and thrown across the newly made clearing in under half a second. It died as it was brained by a rock that decided to fly.

Just for fun I threw in some ice into the mix. The sharp shards slammed into the already totalled devastation around me.

Cinder looked around jealousy at the destruction I caused. We were miles away from civilization. Nobody would notice what just happened and I'll grow some more trees in a moment.

"Must you really cause such destruction?" She griped.

"Fear not fair Mai-oh wait you're not a maiden." She growled at me for the little quip. I chuckled at my teasing. Yang has taught me well.

"Just bring us to the seer." She said impatiently.

"It's over there about a mile and a half away." I waved in the seer's general direction.

"Then why aren't we there?!" She demanded.

"I felt that you were a little stressed," I said innocently. "Nature walks are good for the soul."

Cinder scowled and I kept a saint-like smile on my face.

"Is it because I called Raven a whore?" Cinder looked up as if looking for some sort of divine answer.

"No, I just felt that breaking your facade of control was amusing." For the first two hours of our nature walk I had led Cinder around annoying her because it was fun. She hadn't reacted much but around half an hour ago she began to break. Now she's responding to my jabs in equal measure.

Or at least showing her true feelings a little bit. We might become friends at this rate.

Cinder muttered some curses towards me and I opened up a portal with a roll of my eyes.

"Is that…" Cinder trailed off as she stared through the portal directly at the seer Grimm.

"I never told you I know space magic did I?" I walked through while Cinder glared at me as though I should spontaneously combust. If she became a maiden I might actually have caught on fire but as it is Raven's glares are more impressive.

"So how does the seer work?" I asked. Observe showed that it had an enchantment on it to show a light-based illusion on its gelatinous body of the other person as well as imitate their voice through a rather complex air based enchantment.

I would have just used mind magic personally. It's nefarious. Maybe this one is a special seer that doesn't twist your mind. I wouldn't use one that exposes me to mind magic anyways.

The mana used for the enchantment to work was, fascinatingly enough, a pocket space bound by a runic matrix that spreads through the enchantments on the seers. It was like the runic matrix was a radio tower and the seers portable radios. Fascinating.

"Salem." Cinder said slowly, making sure to enunciate the pronunciation of her name. A faint hum emanated from the seer for a few seconds before a face appeared.

Salem didn't exactly look pretty but I wouldn't call her ugly. Her veins did stand out on her otherwise pale face, channeling some sort of black substance throughout her body.

Far more captivating were her eyes. A glowing crimson hue like blood and often seen on the grimm. They were different on her though. Hers had an intelligence.

Oftentimes eyes say something about a person. Summer's were soft. Even in combat they seemed almost kind. Ravens were piercing. They always seemed to be stabbing into you. Ruby's were innocent, making you feel as though you were being seen in the best light. I've been told that mine were like mosaics that drew in the eye and had you look away for fear of being trapped.

Salem's eyes were different. I wouldn't call her eyes a crimson red or a bloody red. Her eyes were a _vicious_ red. Her eyes didn't pierce into you or dissect you. They mauled you, clawed you, and brutalized you as they tore you apart and looked at the pieces of you.

I didn't really like her eyes.

"Abyss Mavros." Salem's voice was elegant. "A pleasure to meet you."

"I've waited a long time before meeting you. It is a pleasure indeed." It really wasn't a pleasure. I wonder if there's some sort of natural revulsion to Salem?

"You want power." She said simply. It wasn't quite a question.

"I want to learn more of magic." I corrected. "Power is useful and certainly my greatest tool. My goal, however, isn't in power but understanding magic through learning it's forms. I want to learn."

"Hm." Salem seemed to consider my goal. "Once long ago there were many like you. They called themselves the sages. You appear quite like them."

I frowned at the information. I guess I could look for these sages or something. What she's told me isn't really useful though.

"Cinder." Salem looked away from me. "How powerful is he?"

"Very." Cinder said. Even in front of her mistress there was a hint of jealousy in her voice. "He decimates the forest and grows it back seemingly at will and teleports over miles easily and without a doubt. Something tells me he isn't using his full power."

"Truly?" Salem looked at me curiously. "What affinities do you possess, Mavros?"

"I recall that the mages of old used to exchange affinities in greeting." I said a little flatly. "I will tell you mine if you tell me yours."

Salem laughed at me like I had made a joke. Cinder glanced at Salem warily.

"How amusing! I suppose Ozpin told you this?" A wry smile touched on Salem's mouth. Something in her eyes told me she was humoring me.

"Yes."

"That ritual is done between a master and an aspiring apprentice. It was a way to gauge the apprentice's worth as a student and mage as well as the power of the master and what the master may teach a student with their corresponding affinities. It was also done in high-class social gatherings to show off but I doubt that that was Ozpin's intention."

I pressed my lips together. Either one of them could be lying but Salem's version has more evidence to back it. It also made sense that Ozpin would want to know my worth. Whatever. I learned more from our meeting than him. His information is outdated.

"I would guess he wanted to take you as an apprentice?" Salem's smirk grew a little more.

"He offered secrets of the arcane and power beyond what I could achieve on my own. I declined. Even back then I knew there was no such thing as a free meal."

"True. He would have tried to twist your mind to make you one of his group." Salem took a brief moment to collect herself and pushed away her amusement. "I believe I can fulfill your request. Though I must ask…

"Why not join me?"

I stared at her for a moment. "Do you want a list of reasons?" Salem didn't answer but continued to look at me in amusement. I sighed.

"Most of my reasons would add to a simple 'I don't trust you' so I'll refrain from listing the many reasons why I don't." Cinder and Salem, unsurprisingly, seemed unperturbed by my lack of trust. It was expected really.

"Firstly is that besides that I don't trust you to not take advantage of my family. Holding them hostage would not be stupid and I can't defend my sisters very well when I'm busy. Vale is the safest place for them.

"Secondly is that our goals may align on the subject of crippling Ozpin's forces but where you may desire the death of him and all his allies I have a select few that I would greatly prefer alive. Pyrrha Nikos, for example, is a friend of mine that will doubtlessly be dragged into your and Ozpin's war due to her power and affiliation with me.

"Thirdly is the difference in power. You are far more powerful than me and more experienced easily. I know that you use fear and intimidation to control others often. Your power and willingness to use it makes you dangerous to me even if we were to be allies. I have no doubts that you would try to control me at least slightly.

"Finally, would I be correct in that you intend to have Cinder collect multiple maidenhoods?"

Salem's amused smirk slipped from her face in an instant. "Well aren't you well informed." Her voice was cold. "For your information… Yes. Cinder is to acquire multiple maidenhoods. Her power would prove useful."

"Then you would end up killing my sister." I said blandly. Salem's eyes narrowed.

"Your sister is a maiden?" Her voice was nearly a growl. Cinder was looking at me intensely from the side.

"Yes," I said simply. "And I will not have her killed. Perhaps her maidenhood can be transferred without death but this is where our goals divide most. Family is of the ultimate value to me and you would have my family killed for your ends."

"Dianthus." Cinder whispered.

"Yes," I confirmed.

"You killed a maiden?" Salem's eyes were almost burning me with how intensely she was focusing on me.

"I crippled that annoying spring maiden with Summer before we killed Ashaya Fall." Cinder's breath caught and she let loose a shuddering breath. Salem didn't appear to care. "But no I was not responsible at all for Dianthus' death."

"…" Salem looked closely at me, seemingly in thought. However, she wasn't quite aggressive. More imposing, as though she finally recognized me as a potential threat. A player in her game rather than a surprising pawn. "What a complicated situation we are in, Mavros." She was quiet for a moment longer.

"Do you have any ill intent towards my group?" Salem asked simply.

"If you were to directly attack Vale itself I would defend it and cease any and all contact with you. The city is mine. Kill Ozpin, kill the fall and summer maiden, grab for the relics, and I won't bat an eye. I don't care about those games of yours and Ozpin's though I'm not so naive to ignore that I'm a powerful person that neither you or the old man will ignore to my peace. My desires, I think, are rather simple. Family, magic, and peace. I enjoy my life and I want no change in it. That is why I prepare. So I might keep my family and friends while I strive towards magic."

"So you desire your family's safety." Salem said. A hint of something was in her voice. I couldn't place it.

"That is all. Knowledge can be gained on my own. It is more rewarding that way, even." Salem was silent.

"I used to have a family once." She started. I blinked once and then again. Did I hear that right? Maybe Othos and Althea she means?

"Children. Four of them." Or not Othos and Althea.

"I had a kingdom, a husband, and all I could truly desire. The world was at peace under my rule. Faunus and humans were equal. The streets were paved with gold and I was revered as a goddess and my husband a god. I had gone through strife. The world had gone through a cataclysm partially of my making. So I took responsibility and fixed it with my beloved."

I and Cinder were silent. Salem seemed almost lost in memory.

"Then I lost everything. I dreamed too large for my husband. Of a world independant of the gods where everyone could perform magic. Where the world was whole and united under us, two immortal rulers of humanity. I spread war, yes, but to unite the world. Growth requires pains. My husband disagreed with my warring, my vision of a brighter future in exchange for a darker present. So he betrayed me. He took my children and tried to leave. I met him under the escape. Our children died under the blinding roar of mana and affinities clashing. Everything fell apart. Everything was lost. He destroyed far better than he claims I ever could."

I heard some sort of rumble as Salem's face darkened in anger. Her expression tightened. Then she glanced at me and Cinder. In a blink Salem seemed to remember we were having a conversation.

Not a word was said for a moment. Then Salem sighed. She waved her hand in front of the seer grimm and I reeled back.

I felt the sheer power of Salem. It was incalculable. Immense. Her mana dwarfed mine. It probably dwarfed Ozpin's. I felt a sleek array of powers arrayed inside it as well. Darkness, light, fire, water, lightning, mountains, storms, and corruption. Not the vicious and malevolent corruption of the grimm but a tamed corruption. It didn't show the slightest hostility to me. Somehow Salem's affinity for corruption was so great that it eagerly served her as my storm affinity does me.

"Take that as my invitation. I will show you more that he ever will. I don't desire the destruction of your loved ones and there are other ways to proceed with my plans than the death of your loved ones. Cinder will achieve other ways to power. Assist her if you wish. Do not hinder me or my own and I will not kill yours unless they attack mine."

She looked into my eyes. Her eyes seemed much less vicious than before, as though she considered me to be less of a threat to her. "Trust begins mutually. Do not squander the trust I have given you freely."

The seer suddenly turned off, or the signals from Salem stopped. I was still reeling from the mana Salem had shown me. I was in the deep end and I think I was just given a hand to help me up. From Salem of all people. Wasn't she some sort of demon from ages past? Or was she something else… I have trouble doubting her reminisce of a family, if she could have ever had such a thing.

I have a lot of questions and I don't think I have much time to answer any of them. Beacon starts at the end of the summer. Hell, signal graduation is in about seven days. Seniors always graduate about a month and a half earlier than everybody else since they don't need to take combat finals or educational finals. There's a sort of field trip with a professional huntsman that takes place after graduation every senior year but it's basically a party in the woods with grimm killing pit matches and stuff.

Being antisocial most of the time I won't be going.

"You killed my mother." Cinder said calmly. I had forgotten she was there honestly. "When my mother was killed my sister didn't shed a tear. I didn't either. Salem has been my mother more than she ever was." I frowned at that. I knew Ashaya was a pretty terrible mother but Cinder didn't seem exactly angry about my killing her.

"Ashaya died killing Summer Rose, Ozpin's right hand, a silver-eyed warrior. Even with my help Summer had to endure a deathblow to kill Ashaya.

"Your mother landed a crippling blow in her death. Qrow Branwen fell into drink and Summer's family fell into pieces, her daughters divided between me and her father.

"If you wanted some sort of closure you have it now. Ashaya died doing all she cared about. Serving Salem… do you want to avenge her?"

"Not particularly." Even with what I knew about Cinder's personality and Ashaya the ease with which Cinder threw aside her mother's death was discomforting.

"My mother birthed me and Ember to serve Salem. We were never more than an offering and another burden to bear to her. She made it quite clear how little she loved anyone but my mistress. I don't like that you killed her but I can't say I have any strong feelings over it. I do, however, appreciate the closure."

I had a dark look on my face after Cinder was done speaking. What a terribly broken childhood Cinder had… it's even worse than my own.

"Goodbye Cinder. I'll give Raven the order to work with you."

Cinder was quiet as I teleported away.

It was only as I sat down that I realized that I left Cinder stranded in the wilderness. I just pulled a Pyrrha again didn't I? Ah, whoops.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Useless."_

 _*Thwack*_

" _No not straight vertically. Diagonally. Cover your body. You aren't using a katana."_

 _*Thwack*_

" _Cover your openings. You're slacking."_

 _*Thwack*_

" _No. The dagger is used for parrying and attacking. Not for distracting your opponent. Keep it level to their eyes. The dagger is thin. The eyes lose track of it easily. Show them the edge and move it quickly and the enemy will lose sight of it."_

 _*chink*_

 _*Crack*_

" _Better."_

 _*thwack*_

" _Not good enough. Train harder Ember. As you are now you aren't good enough. At least keep up with your sister."_

" _O… okay."_

 _*sniffle*_

" _Don't cry. It's only purpose is to appear innocent when tricking others. It also works for persuasion and garnering pity. As it is now it is useless and serves only to prolong this session and waste my time further than you are already wasting it by not learning as you should. Again."_

 _*Thwack*_

[|||| == ||||]

"Abyss Mavros." An array of clapping rang out. It was louder than before. I, in my huntsman gear, as is traditional, stepped onto the podium. The principal shook my hand but I saw the glare in his eyes. He hated me.

Well, he was the one blackmailing the two cafeteria ladies into sleeping with him. Not my fault he couldn't properly cheat on his wife and cover it up. I was just using the opportunity for my own benefit.

"Congratulations, young man." The man said formally. "Great things lie ahead of you." I rolled my eyes just to piss the man off. He tried to clench my hand and hurt me so I responded in kind. The drop-out huntsman turned principal winded and withdrew his handshake. I walked past him as he moved onto the next student to graduate.

Next in the line was Qrow. He clapped me on the shoulder and passed me a flask with a ribbon on it. "Congrats, kid." he said with a small grin. "But I won. Three hundred six to two hundred thirty-four." I scoffed and tucked the flask in a pocket.

"And in the past year it's been fifty seven to my one hundred twenty."

Qrow snorted. "Yeah sure. Go kick ass. And stop being so distrusting of Ozzy. He means well." I shrugged a little and moved on.

I passed through about five teachers, all of whom I had blackmailed, coerced, or otherwise used foul play against in order mostly just to not put in any effort. I actually respected a few, who took my efforts gracefully and in two cases even cleaned themselves up a bit. They still hated my guts but whatever.

Then I came to Mister Jam, the sciences teacher, a man built like a string bean wearing wire-rim glasses. He had tears in his eyes as I got to him. "You were the best student I ever had." He said with a sniff right after.

What can I say? I like science. I didn't even blackmail the guy. I mean sure I didn't learn all that much in his class but I sure educated the rest of signal on science.

Next was… Oh, I like this one. Miss Kramps, who was as gnarled, old, and irritating as her name might suggest, glared venomously at me as I ignored her hand, not even bothering to shake it. Screw math. Sure it's technically easy for me to do with my INT stat but dear dust I can't stand the subject.

Miss Kramps grabbed my shoulder before I walked off and leaned close to my ear. "You're a horrible student. That you passed is practically a black mark against this institution." She hissed. "Rely on your little sister for all your math problems in the future you horrid child." I almost laughed at that.

I'm not even mad. I'll definitely rely on Ruby for the complex math stuff. Or just hand the job to my mostly unfeeling parallels to do.

I passed a few more teachers I had known. Then I was at Bella. She looked at me with lazy and amused eyes.

"As if you're getting rid of me." She rolled her eyes at the thought that we weren't going to see each other again. The idea is pretty ludicrous. Bella's sticking around. We met in a short hug and I passed on but not before she got in one more word.

"I need to meet with the group after this. It's important." I have a short nod and she turned to the next student.

Things went smoothly for the most part.

Then I looked right into the face of Taiyang. He glanced away from my eyes and held out his hand. My smile dropped greatly. As a friend or just a person I disliked Tai. When he was with Summer he was better but he lacked the anger Yang had or the pure heart Ruby does. He might have been different before.

He's still a good teacher though.

I grudgingly shook his hand and made sure to imply at least a smidge of respect in it. He didn't say anything and I passed onwards.

The line quickly ended with the last few teachers and I walked backstage, where students talked. Cesium, who's name was actually Jamie Cesium Mirrow, was right after me. I always forget that's his name. I always think of him as Cesium. Everyone calls him Cesium in fact.

Glancing around I saw a few faces that I barely remembered. Aero Overton. He was the guy who wimped out on the confidentiality of subI.

Janice Beige. She had been with him and slipped out with him after he opted out of subI.

That smithing girl cesium knew. Melody something. She and Cesium dated for a little while in our third year.

There were others who I had heard of or otherwise knew somehow, most of them second-hand introductions when someone brought them up or the gossip somehow reached my ears.

I passed over the people a few times, letting myself drown in the memories. Kerrigan showed up first, standing silently beside me.

Ocean was invisible as a giant spider under the table with the punch just next to us. She's been absolute nightmare fuel ever since I gave her the ability to do that.

She got fed up with her parents one day and terrorized them for a night, cutting the electricity, calling in a favor of hers to make me rune the windows and exits with a solid barrier, and then scaring them senseless for a night.

Cesium was the last to join us. Being the socialite he is he said his goodbyes before meeting the group.

He exchanged contact information, made some promises, and enjoyed some sort of social scheme he set up to embarrass some enemies of his.

Well, as close a thing to enemies as he had. With his refined talents and my influence just in case he didn't have many people to compete with for most popular or anything.

He was the golden boy of signal now, being in the top ten fighters of signal, the 'most handsome' (he used makeup) boy in the school, and a charismatic bastard. I'm glad to be his friend.

Blake was with Bella talking right now. She always was off doing her own thing in this class. A part of the group but not the whole. She was a friend to us all but not the friend for life that the rest of us had.

On the other hand, she had the closest relationship to Bella out of all of us. I had known her longer, sure, but I hadn't been her apprentice for three years.

It was for this reason that I'll let Blake enjoy herself with Bella before I bring them both to have our own party.

"Let's see the subI room one last time." I said solemnly. I opened a portal that ocean scurried into and we followed after. Nobody noticed us leave, or at least nobody mentioned it.

I looked over the room, which was eerily silent. Very faintly I could hear the partying going on across the campus. All the chairs were stacked quietly in the corner, the lights turned off to a dark gloom, and Bella's desk mostly cleared out.

She had mentioned that she was packing up all her stuff as a sort of spring cleaning. She said she might even quit with my suspicion of the Ozpin/Salem war starting again next year and the lack of real talent in the younger students.

She only has two students among the freshmen. It's disappointing, frankly.

With a flex of magic the lights came on. Four chairs were set up and I brought out a table from my soul space. A parallel stole some of the spiked punch and a snack bowl from the party room and set them out on the table with some other snacks I had. Chips, gummies, and the like.

Without pause everyone sat down. I sighed as I sat down. It was sinking in that this would be the last time I would be in this room as a student. Technically I'm not even a student right now. I've graduated. It just hasn't really… hit.

A moment of silence passes. We all faintly heard the ticking of the cheap school clock on the wall. It wasn't uncomfortable but more somber. I was technically the leader of the group. It would be up to me to lead the conversation. The hierarchy among us was clear and we were all patient.

"I remember my first day here." I started fondly. "It was quite boring. Maths, English, and so on. All very basic and as disappointing as I expected." A little amusement hit everyone for a moment. "Do you all remember those other two that opted out?"

"Aero and… wait there was a second person?" Cesium's eyebrows scrunched up a little as he tried to remember the other person.

"Jennifer Beige." I recalled. "As boring and bland as grass."

"I know her." Ocean said as quietly as always. "She's quiet… and a bitch." Cesium grunted an agreement and sipped his punch.

"Aero is… okay." Kerrigan said thoughtfully. "He's a bit of a coward. He's one of the ones who surrenders a spar he knows he can't win. Nevertheless, he tries to help where he can. He's the sort of person to stack the chairs after everyone is gone but wouldn't make a sacrifice to help a friend."

"Ah." I hummed. "After my first subI class, putting your papers in your pockets-"

"You cheated and used magic?" Cesium looked at me with a scandalized expression. I sent him an amused expression.

"Of course I did. I sucked at pickpocketing before. I hadn't picked a single pocket in my life before this class."

"Cheater." Cesium sighed and sipped the punch again.

"Huntsman studies, throughout all two years I took it, was a complete waste of time." I hadn't learned a single useful thing in that class. Well, other than the huntsman ranks but those are somewhat arbitrary outside of a wartime scenario. "Then came combat class. Qrow kicked my balls."

Laughter broke out. "I forgot about that!" Cesium laughed.

"Pointed dress shoes!" Kerrigan guffawed. "I heard some people snickering and calling him twinkle toes! Oh, that day was a good start to the year."

"Didn't he kiss you by accident once?" Ocean wondered.

"No that was another guy. Maple Tines." I remember he tripped at exactly the wrong time. Qrow semblance was fun for everyone not involved. It led to plenty of embarrassing stories.

"What's going on with the island?" Cesium asked. "Are we still using it for anything?"

"If the need arises yes but I think I'd prefer that it's used by future generations."

"Future generations?" Kerrigan scoffed. "I don't even have a girlfriend. How would I ever get a wife?"

"That's a mystery I will never parse out." I said mysteriously.

"You never got a girlfriend because you were antisocial." Cesium pointed towards me accusingly. He then pointed towards Kerrigan. "You scared off the few girls that showed interest in you and ignored the one that actually persisted."

"I did?" Kerrigan looked puzzled.

"He did?" I was similarly stumped by what Kerrigan means.

"Dust help you." Ocean sighed and probably labeled it as a guy thing. To be fair it probably is that.

"For the love of - Yang Xiao-Long!" Cesium exclaimed.

"Oh we're just friends," Kerrigan said dismissively. "We've been that way for almost three years now."

Ocean put her head into her hands and Cesium took a long drink from his cup, emptying it. I realized that we would run out of punch at this rate and assigned a parallel to tend to the table. The cups refilled quickly.

"Just… Aren't you supposed to be… ugh." Cesium seemed to give up Kerrigan. I'm pretty sure Yang is just friends with Kerrigan. Actually he might be one of her only good friends. The others I know of are more like party friends. The ones you occasionally have a social event with rather than one you can trust.

"She hasn't dated anyone in the past six months because she's been trying to get your attention." Ocean said sullenly.

I frowned. "That's true. Yang has been on a suspiciously dry spell for a few months now. It's more like five months but the point stands. She complained about the guy she liked not asking her to the prom too."

Kerrigan zoned out for a moment. We all gave him a moment before his eyes refocused. He seemed somewhat dazed.

"Oh." He said simply. "If you'll excuse me I have to go fix my blindness."

"You like her?" Cesium asked.

"I think Yang is a close friend and someone I'm always happy to be around." Kerrigan explained. "That is enough to start."

"Here." I opened a portal for Kerrigan right by Yang. "For you."

Kerrigan gave me a nod and pocketed some snacks before stepping through the portal, nearly bumping into Yang as he exited.

"I hope he does well." Cesium said fondly. "I actually tried my hand with Yang, you know."

"Oh?" I already knew Yang had never dated or even kissed Cesium so I wasn't really worried.

"She punched me in the nose and called me a socialite." He grinned, like the memory of being called a socialite was a good one. "I lost my temper a little and called her looser than pocket change."

I nearly snorted my punch and set it down. "That definitely worked well for you didn't it?"

"I got the snot beaten out of me. I had a black eye and a slight concussion. I never really talked about it since, while Yang is pretty loose, I acted like a brat because she rejected me a bit harshly. Besides, she respects physical strength more than mental or social strength. I'm definitely not the first guy to jump into a fight so I doubt we would have worked out much."

"Probably not." I agreed.

Another moment of silence passed. I flashed through mage sight to look for Kerrigan and felt a slight blush come on.

"What?" Ocean asked, confused at my sudden blush.

"I used mage sight to find Kerrigan. I also found Yang. They haven't gone and… well had sex, but they're certainly at second base. This summer is certainly going to be an active one for Kerrigan. Yang is a bit high maintenance."

"Good for them." Cesium seemed pleased. "Kerrigan's always been a little bit of a loner but he has the most patience I've ever seen. The Granite family has some stake in nightclubs too. I'm sure Yang will appreciate that."

Cesium began to grin a little. "Now we just need to find you a girlfriend."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Wait, I never mentioned Vera?"

Cesium looked a little confused. "Your assistant? Well yeah. Don't tell me you're dating her."

"No we aren't dating. We just have a sort of arrangement. We needed a partner for those affinity smoothies. What did you think I just didn't get the mate effect?"

"The one that means your aura acts as a personal aphrodisiac?"

"That's the one." I confirmed. "We enjoy the sex and the boost in her power is nice. Vera isn't much of a fighter but in raw power she has one of the strongest semblances in existence."

Cesium thought for a moment. "Those affinity smoothies were actually awesome for my relationship with my girlfriend." He muttered. "I can see why you two have that relationship."

I nodded my agreement. It was mutually beneficial. I disliked being a virgin and Vera liked the sex and power rush. We evened out.

"Bella wanted to talk to everyone by the way." Ocean said. "Something important."

"She told me that too." I focused on Bella's location and found her still with Blake. Kerrigan was also done with Yang, a smile on his and my sister's faces.

I opened up a portal and he said a quick goodbye to Yang and a promise to meet at a date somewhere before they split up. I would probably end up giving Yang and Kerrigan an airship ride to a restaurant.

I think I'll just arrange a date for them on my own actually. It'd be a little kindness. It's not like I have anything better to do either.

Blake snuck through the portal with Bella, a small smile on her face. Kerrigan sat down again and drew up a seat for Blake. Bella moved to the side of the table.

"It's good that we're all here." Bella smiled at us. "It's been a weird four years, huh? Magic, turning into animals, and pretty much ruling the school. Mainly Abyss instantly K.O.-ing whoever tries to challenge him at all but also Cesium slowly playing the social games to the top."

Bella glanced at Ocean and Kerrigan. "Well you two haven't changed much." Then her eyes narrowed. "Kerrigan, is that lipstick?" Kerrigan blanched and touched Yang's faint gold lipstick around his face and a little on his neck.

Bella gasped dramatically. "Finally! You and Xiao-Long got together! Way to wait until the last minute, Kerrigan. Nevermind only Ocean didn't change much."

"I like spiders a lot more than I did before." Ocean offered. We all collectively shivered.

"Ah, right." Bella shook off the terror of giant invisible spiders with the habit of stalking people and continued.

"Anyways, we've all changed a lot. Even I have. So I want to say that you guys are the best class I've ever had. That's why I want to come clean."

Bella made direct eye contact with me. "Abyss, congratulations for holding the spymaster spot for four years straight. That said, it's time you know the truth."

"There is no spymaster position. I made up the position in the spot because I felt like it. Cesium always knew because he talked to the other subI classes."

I was silent for a moment. "... Huh?"

I wasn't quite mad. More confused.

"Uh, sure. That's fine." I mean technically the position did exist. I still had all the authority a real spymaster might have and generally filled out the role.

So whatever. I don't really care.

"Huh, that went over more smoothly than I thought it would." Bella mused. "Oh but I have kept another secret for about three months now. I'm being replaced next year."

"What?!"

"Why?"

"You've done well though."

"Oh."

Blake was silent. She had probably just gone through this with Bella.

"Well actually I'm pseudo-retiring." Bella amended. "I can't take care of a kid and do this job at the same time. Well, I could but I don't want to. So I'm quitting based on maternity."

A general silence went through the room.

"So you're pregnant. Congratulations." Kerrigan nodded a little as if this was all perfectly expected.

"Qrow and I have been engaged for about three months now. He probably would have proposed sooner but he's always out on missions nowadays. It makes us go a little slower than normal with our relationship."

"Oh." I said, feeling uncomfortable after being caught so off-guard. "So… well alright then. Ah, good for you. When's the wedding?"

"In September." Bella smiled. "You're all invited, of course, but now seemed like a good time to tell you all." A less happy expression came onto Bella's face.

"This also means I'm going to be… well not joining Ozpin but I'm going to be with his 'side'. I'm sorry."

I was silent. "That's alright." I nodded. "But I have been keeping some things from you as well. It's fine that you've joined Ozpin since it doesn't really matter anymore."

"Huh?" Everyone looked at me with varying degrees of confusion. Blake was still quiet. We had told her of the supernatural and proven it but it didn't change her much. Equality was her goal and magic existing didn't change that at all.

"A week and a few days ago I met with a woman named Cinder Fall." Bella's face darkened at the last name. So she remembered Ashaya Fall.

"Cinder offered quite a lot to gain the assistance of Roman's empire and information on me and my family. Money and contacts mostly. I remembered her name from a long time ago. When I and my best friend Summer killed a woman named Ashaya Fall in a race for a maiden."

The looks from around the table were focused and grave. This wasn't the happy and reminiscent party I had hoped it would be.

"Of course I looked into it. She worked for Salem."

"Shit." Bella cursed. I ignored her.

"Perhaps unwisely I approached her on it and, deciding it was better to confront Salem on my own terms, arranged something if a meeting with her."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard you do." Bella said darkly.

"Not a face to face meeting, obviously. She has a type of Grimm that can communicate long distances easily and to a small extent channel mana since they have an enchantment woven into them.

"I won't go into what she told me about. I learned a fair bit about Salem and Ozpin from what she told me and the facts that conflicted. The end result, however, was that we worked out something of a nonaggression pact and she offered me an apprenticeship."

"You clearly didn't tell her about when you rejected Ozpin's apprenticeship." Cesium muttered.

"I accepted."

"No." Bella said instantly, her face darker than I'd ever seen it. "No you just… Abyss she's a monster. She controls the grimm."

"And she has emotions and feelings and goals just like anyone else." I said calmly. "Don't misunderstand me, we aren't friends. We aren't going to be exchanging secrets or plotting the end times."

"Abyss I'm not sure about this." Cesium said with a frown.

"I agree." Kerrigan concurred. "Killing is one thing. Crime is another. Direct association with the grimm is a different subject altogether."

"The point of our pact is to not associate at all." I then reconsidered that. "At least with Vale and it's citizens. I suppose I will have associated with her personally. I don't expect anyone else to. Just understand that speaking to the queen of Grimm doesn't mean I agree with her on her methods or that we have a companionship."

A moment of silence passed. Not everyone was convinced, though Cesium seemed to understand. He talked with Roman. That didn't mean he liked him. I sighed and continued on.

"For this summer I'll be with her learning magic. Cesium I'm assigning you to monitor Roman. He's working with Cinder while making sure she doesn't harm Vale. You'll be watching him to make sure nothing of a malicious magical nature happens and helping to pick up the slack on Roman's duties as Mahogany and leader of Vale's underworld.

"Kerrigan I don't have any critically important task for you. I would prefer most that you be the backup. If Cesium somehow fails something be there to clean up after him. Make sure Bella doesn't get killed over some misunderstanding joining Ozpin. I'm sorry about not having anything too important for you to do."

"It's fine." Kerrigan nodded. "You are sure you will be safe with Salem?"

"Of course not." I rolled my eyes for good measure. "But I don't trust Ozpin. I don't really trust Salem either but I trust her to not kill me without good reason. She's fair in a way. She isn't some murdering beast. She isn't a grimm, though she's far from human. Now is there anything else that needs to be addressed?"

"Actually yes," Blake said. We all looked to her. "With everyone going on with their summer plans I figure I might as well tell mine."

"Aren't you going to menagerie to report in again?" I asked curiously.

"Only for a month." She explained. "I'm coming back to get in some final training with Bella. Then I'm going to beacon. Sienna's planned that for a while. She wants me to be like Abyss. A symbol of faunus pride. So… I'll see you all at the wedding?" She looked towards me specifically, being the only one off the grid for the summer.

"I'll get there." I nodded. Bella smiled a grimly at that.

"You better."

[|||| == ||||]

 **EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AN: Oh you're here? Well here's the thing. Since you've read the chapter you know Abyss is meeting with Salem. There's also a shortened version of all this down below. Now, the decision I'm trying to make is such:**

 **Should Abyss travel to another dimension (temporarily like a mini-arc)?**

 **It is a plausible method of training that makes sense. Abyss learns through experience and is quite self-sufficient not to mention powerful. What he lacks is experience and not the FATE system kind. More experience in the field and dangerous situations would greatly benefit him and his problem-solving skills.**

 **On the story dynamics of this Salem has the dimensional affinity, I can tell you now, the multiverse exists in my personal canon, and I have placed limits on it and so on. The multiverse is fleshed out. I have it covered and it will play a role in the story while I've worked hard to not ruin the story into some sort of story-hopping garbage. This is a RWBY story first and foremost. It's not a crossover to any significant proportions.**

 **I'm fairly confident I can pull it off writing-wise but I don't want to spend just one chapter on the little dimension hopping escapade. I'd greatly prefer it to be a mini-arc, like four or five chapters at most so I don't rush it. I'd make sure to upload quickly and I'm definitely adding a recap right before beacon starts so those people who are more conservative with their stories can skip it.**

 **The issue here is more stalling. I've written more than 200k words so far and still am not in beacon. This isn't quite a problem but more of something I frown upon.**

 **Here's the shortened version.**

 **Should Abyss travel dimensionally?**

 **Pros:**

 **-Some people like small crossover,**

 **-Abyss gets a chance to grow as a character personally**

 **-Some questions in the story will probably be answered earlier than otherwise since we get an early glimpse into the multiverse.**

 **-I won't have a set upload speed but rather I will upload the chapters as they are ready. This will hopefully compensate those who don't want this and can't wait for beacon.**

 **Cons:**

 **-Some people don't like small crossovers**

 **-Stalls for beacon**

 **-We don't see our current cast for a little while**

 **-Many fics have fallen to trying to crossover and failing horribly**

 **-A cliche of trashy fics to some degree**

 **Possible travel locations:**

 **1\. AU remnant**

 **2\. HP universe (Book 4)**

 **3\. Akame Ga Kill (fits in well with Abyss' character and I have some interesting ideas)**

 **4\. High school dxd (magic systems mesh rather well. Opponents scale well with Abyss' power. It's sort of a trashy H anime though)**

 **5\. Other suggestions if you have an idea**

 **Please comment or PM me if you want to input your suggestion. I'm basing this based on arguments and popular opinion. I'm not particularly leaning either way although options 1, 2, and 3 are the most appealing to me if I go through with it.**

 **Thank you for reading through all of this. I deeply appreciate it.**


	40. Chapter 40

**AN: FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T WANT TO READ THIS MINI-ARC THERE WILL BE A SUMMARY SEVERAL CHAPTERS FROM NOW OF WHAT IMPORTANT THINGS HAPPENED!**

 **I've looked at the comments and the results seemed overwhelmingly in favor of a little exploit into the multiverse. To the people who didn't want a brief crossover you have my apologies and I ask that you look to the message above. So we're doing it for a few chapters.**

 **I saw a lot of strong points for just about every option but also a lot of people advocating for a foray into the nasuverse. Fate/stay/night that is. I did think about that sort of a crossover for a moment but decided against it because I'm unfamiliar with the plot of any of the three franchises the series takes place in. Sorry about that. I only know the basics and don't feel like I could accurately portray the characters anyways.**

 **With that option sadly dismissed I had three left AU remnant, HP universe, and highschool DxD. HP universe was the first one out since the power scaling there was completely out of whack. I had some ideas but it would be a little boring and perhaps a bit cliche as well. The AU was curious and a distinct possibility that I almost went for but my gut said no and I trust my gut.**

 **That leaves us with one option. I've done this chapter and I've done most of 41 already and I think it's gone well. The dxd-verse has a lot of promise… except for the perversity but it's not hard to go past that. I never realized how well remnant and the dxd-verse mesh until I started planning it.**

 **Enjoy. Thank all of you who commented of Pm'd me. I read and considered every comment.**

[||||= **LEVEL 40** = ||||]

The tower of doom was surprisingly cozy. It was well lit, the furniture was well made and comfortable, and I was treated pretty well. Mostly out of fear for sure but I was treated well.

"Is the tea to your liking?" The well dressed man, Watts, asked politely. He wore a dark purple suit edging black with a dulled yellow undershirt and a pale yellow tie. It wasn't exactly what I expected him to wear but it fitted him well.

"It's good." I said easily. I didn't have anything to fear from the man. He was just a minion, albeit a well connected and smart one. He even suppressed his ego for me. "When is Salem going to be here, exactly?"

"Hehehehe." Tyrian, creepy bastard, chuckled a little madly. He squatted at the edge of a couch, fiddling with a knife. He wore a long leather coat dyed dark brown and black pants and not much else unless a belt and sandals counted. "You are an apostle of the goddess. You will wait until she is ready."

"I'm not an apostle." I said easily. Tyrian was unhinged but not completely unreasonable… I think. "I'm here to learn from her but I'm not worshipping her at all, though I know she is far stronger and probably wiser and smarter than most people."

"She is greater than mortals. Like us. She is greater than humanity." Tyrian explained.

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not mortal though. I'm technically immortal."

Watts stared at me curiously while Tyrian cackled. "How did you accomplish that, exactly?" A slight longing was in his voice that he couldn't hide.

"First I tied my mana and aura together within my soul." I said, referencing my magical soul. Watts deflated slightly but didn't seem to lose hope. "Then I blended them to a more cohesive form. Mana and aura are deeply entwined within me. I simply tied my consciousness and memories into my soul." that was as much as I understood the metamorphosis of magical soul to a higher soul anyways.

"Can you be killed?" Tyrian asked with an unnerving glint in his eyes.

"If my aura and mana are completely reduced and my body made inhabitable." I said calmly. Tyrian's knife twitched at the tip. The action seemed almost eager, like the knife was alive and searching for blood. Tyrian giggled lowly but said nothing.

My attention was drawn towards the door and I winced at the enormous body of mana and aura that walked through it. Salem.

All of the walls in the tower were capable of blocking senses somehow. Sounds couldn't be heard through it, aura couldn't be sensed through it, and in a short test of mine I found that not only could I not sense mana through them but they held an innate resistance to mana somehow.

This is why I felt my vision briefly darken as Salem walked in. My senses were utterly overwhelmed by her mana and aura, which she let show freely. As my vision cleared I looked at her.

She didn't look much different from before, having her intense and biting eyes and pale skin with her hair in a large bun. The raiment she wore seems darker in person though, and I felt mana and affinity woven into it somehow, though I didn't think that was possible unless you made clothes out of magical beast materials.

I refrained from observing her and instead stood. "It is nice to finally meet you in person. Is there a preferred way you would like to be called? Calling you Salem seems informal."

"I don't care if you are informal." She said, an elegant form to her words. She looked at me with a strange sort of curiosity in her eyes. "Now come. I won't delay your education." She swept out of the room with a sort of billowing to her robe. It almost shimmered as it moved, reminding me eerily of shiny scales despite being made of silk. The robe was unnatural, that much was obvious.

"It's been a pleasure talking, Watts." I said with a nod. He simply nodded back and Tyrian was looking at the door Salem walked out of with manic devotion in his eyes.

I slipped through the heavy door and followed after Salem. "What are your abilities?" Salem asked absently as we walked, though she more glided than walked.

"Ah, right, my mana is suppressed." I felt a little dim after forgetting that. I just kept it suppressed all the time now. I sent a pulse of mana to the part of my matrix hiding my mana and let the traces of mana flow out of me.

Salem slowed and looked at me. I almost thought I saw a little sign of being impressed in her eyes though I wasn't certain.

"Storm," She observed. "Then would be space and finally heat. After that, however, there is… hunger?" She looked at me curiously.

"In order of greatest to least I have storm, space, heat, ice-" Salem nodded. Ice had probably been hidden under heat, being a compound of it. "-consumption, motion, light, unity, purity, life, metal, nature, fire, and shadow."

Salem nodded at my list. Then she frowned and narrowed her eyes. "There is one more." Her voice was a little cold.

Even with her catching my attempt to hide void I still hesitated. A slight surge of anger in her aura did it for me. "Void." I muttered.

Salem's aura froze it's emotions and silence reigned for a moment. In a flash, however, it exploded with joy and amusement. It took me a moment to realize that Salem was openly laughing, though she smothered the brief happiness quickly and looked seriously at me.

"Void-" She almost fell into a round of chuckling but held herself back. A smile twitched at the edges of her mouth. "Void is the consumer. The destroyer of magic. With an affinity for void you have no need to fear other users of the void. I assume you discovered it's abilities already?"

I nodded seriously. "I consumes mana and aura."

"No." I blinked at Salem's rebuttal. "It does not consume. It destroys. Annihilates. It wipes energy from existence. You tested on a living creature?" I nodded. "Then you saw the effects of it."

"It destroyed the soul." I said. A brief haunting of a dead mouse crept into my mind. It had been so utterly empty. Had I not seen it alive just seconds before I wouldn't have thought it to have ever been alive.

"Yes." She confirmed. "Souls are sacred in a sense. Killing the body will let a soul dissipate and break down, feeding the mana of the world and fuelling the creation of life. Destruction of a soul is regarded as the worst punishment imaginable and an abominable act no mortal should commit. It is the desecration of a god's property of the highest order and those who even had a void affinity were put to death in my time if possible and methods to counter the void were researched."

Salem glanced at me, my face dark at the idea of destroying souls but also at her near admittance for having a counter against what might very well be one of my strongest elements from her description.

"That you have the void in your soul protects you from it. It is one of the greatest weapons at your disposal. It is the greatest defense against spells ever devised and a bane of mages and huntsmen alike. The only thing it cannot do is affect matter. A soul may be torn to pieces by it but a solid object is the one thing it cannot ever harm permanently, though it's affinity may be stripped from it temporarily. Do not reject the affinity. It's only evil is your use for it."

With that settled Salem began walking forwards again. "As void is your greatest weapon you will stimulate the affinity night and day. It is the one tool at your disposal capable of actually harming Ozpin or myself. Neither of us are capable of using void for reasons I will keep private. Your affinity for storm is reasonable and the strongest I have ever seen. Only archmages have affinities stronger than your dominant affinity. Space is an adequate secondary affinity to use and heat is rather versatile. With modern sciences I can see why you chose such an element. Heat was poorly understood when I was young and still developing new affinities. With that understanding gifted to you there are surely some interesting applications.

"Even with such an array void is still superior simply for it's power and the versatility with which you may use it. Where storm requires space and focus or heat requires creativity void requires only a moment of focus and a flex of it's power to disperse an energy such as aura from this world. With it you may pit your extremely large pool of mana against the far lesser reserves of those you might face as well.

"Without such energies your enemies may rely only on their bodies while you have both energies and your own body, which I see you have trained with. Bullets will be lethal as well since your enemies will have no aura to defend themselves. Even should all that still not convince you consider that void may be melded with your other affinities. A storm that rains the energies of void would be catastrophic for an army."

I nodded at her argument for void. I've been meditating on it with every one of my parallels but it was slow going. I had only gained about a hundred affinity for it in the past week while with an affinity for fire and giving it that time it might have grown seven hundred points or more. It was reminiscent of my space affinity in it's value and difficulty to raise. It didn't matter. I could be patient and develop the affinity for as long as needed.

If heat drops to my fourth greatest affinity it wouldn't be a great blow to me and void would be much more powerful. I still would have storm if I needed to be nonlethal anyways. Greater control over void from a greater affinity would allow me to be non lethal as well.

"With void at your disposal I have a far more effective training than personally tutoring you." I narrowed my eyes at this but said nothing.

"Here we are." Salem waved her hand and opened a circular room that looked almost like an amphitheatre. Tiered steps lined the sides of the room down to a pathway that led down to what looked like a ritual circle, though I had no idea it's usage since I never learned ritualism since I couldn't find anything on it.

Inside the circle was a large black snake. I narrowed my eyes at it when I felt an affinity inside it but I couldn't quite tell what it was. The ritual circle had a magical barrier around it, which might be what the circle was for, that disrupted my sensing inside it.

"Just to be clear I'm not allowing you to perform any rituals on me." I clarified, though if Salem wanted to I don't doubt that she could force me to do most anything.

"We aren't here for rituals." Salem said calmly. She walked over the circle and I watched her step up to the snake without fear. The snake immediately lunged at her with unnatural speed, fangs bared and it's affinity coursing through it. Salem stepped aside and swiped at it with her hand, grabbing it easily.

The snake hissed and curled around her hands, clearly intending to bite her. Salem just grabbed at it's mouth with two fingers, holding the snake by the gap between it's fangs, making it harmless.

"I first found this snake when it crossed dimensions to land in this world of all places. After containing it and studying it briefly I found that it had a massive affinity for void, chaos, and infinity. All quite rare affinities and very strong too." She glanced at me. "This snake's affinity for void is it's strongest and somewhat volatile. It is roughly five of six times stronger than yours."

I felt a little miffed that a snake had such an affinity for void. I just started cultivating the affinity. Give me some slack.

"With more studies I found that the snake is intended to be something of a boost to power. It's affinity to void and chaos make it uniquely suited to damage a soul and it's affiliated bodies. Given sufficient strength of soul a person might survive it but there are few in this world capable of eating this snake and surviving the experience to use such power." Salem glanced towards me.

"With your affinity to void you will be immune to this snake's negative effects. By eating it and absorbing it's void affinity you'll likely gain it's chaos and infinity affinities as they follow their dominant affinity. With your consumption affinity as well eating this snake will be far more beneficial for you as you won't be wasting as much power as most would."

"You want me to eat that snake." I said calmly.

Salem smiled. "It does nothing for me sitting in my tower. None of my subordinates are capable of using it to it's full potential. I have but one request in exchange for offering you this snake's power." Salem grabbed the snake's lower body and gently took it off her arm. The snake hissed angrily and squirmed a little but otherwise did nothing.

"You don't require power. You require tools and experience. As you are now you have the power to annihilate most huntsmen and maidens. They offer little challege for you. To grant you more experience you must be exposed to straining situations. As it happens this snake also offers the answer to this question."

"How, exactly?" I asked as I hid my nervousness.

"This snake is from an alternate dimension. You will trace it's energies to it's home dimension and experience all it has to offer there alone. After almost three months you will be drawn back to remnant by your dimensional anchor, though it is likely that you will be able to return to the dimension as you make it's universe a part of you, this snake being the metaphorical foot in the door. Absorbing mana from that universe, eating it's foods, and so on will certainly allow you to travel there when you acquire a dimensional affinity."

I thought of that for a moment. "Dimensional anchor?" Salem sighed.

"A dimensional anchor is a root in one dimension. While a being may travel to different dimensions they are always bound to one home dimension though they may leave it. Their presence is intrinsic to one dimension and one only. To somehow lose this anchor would leave you adrift to flow through different dimensions until death. Ozpin and I have spent so long in this dimension that we are sadly rooted here and unable to leave barring some sort of massive exposure to another dimension."

"I see." I nodded. That makes a little sense to me, though it seems like it's pretty esoteric. Salem walked out of the circle and I observed the snake.

 **Nameless**

 **Title: Shard of infinity**

 **Level – 48**

 **HP – 490**

 **AP – None**

 **MP - 400**

 **STR - 13**

 **VIT - 49**

 **DEX - 82**

 **INT - 10**

 **WIS - 38**

 **LUK - 48**

 **Semblance: None**

 **Affinities:**

 **Void: 10,698 (Innate)**

 **Chaos: 5,325 (Innate)**

 **Infinity: 194 (Innate)**

 **Perks: None**

 **Bio: Unknowing of it's purpose or any concepts of reality this snake was born of the runoff of divine power from a god/goddess of infinity during a clash with a god/goddess of dreams. Due to the god/goddess of infinity frequently making snakes and fitting them as boosts of power for her followers the shard of divinity took that form.**

 **This weak fragment of divinity drifted throughout the void between dimensions, where the clash took place, and landed in your dimension of remnant, where it was immediately imprisoned by the witch Salem out of curiosity and has resided in her care ever since.**

I raised my eyebrow at the snake's bio's description of Salem as a witch. I thought she was a demon. I suppose she is a woman who casts magic so witch does apply. It seems an odd choice of words though.

"Fine. I'll eat the snake." It didn't have any downsides anyways. I just didn't trust Salem to cast a spell on me. I'll keep my void affinity ready to counter and weaken or negate the spell just in case. Or I could try to use void to break the thick mana around Salem's castle and blink through the weakened mana though I've never tried that and would prefer to just not do it.

"Excellent." Salem seemed pleased. "To the kitchens then." Rather than walk to the kitchens Salem flexed her mana and a space affinity and created a portal. I can't blame her. I wouldn't want to carry a snake by the mouth for long either. I stepped through the portal after her and blinked at the sight.

What the hell?! It looks… well normal. Salem had already stabbed a nail through the snake's eye and killed it. I just saw her flick the blood off her nail distastefully.

"How do you cook a snake?" I wondered.

"With a lot of spices and something to numb your taste buds." Salem said. She handed me the dead snake and flicked her wrist towards the cupboards. Motion mana caused them all to open and she wasted no time flicking her wrist again to retrieve several spices and a plastic bottle of pills and place them on the counter.

Salem slid the plastic container of pills over to me and I looked at the label. Angiotensin. A quick observe at the pills inside showed that the little tablets, not pills, were to be dissolved on the tongue and it numbs taste. I sighed and put two in my mouth.

"I haven't cooked in several centuries." Salem said absently. "I can't recognize half of these anymore. Hm."

"I do." I said. My tongue felt weird. "I can do it." Salem stepped back and I glanced between the snake and the spices. It was probably best to eat the scales since they held affinity too.

Damnit. I know how to do this.

I sighed and got out a cutting board and laid the snake on it. Grabbing a cleaver I swiftly cut the snake into eight pieces and waved my hand at the cupboards. Butter flew down and I snatched up a butter knife and generously applied butter to the raw snake. I never thought I'd e preparing this. Maybe my level one hundred cooking skill will make it better? … No. No it won't.

I slathered salt on the buttered snake tail and some various spices that didn't conflict with the salt or butter. If I was really lucky this would taste like popcorn.

I held my nose and popped the snake into my mouth.

… Huh. This tastes horrible.

I nearly gagged on it but steeled myself and gulped the tail down. The butter made it easier. I still felt slightly sick as it landed in my stomach. Even so I felt it's affinities swirl inside me. I got my parallels to wrapping the snake in my aura and mana infused with consumption, making as much affinity become assimilated in me as I could.

I glared at the seven other snake bits. This was going to suck so badly.

Salem snickered from the sidelines. Bitch…

Suddenly I felt like an idiot. Why was I eating a snake like this?! I quickly slathered salt and butter onto the snake and set the bits on a plate on the floor.

A deep breath and a poke at the knot inside me felt my skin turn inside out almost. When I opened my eyes everything was much brighter and smells much more poignant.

The snake still smelled like snake though.

I growled and got to eating it. Luckily panthers were more suited for gobbling foods than humans and taste less of their food. Raw meat didn't taste great, after all, but animals still ate it because they had less sensitive taste.

"An interesting application of skinchanging." Salem observed. I growled as I got on my third snake bit. "You'll be departing in two hours so you can assimilate the snake's affinities properly. I'll lecture you on the subtleties of mana and affinity in the meantime. I trust you to honor the deal."

Salem walked off and I kept shoving buttered snake down my throat. Some days my life is so strange.

 ***Ding!* Chaos affinity acquired!**

 ***Ding!*Infinity affinity acquired!**

I felt my void affinity increase rapidly, already having almost doubled, and the two new affinities settled in with the others. Strange days these may be but dust damn if they're not beneficial.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Good kitty."_

" _Rrrrrrr…"_

" _Right I'll just… just back away."_

" _Rowlllllrrrrrr"_

" _Tyrian! Tyrain there's a cat in the tower!"_

" _What is it Wattsie-Oh a kitty! Come here kitty-kit-no don't run away! Aww."_

" _Thank you Tyrian."_

" _I really wanted to sacrifice the big cat to the goddess."_

" _I'm sure."_

[|||| == ||||]

 **Affinities:**

 **Storm: 2697 (+800) (x64) (240%)= 537,139.2**

 **Void: 1650 (140%) (x16)= 36,960**

 **Space: 752 (+400) (x16) (140%)= 25,804.8**

 **Chaos: 649 (140%) (x8)=7268.8**

 **Heat: 358 (+300) (x8) (140%)= 7369.6**

 **Ice: 346 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4995.2**

 **Consumption: 314 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4636.8**

 **Purity: 297 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4446.4**

 **Motion: 289 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4356.8**

 **Light: 271 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4155.2**

 **Unity: 268 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4121.6**

 **Life: 232 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 3718.4**

 **Metal: 157 (x8) (140%)= 1758.4**

 **Nature: 134 (+23) (x8)(140%)= 1758.4**

 **Fire: 139 (x8) (140%)= 1557.8**

 **Shadow: 95 (x8) (140%)= 1064**

 **Infinity: 12 (x8) (140%)= 134.4**

It's insane. That one snake managed to bring me from one hundred nineteen to over a thousand five hundred. For each of the snake's affinities I got about ten percent of it's affinities.

Even with consumption more than quadrupling the total gain by tearing into it's soul and funneling affinity to my own soul it was a pretty low number if you think about it since that snake had ten thousand affinity for void. I can see how that snake was made for bestowing power on people though. It was really, REALLY good at it.

The difference between us and our affinities, though, is that I can amplify my affinities. That snake couldn't. So while it had about ten thousand void affinity it couldn't really use I now have over thirty six thousand effective void affinity I can use. I don't really mind this but I can now actively feel my soul being a littlemore ominous than before. I have this odd dark feeling to my soul that wasn't there before. It was almost caustic, really.

I don't really mind it myself but it caused me to wonder… if I were to use soul hearth on somebody they would be touching my soul and the watered down version of the void distilled throughout my soul. That would be Bad with a capital B for them since my soul would be destroying theirs by interacting with it.

If I leaned on the silver eyes essence in my soul and amplified my purity affinity it would probably water down the void affinity enough to use soul hearth and keep my host alive but I would still have void in me. It would still be detrimental to my host.

If I had more void affinity I could probably control it enough to keep it away from another soul but as of right now I can't do much about it. That's fine for now but that I've lost that option of soul hearth and probably some other things was a little bad.

I didn't have any time to make sure I wasn't fretting over nothing though. Salem was turning my brain to goop. She knew so much more on the subtleties of mana and aura. When she learned that I didn't even know of a substance called aether she nearly threw a fit and so the three hour lecture began.

"It's because of this abundance of aether in the world that affinities function at all. As many affinities have primary, secondary, tertiary, and even quadranary functions the aether structures in the air become more complex to fit the differing affinities anfit the so-called esso-mosaic, which hopefully you remember is called the lunafractulis major and minor if the soul is human or faunus. Recall that the esso-mosaic is the aetherial structure which fits the soul and is continuously changed to fuel affinities and mana regeneration. The aether structures are also applied in the case of spells, though the general books simply refer to the structures as patterns this is highly untrue although aether is a complex subject and-"

As I said… goop.

The long and short of it is that aether, a base magical substance in the air, is refined by a person's soul to become aura, mana, and it's used to fuel affinities. Then it got complex with aether structures and esso-mosaics and so on. It's all very confusing and has an array of intricacies.

Even an eidetic memory doesn't mean I understand everything I hear. Sometimes I have to mull things over. Salem just didn't pause, though. I could tell that she actually had a spell to teleport air into her lungs safely to continue talking. That's just… that's dedication to a lecture if anything.

"Do you get it all now?" Salem turned back towards me. I had no clue whatsoever what she said for the past five minutes. I just turned off my brain and absorbed the words and not their meanings. I couldn't comprehend it so I stopped trying. Later I can review these memories at a much slower pace to learn it properly.

"Yup."

"Good because you'll be applying this all when you travel to the dimension. Do you need to collect anything? The objects in your soul space will come with you but the new dimension may not have habitable conditions like air and water. You have to carry at least a few months' supplies with you."

"I do actually have all of that." I nodded. My soul space had a lake in it, enough food to last me a year and a little longer, and even a house I stole. Yes I stole a house. If it comes to air I once sat in a forest for an hour and just put air in my soul space. Breathing underwater sounded convenient and you never really know why oyou'll need air.

It's not like I'm short on space either. I have over ten billion liters of inventory space to use. That's more space than I'll ever need. I can fit like forty airplanes in my inventory if I ever really need to. As it is a small lake is plenty. It's not like I have anything else to use my soul space for. I keep all the stuff I need in my house in my soul anyways. It doesn't use up that much space.

"Then I suppose you're ready to be transported." Salem flicked her wrist at me and a foreign formation of strange mana flew to me and engulfed me before I could react.

 ***Ding!* Your dimensional anchor to [Remnant] has been weakened! Anchor will re-strengthen in 89 days, 21 hours, 31 minutes, and 12 seconds.**

I stopped at the message in surprise. So she might really be just throwing me to a different dimension. And that estimation of time will land me about four days until school starts.

"Ready?" Salem asked. Strange mana swirled in her. It was similar to space though, which probably means she's being honest…

Trust comes from both sides to make it work.

"I suppose." I said uncertainty. Salem shrugged.

"Remember that this is a show of trust from me. I don't intend for us to be enemies. I honor my words and attempt to be fair. I've said my part in maintaining a peace between us. Remember that trust goes both ways."

I blinked at that and opened my mouth but at that moment Salem released her mana, a complex spell that baffled my mana sensing and twisted in ways I couldn't wrap my mind around. It hit me and I felt a strong pull along a trail I hadn't realized was there; but there is a blockade in my path down the trail I'm hurtling down.

 ***Ding!* You are being transported to a neighboring dimension!**

 **Permission requested - Administrator/prime user [Angel]**

 **Permission granted**

 **Permission requested - Administrator/prime user [Devil]**

 **Permission granted**

I faintly saw stars in a plethora of shapes warp around me at high speeds.

A lighthouse amongst an infinite amount of lighthouses stood in an ocean of them. A man was being drowned by a woman in a blue and white dress in each of them.

A woman with white hair fought with a blond man, both so powerful that they hurt to even glance at.

A man with odd blue hair travels through a green tube of energy with another smaller being with a yellow shirt to a different star filled with many more similar in appearance to him.

Countless souls funnelled throughout the void, some hurtling through the void towards an unknown destination, some jumping towards a star and slamming into it, becoming one with the new world.

A star loomed in front of me, a well of power and it was clearly the end of the trail I had been thrown down.

A large figure of red turns it's eye to me before grunting and looking away to it's own devices.

A strangely innocent being born of black turned it's attention to me.

The world went black.

[|||| == ||||]

" _And he's gone. That was rather draining. I wonder if he'll survive. From what I glimpsed of that other dimension he should survive if he keeps away from those lesser gods. I'll keep an eye on him."_

" _Excuse me milady?"_

" _Watts. What is the issue?"_

" _There appears to be a… a large cat in the tower. Tyrian is hunting for it but having little luck."_

" _A panther, yes?"_

" _Yes milady. You know of it?"_

" _Abyss was temporarily a panther for a purpose of mine. Do not worry of it."_

" _Mavros… So Schnee was right. He really does bring chaos with him wherever he goes."_

" _Bring chaos? Do tell."_

" _Ah, of course milady. Mavros often used intimidation and rapid negotiations with others in founding his company. He also defies traditional common sense in some ways. For example, he brought the head of the white fang to an SDC gala. More shocking is that he got away with it. There's also the issues of the Mavros' being ridiculously powerful and strong yet not selling themselves as mercenaries except on a few occasions, all of which were based around mass destruction of one area or another. Jacques hired Mystic Mavros to destroy a mountain once and he ravaged the area within a day where it was then mined for dust. When Jacques asked Mystic why he accepted the job he replied that he did it because he was bored."_

" _He is rather chaotic isn't he? The description fits somewhat well. I certainly didn't expect him to have the magical power he did and yet he was clueless on several subjects of magic."_

" _I believe he lacks business sense as well milady, and yet he is the heir of one of the most renowned companies in the world."_

" _And head of it as well from Cinder's reports. He uses an illusion to disguise himself as Mystic Mavros and lead his company and controls the criminal underbelly of Vale. Granted he forces his employee, Roman Torchwick, to manage the company and the underworld but nevertheless he does control Vale's criminal element and a prominent company through him."_

"… _Chaos."_

[|||| == ||||]

"Are you dead?" A soft voice asked me. I groaned and opened my eyes to see a blurry short figure dressed in black. I brought a hand up to my eyes and wiped away the sleep from my eyes. Why do I feel so tired?! I just woke up! Maybe dimensional travel is hard on the body somehow.

"Oh you're not dead." I sighed and opened myself to the mana around m-HOLY SWEET FUCK!

My eyes slammed open at nearly light speed and adrenaline coursed through me like lightning to my head. I threw an observe at the figure standing over me, the source of an utterly insane amount of mana.

 **Ophis, the infinite dragon goddess**

 **Title: Oh wait, dragon goddess should be here? What a strange spell.**

 **Level – infinite**

 **HP – infinite**

 **AP – What's aura? I probably have an infinite amount of it.**

 **MP - Infinite.**

 **STR - Very**

 **VIT - Enough I guess.**

 **DEX - I can go around light speed if I feel like it.**

 **INT - I've lived for eternity. Of course I'm smart.**

 **WIS - See above.**

 **LUK - this is stupid. Luck exists but it's easily overcome.**

 **Semblance: I don't know what this is.**

 **Affinities:**

 **Infinity: infinite**

 **Void: Infinite**

 **Chaos: varies based on my mood**

 **Others: I have a lot of everything else.**

 **Perks: What sort of observation spell has perks? You are a very odd person aren't you. Not to mention that this spell works by analysing my origin and fate. Letting this go naturally would simply read infinity for everything, you realize?**

 **Bio: I've lived in the silence of the dimensional gap since forever. I'm going to kick red out of the gap so he stops doing tricks and quiets down. Then I'll keep napping.**

I felt my brain just stop working at that. Observe isn't a very subtle spell is it?

"So what's your name?" Ophis, a goddess, asked me.

"Um, it's Abyss." I said, still completely out of sorts.

"Fitting." Ophis said that with a deep nod. "Your soul is rather like an abyss since it's like the dimensional gap. It feels like the silence of the dimensional gap quite a lot, more than anyone else although you have a storm like a discount Susanoo's in it as well." She thought about that for a moment.

"I like the silence so I like you a little. You're strong. Join my army." If my brain could have stopped harder it would have. If being in a borderline hentai dimension didn't do it then a god known for being emotionless and looking like a little girl liking me slightly did the trick.

A few seconds of quiet passed. I didn't say anything and just got my brain working again. "Could you give me a moment?" I asked the… the god in front of me. Ophis blinked once and looked away at a tree in the distance. I think that's an 'I don't care so sure' in emotionless loli language.

I looked around first. I was in… a field. That much was obvious. Green grass went for miles in any direction though there was what looked like a large herd of caribou a ways north. Northern hemisphere then. Mage sight showed nothing of interest for miles and miles away except for a man in an orange vest with a rifle in the forest. I could see up to about thirty too so I'm quite far out right now.

Taking a closer look at Ophis she looked quite like she did in the anime. She wore a frilly black dress and a purple bow around her waist. I very vaguely recall that she wore something around her head in the anime I once watched but she didn't wear anything now. The only other features of note were her pointed ears hidden behind long hair and slitted grey eyes.

That reminds me, my eyes are still under the illusion of being silver with red marbling. I can take that illusion off now. I did so.

Of more note than her physical appearance was Ophis' soul, or her facsimile of it. She didn't have aura, per se, but she had a sort of power. Maybe it's some sort of divine energy. What was more of note was her insane affinities. Largest was a sort of supplementary affinity like a core. It reminds me of my prime affinity for storm. She was based around it.

Second largest was void. It was so concentrated and vast that I felt that if Ophis felt like it she could swallow the world in void. To me, though, it seemed benign. It wouldn't hurt me but seemed instead rather fond of me. It probably reflected Ophis's mood.

Last was a nearly pulsating core of chaos. It changed it's feeling every other pulse so I couldn't accurately describe if for long.

Everything I remember from highschool DxD was what I saw in the anime. I binged it with my brother sometimes and we laughed at how ridiculous it was for about three seasons. My sister always got annoyed. The memory was slightly lost among the other things we watched and how little I remember the days back then.

First was the pervert getting stronger and beating up the hot wings phoenix guy after dying and becoming a devil. Then there was a meeting for peace - ah, wait, there was an angel, Kokabiel, first. He was doing something with the holy swords of excalibur. Then the meeting between factions happened and the khaos brigade showed up. A training camp of Issei, the pervert, getting chased by a big dragon identifying as a devil happened and then… there was some sort of grief where Issei went berserk and became a really big dragon for a minute.

The people worth remembering are that Vali guy that divides power and adds it to his own, Issei, the perverted protagonist with an OP ability to double his power every thirty seconds or so, a guy named… Coco? No, Cao-Cao. He leads the khaos brigade I think. Then there's Azazel, Michael, and Sirzechs, who lead the fallen angels, angels, and devils of the world. Ophis is a super goddess… I need to do more research on all this.

But that's all far away. I have a goddess on hold here. The question is yes or no…

This world is filled with gods and goddesses and absolute hacks. I'd rather have the backing of a big scary dragon god than not. Besides, Ophis is a calm character that doesn't really care what I do so long as it doesn't harm her. Everyone in the khaos brigade was kind of a dick though.

"I won't join your army but is it alright if I join you for a while?" I ask. Ophis stared at me.

"Yes." A sort of contedness struck me from Ophis' core of void. So it does reflect her mood. She felt more possessive of me as well. I guess since I remind her of the gap she would connect to me like that.

"Come on." Ophis grabbed my wrist and the world bent and turned. It was an odd experience and nowhere near as smooth as my space magic but it did work. I felt a brief caress at my void affinity and suddenly we were in a sort of lounge.

This is… the khaos brigade HQ? And that teleportation we used was undoubtedly void-based. We just used the dimensional gap to travel I think.

Just glancing around showed some opulence. A table off to the side was carved exquisitely with an ornamental pattern and made of a rich dark wood, the couch was dark leather and a fireplace had silver designs stenciling two decorative marble columns at it's edges. Countless other designs of detail and wealth adorned the room from a shelf of statues on the wall to a plasma TV over the fireplace.

It was a little much for me but it was a nice room. It was also empty.

"This mansion is the home of a member of my army named Arthur Pendragon. He and his sister live here." Ophis said carelessly as she sat on the couch. "He has the best couches to sleep on."

It really doesn't surprise me at all that Ophis invades her minion's homes to take naps because she's bored. At the moment I don't really care either. And Pendragon? Isn't that king Arthur's last name? Oh, right, there was a mythological lineage thing. Like the monkey guy was a descendant of some famous hero. Wasn't Sun in remnant based off of a mythological monkey hero too? Ugh. Whatever.

I frowned at how confusing everything was and thought things through a little… nope that's impossible. I'll make it up as I go then. How do you ask a god what time you're in based on an anime? Well Ophis doesn't really care about anything so…

"Is there a large gathering of angels, fallen angels, and devils coming up soon?"

"In a few days." Ophis said absently. "Something about a fallen angel attacking people."

I blinked. This is an experience for me. Things are rarely this easy. I guess I'll do what I do best.

With what almost sounded like an exhale of air the couch under me depressed. I made an ottoman of hard light and propped my feet up. I waved my hand at the remote on the mantle of the fireplace and turned on the TV. A little browsing showed me what I desired most.

They have spiderman movies in this dimension. Can I live here from now on?

Ophis didn't care about the TV and closed her eyes while she sat down on the couch cross-legged. I wonder if that's what she always does in her free time?

I turned on the earliest spider man movie and watched a bit but decided that I still wanted to try something. I sort of owe Ophis for grabbing me anyways. From my brief moment in the dimensional gap I know there's no affinities there. Hm.

I took my own void affinity and wrapped it around Ophis while blocking out sound for her with my wind affinity. She opened her eyes and looked at me strangely but then blinked. I felt some small surprise emanate from her void affinity.

"It's quieter." She said. "Thank you." She then closed her eyes and went back to not doing anything.

I looked at her for a moment before turning the tasks of keeping the area around Ophis quiet and free of affinities. I have a spider man marathon to watch. Next is avengers. I noticed they have cartoon network too. I'm absolutely up for that. I wonder if they have adventure time? I wonder if I can even watch it all before I get back to remnant? Ah, wait, I can store all the episodes on a flash drive. If I need money for that I can just make gold with my metal affinity or steal stuff from this mansion. Hell, I could probably steal the mansion too!

This is the best summer ever.

Halfway through the movie marathon Ophis nearly fell asleep and decided my lap made a good pillow. Whatever. Ruby used to do that all the time. She is cuter though. Ruby drooled on me Ophis just breathes softly.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Um… Nii-sama?"_

" _What is it Fey?"_

" _Ophis-sama is in our house again and sleeping in the rec-room but she has a-a guy with her."_

"…"

" _Sh-should I ask him about… you know, why he's in our house watching superhero movies?"_

" _Where exactly is Ophis when you say he's with Ophis?"_

" _She's, um, laying on his lap."_

" _Dear god. Just wait for him to get seperated from Ophis and politely ask him who he is."_

[|||| == ||||]

I binged four spider man movies and three avengers movies as well as a ton of cartoons. I was in that room for at least twenty four hours getting my fix of cartoons and movies.

It was time well spent in my opinion. I used mage sight and motion magic to procure snacks from a mini-fridge in a cupboard in the room and only moved to go to the bathroom twice. My body needed to sleep for about seven hours so for the first time in awhile I detached my soul from my body and made an avatar so I didn't need sleep. My body rested in the meantime.

Ophis didn't even move once. I don't think gods actually sleep but more like hibernate to pass the time. She was probably enjoying the quiet I had made for her.

It was around the time that seven hours of sleeping had passed that I finished my final episode of courage the cowardly dog and turned off the TV. I have an alternate universe to explore… and I should probably learn japanese. I can just flip through an english to japanese dictionary though. Eidetic memory makes learning languages much easier although I'll sound off until I practice a bit. Even so my acting skill showed surprising flexibility and accelerated my efforts to sound normal.

Luckily I just had to look around the manor with made sight to find a dictionary of just that type. I mean, the manor has a library and the Pendragon family is probably british so… well whatever. Maybe it's my luck stat in play again.

I flipped through the book for two hours and just let Ophis sleep a bit more. I tried out a few sentences and found that I sounded awkward and I'll bet I mispronunciated some words. Well it would work.

I gently took off the void and air covering from Ophis, who woke up entirely lucid. She looked at me with an annoyed pout. "Why did you stop?" She asked.

"I have to move." I said. "I have some things to do."

Ophis was silent for a moment before she hopped off the couch. "I'll come with you." I shrugged.

"Can you teleport us to Kuoh academy then? I'd have to make it by flight otherwise."

Ophis nodded and held my wrist again "And please hide your aura. I'd prefer to not be noticed right now." Ophis nodded again and her presence hid itself entirely. Suddenly I was on the roof of an old fashioned school with architecture that seemed almost english with lots of square windows and two other wings of the school, both of which seemed more modern than the main building.

I immediately went invisible and looked with mage sight. Everything looked mostly normal except for a variety of students with a red tinted visage in their mana. Devils, I assume. In their manas I can see a sort of thin tie between the devils but separated into two groups with one devil taking in all the connections. That connection must be an… evil… piece…

The evil piece system actually changes people to a different race AND gives them magical power, doesn't it? Hm… I can use that. I should steal one and study it. If I'm lucky I can use a few enchantments and runes to warp it's function a little and tie people to me whilst giving them magic to use. That would be useful.

I can't really say why I wanted to come to Kuoh. I guess… the conference is happening here, right? I'll teleport here on the day that the conference starts and introduce myself. I still have a while though.

"Thanks for bringing me here. I just needed a peek at a few things." I said to Ophis, who seemed to realize something.

"If you're thankful you can give me the quiet again." I rolled my eyes. She's like Ruby is with strawberries. Just emotionless. I probably shouldn't draw too many parallels between Ophis and Ruby. Projecting is bad.

"Fine, fine. I should introduce myself to the Pendragons though since I'm taking over their rec-room." Ophis nodded and her void affinity felt a bit smug and satisfied. I didn't wait for her to teleport me and instead made a portal of my own. As soon as I stepped through I saw her already on the couch. I just rolled my eyes and wrapped her in void and still air before walking off.

The Pendragons are in the yard eating lunch at a table right now. I hope they don't mind if I interrupt.

As I walked through the manor, though, I couldn't help but admire the interior. It's a little pretentious with all the old paintings and occasional portrait but it is nice. The deep blue wallpaper is nice too.

I really might take this mansion. I could steal it. I really could quite easily. It's smaller than the lake. In fact I could steal part of a beach and make my soul space a beach resort…

Could I steal the eiffel tower while I'm at it? I'll bet I could. It would take a lot of mana to make the opening to my soul space that big though. Ophis would probably help if I asked her to though… yeah. I could do that. It would be a dick move but I could do it.

I pushed these thoughts out of my head as I opened a sliding door to the backyard to see two people under a gazebo eating lunch. One was a young girl with loose blond hair in a school uniform and what looks like a bedsheet as a cape. The other is a younger looking man in a dress shirt and pants. His hair was extremely long, including a curl down his face's right side. It made him look a little girlish. He immediately noticed me walking out and waved. I started walking towards them.

As I approached the table the blond man grew a little more tense. "Hello there." I called in english. I tried to sound friendly. "Sorry for just taking over your lounge for the past day. I haven't had a chance to see movies or cartoons for a while. My name is Abyss Mavros, Mavros being my last name. And you are?"

The blond man relaxed a little but not fully. "My name is Arthur Pendragon. This is my sister Le Fey Pendragon." He gestured towards Le Fey, who waved shyly. "Ophis often take over our couch due to it's apparent softness so don't worry too much over it. We have a spare just in case."

I nodded. "I'll be with her for a few months. Not too long at least. By any chance do you know when the three factions conference is? And maybe the date."

Arthur nodded. "The conference is taking place tomorrow at eleven AM. It's the nineteenth right now. Of November." I nodded acceptingly. That the time was completely different in a different dimension wasn't very surprising.

"Thank you. I can see you're busy right now so I won't take your time. If you care to talk later I'm open and Ophis won't care much."

"Of course. However, while you're living on my and my sister's property would you mind a spar?" I raised an eyebrow with him.

"With magic or blades?"

"Either."

"I wouldn't mind. How about in an hour?" Arthur smiled pleasantly.

"I would appreciate that." With that settled he turned to his unfinished cheeseburger and I walked away.

"He seems nice." Le Fey said with a smile as I walked away.

"He seems so but he's quite strong." Arthur's voice was a bit more wary and less friendly as I walked away. "Remember that you thought Cao Cao was nice as well."

"Oh. Right." Le Fey sounded a little less upbeat after that. I didn't hear any more since I walked into the manor again.

I saw that the Le Fey's have an xbox. That sounds fun to use. I doubt they'll mind if I use it so long as I don't delete anything or mess with whatever progress they've made in games. There's a box full of video games in the cupboard next to the mini-fridge too, as well as some board games.

A small foray into their stock showed - what the-?! When did they make a fallout four?! I only played the third one and new vegas. This should be good.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Qrow… we need to talk."_

" _Hm?"_

" _Look, since… I knew about Salem and such before you told me."_

" _What? What do…"_

" _Abyss."_

" _Damn. then why did you act like you didn't know."_

" _Because Abyss is a friend of mine. He showed me magic when we left on that summer trip."_

" _So that's what you meant when you said he had some explaining to do."_

" _Yes. Look, I just…"_

" _Bella it's alright. I'm not that mad, though I prefer that you told me sooner. Actually, what brought this on that you can tell me now?"_

" _Well our marriage mostly. I wasn't being forced to not tell you or anything. Abyss just asked me and we made a sort of deal two years ago. I don't tell and he keeps doing good things for remnant like the company he made. But I broke the news to him four days ago at the graduation. He talked to Salem."_

" _What?!"_

" _I know."_

" _That idiot! Why would he-"_

" _He doesn't trust Ozpin. Actually, I don't think he even likes authority in general on a professional level. Ever since I pretty much declared to him that I preferred Ozpin's side in the supernatural over his he always had a lack of trust for me. I had to argue with him when he was hesitant to give me the transforming power he figured out. It took all of subI on my side for giving me that power for him to cave."_

" _Transforming power?"_

" _Later. Look, Abyss isn't stupid but he can be naiive and altogether too equal at times. He argued that since Salem had the emotions of a human and a soul she deserved the same treatment as a human did. That is to say, at least a chance. He's going to be working with her over the summer."_

" _We have to go now. Salem will-"_

" _Abyss is probably already there Qrow. He can fly and teleport and do so many things…"_

" _He can… right. Wizard… I have to tell Ozpin."_

" _We should finish this talk first."_

" _Alright…"_

" _I'm sorry."_

" _I know you are. It's written all over your face."_

" _I'm sorry."_

" … _You mentioned powers. Transforming?"_

" _Abyss figured out how your sister does her transformation into a Raven. He applied it to everyone in subI. I can turn into a king cobra. A really big one with black scales."_

" _That's so much cooler than turning into a bird. Heh. You can't fly though."_

" _I can turn invisible and teleport a short distance."_

" _Are you fucking serious?"_

"…"

" _Okay you're serious. Can I see?"_

" _No."_

" _What?! Why not?!"_

" _Because you can't see an invisible person, obviously."_

"… _You know what? Now I'm mad at you. I wasn't before but now I'm mad."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I twirled my halberd while Arthur drew his sword, which was imbued with a strong purity affinity. Ophis sat on the side with Le Fey looking bored. Le Fey looked excited and nervous.

"A holy sword?" I guessed, equating purity with holiness. Arthur nodded.

"Calibur, the sword in the stone. It's the strongest holy sword." I raised an eyebrow.

"Behold." I waved over my halberd. "A halberd. Made of steel and by yours truly."

Arthur looked at me curiously. "You made it?" I smiled.

"Yes. However, you seem rather strong." And he was. I had observed him and for the first time observing a strong opponent he hadn't noticed.

 **Arthur Pendragon**

 **Titles:**

 **Level – 312**

 **HP – 1721.5**

 **AP – [Locked - lacking divine spark]**

 **MP - 95,600**

 **STR - 356 (+450%)= 1958**

 **VIT - 313 (+450%)= 1721.5**

 **DEX - 360 (+450%)= 1980**

 **INT - 239 (+150%)= 597.5**

 **WIS - 218 (+150%)= 545**

 **LUK - 84 (+0%)= 84**

 **Semblance:**

 **Affinities:**

 **Sword: 749 (x4) = 3996 (Innate)**

 **Purity: 498 (x4) = 1992 (Innate)**

 **Metal: 325**

 **Space: 297**

 **Perks:**

 **Pendragon bloodline - You are a Pendragon, the descendant of the greatest king Europe has ever seen and wielder of the divine sword excalibur. As a descendant of this prestigious bloodline you are gifted more than the average man.**

 **-Innate sword and purity affinities**

 **-+150% to all physical and magical stats**

 **-x2 mana capacity**

 **-Double all bonuses from possession of a holy sword.**

 **-Use of a holy sword is instinctual and possibility of being accepted as the wielder of one is far higher**

 **Chosen of Caliburn (x2) - The sword in the stone has chosen you as it's wielder. This perk is enhanced due to your lineage**

 **-Only you may properly wield caliburn**

 **-holy and sword affinities are** **doubled** **quadrupled**

 **-+150% (x2) to all physical stats**

 **Bio: Arthur Pendragon of the noble house of Pendragon was the golden child of the Pendragon family. He acquired ownership of the legendary holy sword caliburn and trained tirelessly with it to feel worthy of the sword and his family's respect.**

 **Eventually, however, Arthur fell in love with a maid in his family's service. In order to protect her after their affair he left the family and found himself joining his close friend Vali Lucifer in the khaos brigade in search of purpose and to honor his sword by fighting enemies he feels are worthy of it.**

 **He dearly loves his younger sister Le Fey Pendragon and prizes her and her happiness beyond even his sword. That she defied their family to follow him into exile despite her timid nature brings him pride and happiness and to repay her he would do anything for her.**

For the first time in a while I had an actual bio and a decent estimation of power for an opponent. As it turns out Arthur isn't all that powerful. Sure he's strong but not amazing.

Raven's actually stronger. She has magic, a lifetime of experience, can teleport, and most importantly she has aura.

I'm sure Arthur has some form of self-defense to hits but I doubt it's anything like aura. He's also doubtlessly beyond skilled in swordsmanship, having devoted his life to family and the sword. I actually like his style. Family first, strength second. It's strikingly similar to my views.

That message of lacking a divine spark and being thus unable to use aura is interesting but not earth-shattering. It just means that remnant's population being descended from gods brought a few advantages. It's useful knowledge but doesn't change much.

"Actually," I said, "Do you mind if I let loose a little?" Arthur blinked but nodded.

"I don't mind at all. So long as you don't truly harm me."

I reached into my soul space and found a rather important item.

The inequalizers. My true weapons.

I don't actually need to use it to combat Arthur but I want to respect Arthur by using more effort and show off a little for Ophis. I don't really want to appear as weak as Arthur to her as a first impression, even if Arthur's pretty strong for this world.

I glanced at the great weapon in my hands with a little spark in my eyes. It was my baby, really. Ruby's too but not in a weird way.

They're gloves. Just two gloves. They're very nice gloves but just gloves. They're made with a black material, dense spider matriarch silk specifically, and fit around my hands perfectly, gripping snugly. Across the fabric is very small stenciling. Runes.

You see, the inequalizers aren't exactly gloves that worked because of their own engineering. Their power comes entirely because of my soul space. Within my soul space is two giant runic matrixes almost half a square mile long each built on two long metal slabs I made at Ruby's begging and with a lot of stenciling from me and all my parallels.

On the runic matrixes are several abilities, each linked to a glove, all of which were linked to the glove's own runic matrixes. Ruby made the right glove to hold any weapon and apply the abilities of the runic circle to it through the glove. Of course, they also had their own custom weapon for my use even if it wasn't something I often used nor was it much better than my normal shortsword/halberd.

Just because Ruby was a little bit of a perfectionist she made a large gun that somehow qualified as an assault rifle and made it to shoot in my soul space from a large belt magazine feeding it monstrous 7.62x51 mm caliber rounds with high quality dust cartridges all infused by my parallels, which would cause intense recoil if it wasn't mounted, and run through my railgun runes in a longer-than-practical barrel before exiting my soul space through a rune that acted as a portal linked to my right or left glove.

It was stupidly strong. I basically had Ruby's railgun at a slightly lower caliber but on extreme rapid fire. Seriously the assault rifle had runes making it fire at more than three and a half thousand bullets per minute. It looked like a laser made of metal.

It makes me scared, really. Have you ever mowed a tree in half with a laser made of metal and found that you accidentally put bullet holes clean through half the forest? Ruby was just… If i hadn't put the specification that I had to use an assault rifle a heavy machine gun might just destroy everything no questions asked.

The left glove was made by me and is designed to amplify my spellcasting to insane degrees. It was also capable of storing a few of my favorite spells overpowered with all of my mana and overpowered several times over with the amplifiers. Considering a spell powered with all my mana destroyed forests easily… well my glove didn't scare me as much as Ruby's but on a destructive scale mine was WAY worse than hers. It's functions are just less varied and sound more simple but they're nonetheless extremely strong.

I lovingly casted an observe at my babies - I mean-! Uh, my works of art, as I put them on, and recalled the magnificently unfair advantages they held. I call them the inequalizers for a reason.

 **Inequalizer (Right) - Glove; Sword/Halberd/Assault rifle**

 **Rarity: Mythical (High)**

 **Material composition: Matriarch Terra spiderling silk**

 **Special traits: Portal output (x2) (keyed to Abyss Mavros' soul space), innate affinity (Weapon - 698), enhancement runes (sharpening, durability, magic edge), portal graft (melee weapon; activated)**

 **Bio: The masterpiece of Abyss Mavros and Ruby Rose, this glove is linked to the soul space of one Abyss Mavros via runes and thus the weapons melded into the matrix are considered a facet of the glove/weapon. The runes were designed by Abyss Mavros and the melded weapons by his sister.**

 **The weapons mentioned are a custom assault rifle with 7.62x51 mm rounds with enhancing runes and a custom built shortsword/halberd with a portal to the target to which the custom assault rifle fires, effectively making a gun on the custom melee weapon.**

 **The glove is also fitted to passively apply sharpening and durability enchantments on any weapon that the glove holds as well as graft a portal linked to the aforementioned gun's target on the melee weapon upon a mental command and image from the wielder. The weapon's edge, when held, will be coated with the affinity of the user's strongest affinity.**

 **The glove/weapon, in conclusion, is monstrously powerful and makes any man capable of using it even slightly proficiently into a living legend.**

 **The ranged portal enchantment will only function in the hands of Abyss Mavros, unfortunately. Even without the most powerful function of the glove, however, it is still immensely useful and powerful to any melee wielder.**

 **Were it not for the existence of ancient relics made by the gods and the masterpiece of remnant's greatest craftsman this glove would be the greatest ranged weapon ever made and a genius melding of modern technology and magic.**

 **Inequalizer (left) - Glove, magical focus**

 **Rarity: Mythical (High)**

 **Material composition: Matriarch Terra spiderling silk**

 **Special traits: General magical (x5 amplification), Specific magical affinity foci (Storm, void, space, heat, ice, purity, motion, light, life, (5 empty slots)) (x7.5(x5 due to foci skill)), Spell storage x7, portal exit (one way)**

 **Bio: The masterpiece of Abyss Mavros, this glove is linked to the soul space of one Abyss Mavros via runes. Despite Abyss Mavros being the sole creator of this glove he considers his sister to be the co-creator of it due to his sister's role in creating it's twin and linking her ranged weapon's output portal to his glove.**

 **This weapon's main focus is to amplify spells and the creator has managed to treat a viventium alloy to become a general magical amplifier along with the assistance of an extremely generous amount of runes. However, the glove is also capable of amplifying select affinities to greater degrees than the general amplification with the infusion of said affinity's distilled liquid form to a variety of slots in the runic circle based in Abyss Mavros' soul space.**

 **The glove is also capable of storing up to seven spells of massive proportions to be released and amplified whenever the caster pleases as well as firing bullets from a custom made assault rifle transported through a one-way portal**

 **Were it not for the existence of ancient relics made by the gods and the masterpiece of remnant's greatest craftsman this glove would be the greatest magical foci and spelltrap ever conceived.**

 **This glove was once considered being taken away (nerfed) by a higher being but was reluctantly let go due to no violation of remnant's natural laws and the realization that Abyss Mavros would just make another glove to connect to the corresponding matrix in his soul should he lose this one. This annoyed the deity greatly.**

Beautiful. The only thing they left out was the ammunition. I have five different types of bullets, using storm, motion, heat, and soon to be void as well. I have at least five million bullets of my caliber and more than two million other bullets in various other calibers just in case somebody is running empty. I've spent something like twenty million lien on dust and bullets in my life and I have enough bullets that I'll hopefully never run out. Roman seriously asked me if i was preparing for the apocalypse once.

Well… sort of. I'm just saying, you never know when remnant will stop having bullets… I'm not going to ever run out of dust though. Jacques once offered me a contract for my lien in exchange for tons of dust. He didn't know what I was using it for but he smelled a profit.

When I told him as Mystic that I have a stockpile in my inventory of millions of bullets and more dust than I should have he seemed a little baffled. Like he doesn't have an emergency bunker. Weiss told me all about it.

"Are you ready?" Arthur asked, snapping me back to reality. I glanced back at him and nodded.

"Let's begin then." I sensed a faint disturbance of mana in front of me just then and recognized a strange mix of purity and space mana.

Deciding to not deal with that was easy. I blinked ten feet to my right and looked back at where I was. Arthur was standing there slashing at the air. I fought back a snicker and shot an extremely underpowered lightning bolt at him with only my storm affinity.

The bolt streaked forward and hit Arthur's left knee. He clenched his teeth but I felt that he hadn't quite given up yet. So I fired another at his other knee.

That's when I realized that magic was a cheat and that you couldn't really dodge a lightning bolt.

"I give." Arthur ground out, muscles clenched hard.

"That was… disappointing." I muttered. "Don't you have magical protections against elemental attacks?"

"I have a resistance spell that I use. Your lighting is very powerful."

I nodded. "I have an extremely strong affinity for lightning. I didn't even use magical power to fuel those strikes. Although, they were amplified thirty five times due to my foci." I wiggled my fingers in my glove while Arthur stared at the gloves.

"Thirty five times?!" Arthur hissed. "Absurd."

"That lightning bolt was also incredibly underpowered." I remarked, making Arthur's face fall a little. "But on the other hand I rarely ever use these gloves. Using them against you was like one of the dragon emperors using juggernaut overdrive to fight a stray dog."

"That does make me feel slightly better." Arthur gave. "I admit that I am weak to the arcane. Extremely so. I typically have Le Fey to compensate for that weakness but I do not believe she would particularly challenge you."

"I would be crushed." Le Fey said from the sidelines, her face pale. Her voice was soft but we both heard it clearly enough. "In the moment he casted that… no that wasn't even a spell. That was raw creation of lightning. His reserves are enormous and he has some sort of natural inclination towards elements not to mention some sort of strange power besides magical energy in him."

Le fey smiled weakly. "Sorry, Onii-sama. He could probably crush a hundred of me. Maybe Vali or Cao Cao stand a chance? Vali-Sama's sacred gear would be really effective against him too."

"No it wouldn't." Ophis said softly, surprising all of us. "Abyss has the quiet in his mana. Vali can't absorb that."

"The quiet?" Arthur questioned, seemingly recovered.

"The dimensional gap." I explained. "I have the void of it in my soul. It's similar to anti-magic in function but it's a bit more complex than that. That element of me is very caustic to anything with inner energy, be it mana, a soul, or anything else."

Arthur paused. "You should meet Vali." he said finally.

"I'd quite like that." I agreed. "I don't much want to get into the politics of the three factions or the khaos brigade but I also want to experience all I can for the next three months. I have some places to be then unfortunately."

"A shame." Arthur agreed.

"Actually do you know Kuroka? The senjutsu user?" Arthur's eyes grew slightly curious.

"Well yes I do. I am not exactly friends with her but I am acquaintance with her."

"I'm quite interested in learning senjutsu myself." I explained. All I got from Arthur was a raised eyebrow. "It would be extremely useful to me to learn it and I know a large amount of space magic that would certainly be of use to her in exchange."

Arthur nodded. "She does like space magic." He muttered. "Alright. I'll ask her to meet with you. The khaos brigade keeps a chatroom open all the time so it shouldn't take too long. If I recall Kuroka is simply slacking about more often than not."

"She sounds like somebody I would like to meet." I said with a smile.

"She is… irritating." Arthur said, the first frown I've ever seen on him lingering at the corners of his mouth.

"Definitely somebody I'd like to meet." I smiled. "Could you also tell Vali that I'll e at the faction meeting too? I'd like to get an experience here and being around the khaos brigade… well I like to shake things up when I'm around. The khaos brigade is the best way to do that."

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	41. Chapter 41

**AN: Accidentally uploaded this without an AN the first time. I then edited the document and forgot to re-upload it. Whoops.**

 **There's not much to say. I'm still working on the new chapters. Oh! And I got a beta. A quick thank you to TheNightShinobi for helping me fix my numerous grammarical mistakes.**

[||||= **LEVEL 41** = ||||]

"Ophis, I'm heading out to the conference. I'll wake you up when it's time for you to see all your subordinates after they attack everything. I'll see you then. If you need anything just barge in in your usual fashion."

Ophis didn't respond. I had realized that I could enchant an object to emit void for as long as it was fuelled with void attuned mana to make a quiet space for Ophis. Runes don't work for some reason. I think that it's because the runes run off of ambient mana or affinity and there is no ambient void affinity in the world. Storing it doesn't work either. It just disappears. That will make getting a void familiar very difficult soon enough.

The enchantment also lets me go do whatever I want without her trailing behind me. That said, she still liked my affinity straight from the source more for some reason. She called it 'fresher' than the runic circle's void element.

I frankly don't care much. Ophis is nice and we're apparently sticking together so I'll just deal with her for awhile. She's not really a problem anyways. She's kind of like my insurance if I piss off any higher powers as well.

Since Ophis didn't seem keen on responding I focused on the teleportation marker at Kuoh's basement and teleported to it. I had wrapped it in a runic circle to hide it from any prying eyes. I also had a marker at Arthur's house for convenience.

I sensed a few VERY powerful mana signatures as soon as I looked. There were five of particular importance and some others who I believe are the occult research club.

First was the one I'm certain is an angel. He appeared as a radiant light of purity. He was nothing BUT purity affinity and a dash of light affinity, though I believe the purity is innate. Even so his purity affinity wasn't even half as large as my storm affinity. He had a large supply of mana as well, going a bit over my mana. Around three million mana would be my estimate.

Second was a devil, that much was certain. He had an array of affinities but most strikingly was one that appeared similar to corruption but not the same and another that felt like raw destruction. Not like the void, which felt like annihilation to the atomic level and a sort of emptiness but something like it's angry twin brother. It was raw destructive energy bursting with power. That he could even control it was impressive. I chalked the signature up to being Sirzechs. He had a little more mana than the angel. Even with all that mana his affinities were slightly weaker than the angel's. I saw something odd in him though. My instinctual skill, the one I got at two hundred fifty DEX, was telling me to be cautious.

Third was another presence with the same affinity marking her as a devil and an extremely strong ice affinity. What shocks me is how large her ice affinity and mana pool are. Her ice affinity is almost as large as my storm affinity and her mana pool must be around five million at least! Maybe more like six. Probably Serafall then. She's scary…

Forth is definitely Azazel. He had a rather small mana pool, edging around two and a half million mana and his affinities are kind of weak. That makes me think he probably focuses on skill like Summer did. I also recall that Azazel used an array of gadgets and such. He's crafty more than the brute strength of Sirzechs or Serafall, though undoubtedly those two are smart as well.

Finally was definitely Vali. His soul was… well, odd. He only had two distinct affinities. First was what might be a draconic affinity. It felt scaly and powerful and rather odd as far as affinities go. It also supplemented an augmentation in his soul, which seemed like the knots I use for skinchanging but far more complex. The second affinity was the demonic affinity and it was huge. Just a bit smaller than my storm affinity. If I had to estimate I'd put it at four hundred thousand affinity.

Luckily Vali has a small mana pool. Thank dust. Sure it's large but only to the size of Azazel's pool and a bit smaller than that. I vaguely remember that Vali was more a hand-to-hand combatant though. Let's… let's not mess with him unless he knows that we shouldn't kill each other.

The others were pretty unimpressive. Rias, who I recognized from her power of destruction, had quite weak affinities compared to her brother and her mana reserves were similarly small. Le Fey would be able to beat her. Issei, who I recognized because of his dragon affinity, pathetically small as it was, had incredibly small reserves. I'd be shocked if he went further than two hundred fifty thousand.

With all of the people there I thought for a moment as to whether I really wanted to get in there. I mean, sure, I can suppress my mana to nearly nothing and be invisible, scentless, and so on…

Well I'm here for the experiences, hm?

I cloaked myself in the room temperature, switched my illusion cloak to make me invisible, hid my mana as completely as I could, and went so far as to use spatial presence negation.

With exaggerated care I slowly blinked myself into the meeting room, trying hard to be as subtle as possible. When I opened my eyes I saw the meeting room clearly. Everyone looked very impressive, Michael in his golden armor, Sirzechs in a somewhat ornamental military uniform, and… well Serafall looked kind of like she was stuffed in a green suit and shoved into her seat and Azazel like a scruffy stay-at-home dad with a budding neckbeard. Vali lurked in the corner like some sort of brooding teenager.

The others were just as unimpressive, although they were beautiful… and well-endowed in the case of Rias and Akeno. I am a guy. I notice these things.

I turned my attention from the occult research club and paid more attention to the faction leaders, of which Azazel was talking.

"Well then why don't I make it a little easier for you Issei? Try to focus here." I raised an eyebrow at the man's informal address but honestly if he can come to a faction meeting in a V-neck down to his sternum then he can easily ignore honorifics. If I recall, he and Issei are friends anyways.

"If we start fighting again… you'll never be able to have your way with Rias Gremory." I laughed out loud at the shocked silence of the meeting room but nothing really came out, seeing as I didn't actually have a presence in space. It took me a moment longer than everyone else in the room to get what he was saying since Japanese didn't come smoothly to me but that doesn't matter since nobody is looking at me.

"But," Azazel continued regardless of the silence, "if we make peace instead prosperity and propagation become far more important."

A gleam entered the pervert's eyes and a faint blush over his cheeks. "You mean like… baby making?!" Unknown to everyone Michael looked up at the roof sadly, like he was looking for a sign that this wasn't happening. The only person who seems to be enjoying the teasing and drama as much as I am is Serafall, who was holding back a smirk.

"That's right!" Azazel confirmed with a small grin. "Imagine those training sessions." Rias sent the most annoyed look I may have ever seen towards Azazel, considering he was pimping her out to Issei.

"And you can practice every single day." A blush came onto Rias' cheeks. I snickered, not that anybody could perceive it.

"I'm right here, you know!" Rias protested weakly. Grayfia, who I hadn't noticed before, sighed despondently. She and Michael would get along well.

"Peace means a daily dose of Rias loving. War means no sexy-time. Get all that?"

Issei reeled back, eyes wide. No doubt this was a shocking realization to the pervert. His eyes glazed over as he no doubt imagined dirty things. "Peace is number one!" he crowed. "I'm all for peace! I'M GOING TO DO IT WITH RIAS SO HARD!"

I was doubling over in laughter at all this. Oh dust! This is amazing! It's so much better in person! I had on idea there was such a pervert in the world! I took a moment between giggles to refocus on the meeting. When I came back to it the meeting had turned somber and I ignored everything and left a parallel to pay attention and summarize everything for me. It wasn't fun to be paying attention anymore with everyone being serious.

I instead focused on the armies above. The devils, fallen angels, and angels were all in a stand-off, looking aggressively at each other but not making any moves. All of them were pretty weak. I could take them all out I think, judging by their mana and affinities though I can see how they could be strong compared to the rest of humanity.

Even with the factions meeting on equal ground I saw a distinct difference in power between them all. The angels were the smallest faction for sure but they had powerful troops. Their soldiers were all around levels one fifty at the lowest to around three hundred at the highest, though that angel at three hundred eight was an outlier and most of the elite troops were around two hundred fifty.

The devils were the strongest and brought the most troops, however their levels were the lowest and most varied. Most of them ranged around one hundred or one fifty and had pretty weak affinities but twelve of them were quite strong at over two fifty. So they had weak general troops but occasionally had those with a lust for power and they became the elite.

The fallen angels were the weakest. They all averaged out to around one hundred or one fifty and their numbers were small. Some of them didn't even get to a hundred. Their affinities were also weaker than the angels, likely due to being casted out of heaven.

My attention was grabbed when a pulse of magic swept over everyone. Time magic. It tried to latch onto me but I batted against it with the void, forcing it off of me. A glance around the room showed several people had become frozen as well. Everyone who didn't have a holy sword or an abundance of magical power were frozen.

Before I decided whether to act or not I grimaced as a massive portal opened up in the distance. It reeked of space affinity and had a peculiar feeling in it that I was beginning to associate with sacred gears. I also sensed a faint link to Vali from the portal. A close look revealed that he had a mark not unlike my marker teleport spell upon him. I smiled faintly. How devious.

I barely paid attention to the people talking, only taking the highlights as my parallel filtered out their chatter and instead watched the spells fly in the hopes to use some of them later for myself. Rias was angry saying the magicians will pay for disrespecting her, Michael was saying that Gasper, the half vampire that was in Rias' devil peerage, had fallen into enemy hands and that he froze everyone with his sacred gear.

But when they began talking about something called 'castling' my parallel practically blared 'red alert!' and I turned my attention from the spells of the magicians reluctantly.

Castling was described as a switching spell between the king of a devil's peerage and the rook, both being positions in the group of devils. That sounds like something I'd like to observe and maybe hijack. My space affinity could doubtlessly disrupt the move if I felt like it.

"You can go with her." Sirzechs said to Issei. My parallel whispered that Issei would be able to accompany rias as she switched with her rook, where Gasper was being held. Oh so he was given permission to tag along. Make sure to bring a chaperone.

"Wouldn't it be easier to take out the half vampire with the terrorists?" Vali asked lazily. "If you'd like I can just do it for you." I felt that Vali was a bit of a dick for suggesting that they kill their friend.

"Vali you're such a dick!" Issei snapped. Thank you Issei. I needed that.

"Vali be more considerate of everyone. We're trying to make peace here." Azazel didn't seem overly concerned with Vali's behavior.

"Sorry," Vali said, not sounding sorry at all, "It's hard for me to do nothing like this."

"Fair enough." Azazel conceded. "Then go welcome those magicians. Upset their ranks a bit. I'm sure seeing the white dragon emperor will help."

"Sure." Vali shrugged, seeming just a little eager, and sprouted blue and white wings. Before anyone could say anything he leapt out the window and began flying upwards. I would have scoffed but I had a small decision to make.

Interrupt the switching or be around Vali? … Yeah I'll just follow Vali. He knows I'm supposed to be around, after all.

I simply blinked to Vali's side and matched his speed with motion magic fuelled flight. I dropped all my stealth spells on the way.

"I'm Abyss by the way. Arthur told you about me, right?" Vali didn't seem overly surprised by my presence.

"Arthur called you strong and that you stick with Ophis. I doubt you'll be of any help. Stay back and let me handle this. Cast some spells if it makes you feel better." I want to punch this bastard so badly. He flew away a little speedily and I muttered expletives under my breath as I prepared a chain lightning spell with consumption. The consumption eats the mana of it's targets and uses it to keep going. It's one of my most effective spells for large groups. I use it to kill ants sometimes since it doesn't hurt the environment.

Just because I'd rather not make my reveal quite yet I engaged all my stealth spells again. If people pointed fingers at me as the 'traitor' it might be annoying.

"Balance… BREAK!" Vali shouted dramatically. White armor composed of his draconic affinity materialized around his body. I scoffed at his dramatic anime-esque posing and released my chain lightning spell. It arced between the magicians and took out almost half of them in a second.

Vali, who looked quite pissed off at having less magicians to fight, formed some sort of blue orb in his palm composed of mana and lightning before letting it go. It took out half the other magicians in a similar fashion to mine, although his was made of pure lightning rather than having an auxiliary element.

To speak I used wind whisper, manifesting my voice next to his ear. "You're right. Casting one of my weaker spells DID make me feel better! Thanks for cleaning up my leftovers. I'm sure you would have done great without me doing most of the work." Vali snarled.

"Arthur said we should fight. After we recover I'll see you at his manor."

"That sounds like a brilliant way to teach you a lesson. I'll see you then. For now I want to practice melee combat while flying. I rarely fly and fight at the same time."

With that settled I formed a metal sabre in my hand. The runes of Ruby's glove activated and worked their magic on the sword. It felt lighter, more natural, and most importantly, more deadly.

It's a shame that the magicians are so outclassed. I kind of want a challenge. Well, that and to beat Vali's arrogant face in but that can wait.

I got to killing magicians, which was basically just racing around the battlefield taking heads off. It was pretty fun to run around so fast though. I found myself competing with Vali to kill faster. Sure I could just use my semblance to trap everyone in a storm and destroy their souls with void but that's not really on the table right now. Getting that involved with the plot seems a little excessive.

I noticed the school building go up in an explosion after about five minutes and saw Sirzechs make a barrier with the frozen students inside. What a nice guy.

It was a few minutes later that Vali seemingly got bored and came over to me. "Hey" he said. I glanced over at him. "I'm going to fight the red dragon emperor. Don't interfere."

"You can't tell me to so much as sit down," I retorted, "If you're in danger I'm getting you out so I can kick your ass later.

Vali grunted and flew away, where he immediately punched Azazel, who was now missing his left arm, down so hard he left a crater. I rolled my eyes and went over close to the fight and watched.

"Bad Vali," Azazel grunted, looking up at him.

"Sorry, Azazel. Things looked more interesting from this side." Vali still sounded like he wasn't sorry whatsoever. You know what? I don't like him. Nobody likes him. Then again, I'm an almost-member of the khaos brigade just because it seems interesting as well so I can't really talk. That doesn't make Vali less of a dick though.

"Vali! You're the one who betrayed us!" Issei didn't seem overly surprised. Neither did anyone else actually. Gee I wonder why.

Azazel got up and dusted his V-neck off. "I can understand but there's something I'd like to ask you."

"Hm?" Vali seemed uninterested.

"You know shemlazah-" I have no idea what Azazel just said but I think it's a name. "-my vice governor general. Well he told me about a new group that's been gathering the dangerous elements of the three factions." Azazel's and Vali's eyes met intensely. "What were they called? Ah, right. The khaos brigade."

"I bet I can guess who's leading you," Azazel continued, "Has to be Ophis, the ouroboros dragon, huh?"

"Yeah I work for Ophis," Vali said flippantly. "But neither of us have any interest in world domination. We're just a group who formed in order to use our power. That's it."

"Well that makes a little more sense," Azazel said calmly. "Conspiring with paligloths-" I have no idea who or what that is "-seems a little beneath you but even so… both of you have royal devil blood."

A clammer came from below. Vali's voice boomed over them all. "That's right! My name is Vali Lucifer. I am a direct descendant of one of the dead devil kings. My mother was a human so I'm a half blood. My father was the grandson of the former great devil king Lucifer."

"Of course," Azazel scoffed, "And since you're half human you just HAD to be possessed by the vanishing dragon didn't you? So basically your existence is a joke." More and more I like Azazel.

"I would go with miracle personally," Vali said testily. You know what? This is like the mistral regional tournament all over again. Why am I waiting to fight? For an arrogant dick I don't even like? A timeline that doesn't matter to me? Fuck it.

Appearing without warning behind Vali I channeled some motion affinity into my palm and slammed it into Vali's back through my glove. He went flying at extreme speeds into the earth, faster than Azazel did by a significant amount and I didn't even use any mana.

"You know what, Vali?" I questioned, ignoring the surprised looks from everyone. "I really just can't stand you. I don't really give a damn if you want to fight or not. Deal with your obsession with the weak red dragon emperor now or don't and fight me instead because I promise I'll tan your hide redder than the red dragon's scale mail and give you the beating a brat like you deserves. Miracle my ass. You're more like a divine accident."

It was only then that I noticed Azazel cracking it up over on the sidelines. He was actually holding his stomach as he shook in laughter at my torrent of insults towards Vali. "Holy-Oh my-holy shit! Who are you?!" Azazel stifled his laughter and chuckles enough to be only vaguely heard.

"I'm Abyss Mavros, dimensional traveller, wizard, user of the void, and a few other things. I'm practically a member of the khaos brigade myself but everyone there except a few people are such utter assholes like Vali here that I can't stand any of them. The only reason I'm around them at all is because I'm a friend of Ophis' and I want an interesting experience."

"You ASSHOLE!" Vali roared at me. "YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T INTERFERE!"

"I told you to fuck off when you ordered me to stay out of your business," I said heatedly. "If you want to fight scrounge up the balls to throw one of your weak little punches you broody teenager. Is your armor so white because you're pale in fear?"

Vali roared at me and sprung off the ground at high speeds straight towards me. I shot a beam of heat at him but he dodged easily with a barrel roll and neared closer. Good.

With a smirk on my face I activated my semblance with a burst of motion magic, something Ruby had suggested. The storm inside me exploded outwards with a wave of immensely powerful winds.

Vali's wings worked against him as he was pushed back. With another roar of rage he flapped hard against the winds. I laughed at the idiot's attempt.

That my storm spread over the skies was hardly an issue for me. Sirzech's barrier was still up and nobody was interfering with my fight so whatever. I infused the void into my storm and the effects were immediately felt.

The clouds grew denser and darker, making them hang lower on the bystanders below. The lightning in it rumbled ominously and the winds howled unnaturally when they shouldn't be able to. The mana and affinity in the air was being sucked in at a rapid pace, though around me the mana was untouched just in case I might need it.

On the ground I saw Sirzechs, Michael, and Azazel working furiously to keep my storm away from the club members. My storm had gravitated towards them, being attracted to their rich reserves of energy. For them to take the sapping of their energy and flee would be to leave the ORC and student council to my storm, which they might not be able to escape from.

Michael and Azazel were only able to fight primatively against my semblance, hurling mana and affinity to push the storm back temporarily. They fought with a grit that reminded me of someone who knew they were in a desperate situation.

Sirzechs was the only one doing real damage, along with his sister helping him a little. His high energy power and abundant mana was actually able to push back the void even if it was swallowed up by the nothingness. He didn't seem to be straining too hard, and was picking up the slack from Michael and Azazel, though they both took up most of the work. He didn't seem too interested in getting out for some reason.

The others weren't really able to help, though they tried their best. I saw Issei try to encourage Gasper to use his sacred gear, the power to stop time, to trap me, but it's effects were simply consumed by the dark storm. Issei even managed to think up the idea to transfer all his power to Gasper and push through but it was useless. The storm simply sucked in the power.

I felt through the storm as Vali's affinity fuelling his armor was being ground to nothing under the thick void in my storm, his mana untouched under the protection of the affinity. The winds and rain sucked at his energy but it wasn't enough. I feel it needs a kick.

With a flexing of my will a massive lightning bolt slammed forcefully into Vali's chest. He gasped in pain and his armor shined and dissipated into motes of light. His body flew back down to earth, landing just meters away from the group of people fighting desperately.

He still had mana left but it was being rapidly drained. He wouldn't last ten seconds. The storm sapped away almost a hundred thousand mana a second from him even in it's dispersed state.

My semblance was being amplified by my glove enough that the void was immense in it's own right. More than a million void affinity was fuelling my semblance, after all. If i were to focus my void completely on him his soul would be dead in moments… or would it?

Vali has his dragon's soul in him, after all. He might be able to do something… no. It's not worth the risk. I might piss Ophis off. Besides, there's no real need to test that.

I flew down to Vali's form and let my semblance disperse. The unnatural storm ceased it's howling and quickly faded to nothing. I bent down to Vali's beaten form and quickly punched him in the forehead, knocking him out.

A glance at the group showed Azazel looking at me with a calculative gleam in his eyes, as well as a hinto of fear. Michael had a hard look to his, like he expected me to be an enemy. Sirzechs had something like respect and annoyance. Serafall showed rage. Right, I had almost hurt her sister.

I almost chuckled menacingly when I reached out with my mana and put a teleport marker on the faction leaders and the pervert. None of them noticed. My mana control is proficient enough that I can pull something off like that, though I'm not sure if it will last too long if they mess with it.

"My apologies that you got caught up in that." I said as gracefully as I could. "I'll be bringing this idiot to a safe place now. My apologies for his general assholery and condescending rudeness. Enjoy your… conference."

A glance at the battlefield showed Kuoh town's school levelled to a crater, the ground still hot from that big explosion earlier. The bodies of magicians, some maimed from my sword, some beaten by Vali, and more defeated by other sources, lay scattered around the school.

"Right, well, good luck rebuilding. Blame Vali for the damages. Now I'm off to play video games and relax. I suggest you all do something along the same lines. Enjoy your night." Without waiting for a reply I made a portal and tossed Vali's body through it before stepping through myself.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _This is… this is troubling."_

" _More than troubling, Oz. It's damn near catastrophic."_

" _Perhaps cataclysmic."_

" _Well… do we have a plan?"_

" _Wait to see if he appears next year for beacon."_

" _Oz that is the stupide-"_

" _Qrow do you believe we can storm Salem's castle for Abyss? That we can somehow negotiate his release when he went willingly to Salem? Or that we should assume the worst and ambush him when he emerges again? He is the heir of one of the most important companies in remnant. His goods have begun bringing humanity into a golden age against the grimm."_

" _He's in Salem's castle right now, Oz. Salem's. Castle."_

" _Miss Opaque has made it quite clear that her student has not joined Salem, merely begun learning what he believes I will not teach him."  
_

" _Dark magics, Oz."_

" _Salem does indeed know magics darker than I would care to admit. From mere cantrips to give puppies toothaches to magic that will rip a soul asunder and devour it whole."_

" _Well let's hope Abyss holds a grudge against puppies, huh? Since we're so helpless that we can only let him run around doing whatever the hell he pleases."_

" _What do you think I can do, Qrow? Do you believe that I should lock him in beacon? Kill him? Try to strip his magic from him - though with his power even years ago that would be nearly impossible - or perhaps I should slaughter his family, being your sister and miss Rose, your niece, and dismantle his crime syndicate, which is, in fact, an immensely tame organization that doesn't even tolerate drugs… I can only do so much."_

" _Yeah… yeah I know. It's unfair to just look for you for some magical solution. I just hate being so helpless over him. I mean, dust, he's been around my sister for years and we just learn this now? And Ruby… when the hell did she murder a maiden and I didn't… I don't know, Oz. When did marrying a woman get so earth-shattering?"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"That's six hundred." I said smugly. Fey sighed and scrounged up six hundred monopoly money, handing it to me with a sad look.

"I wanted to buy new york from onii-sama." She said sadly.

"Then you shouldn't have landed on boardwalk." I said mercilessly. Two houses on boardwalk and park place just became four each. Ophis and Arthur are both around the greens and reds so I'll hopefully catch one and economically slaughter them.

"I'm putting two more houses on both of these." I said, trying to keep the glee away from my voice. Park place and Boardwalk became four house properties and I rolled, landing on virginia avenue, which I owned.

"My turn." Arthur said calmly. He plucked up the dice and rolled them out, rolling an eight right onto boardwalk. "Oh…" He said. If I listened closely I thought he might be dying inside.

"That's one thousand seven hundred, Arthur." I said gently. He looked down at his money, seeing some fifties, twenties, and a single hundred. He looked at his only properties, the light blues and the browns, the worst in the game, but with hotels on all of them. If you look closely you can see him dying.

"We'll give you a minute, Onii-sama." Fey said gently, though there was a little guilt in her voice. She had funded her own brother's death, after all.

"My turn." Ophis said in monotone. She rolled a twelve onto park place. "Oh… that's not good." She only owned the railroads, some red properties, and seven hundred dollars. All three of them landing on boardwalk or park place was probably my luck stat in action.

"Should we leave this here?" I offered. Arthur looked with wet eyes at the pile of money he had desperately scraped together. It was a pathetic mishmash barely reaching a thousand five hundred, all his properties mortgaged and devoid of houses.

"Let's." He said, his voice a little devoid of happiness. "Vali might have woken up by now."

"He woke up an hour ago. He's just not here because I chained him up in your dungeon." Arthur nodded, completely unfazed.

"When did we get a dungeon?" He asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"You didn't know?" Ophis asked curiously. "That explains why it's always so dusty."

"I thought it was obvious." I agreed. "In the library there's a bookshelf that moves if you pull on it. It doesn't have a secret book you have to pull or anything. You just pull on it."

"Which section?" Fey asked.

"The family records." I said.

"I'll go get Vali." Arthur sighed as he stood up.

"If he wants to kill me tell him that I'm open but I'd prefer if he didn't destroy your manor. I rather like this place." Arthur nodded and exited the room right after I finished. My parallels got busy cleaning up the board game quickly and I got up from the table to get it ready for dinner.

According to Arthur, when he was talking to Kuroka in the Khaos brigade's private internet chatroom, which is a somewhat surreal thing for them to have, she got very interested when he said how strong I was (compared to him) and that I had 'cat ears'. That I associated with Ophis in a friendly manner was the icing on the cake for her.

Curiosity did kill the cat apparently. It killed it quickly too since Kuroka was coming over tonight rather than tomorrow. Since it's my fault that she and Vali are over I offered to cook for everyone. I've had my parallels cooking in the kitchen for the past hour. I figure that tilapia is fine. Lemon, thyme, and some spices will make it fine to my standards.

I don't have any… well I'm beyond broke just like I was in the old days so I just stole the fish. Kuroka won't care from what I remember of her and Ophis probably wouldn't care if I nuked canada or wrote a poem. As far as I can tell she only really cares about the void and the quiet within it, though she does feel fond of the Pendragon siblings and myself.

Luckily the Pendragons have a decent kitchen and everything is relatively organized so my parallels had very little trouble. Since I have nine of them I could probably live my life without lifting a finger.

They're not too useful beyond doing one continuous task (holding a magical effect, keeping a lookout, etc.), housework, and training but they're doubtlessly my most useful skill just because of how much I can get done with them in my free time.

To make them a bit of a double-edged sword I remember everything they do, of course, but that doesn't change that I can get a lot done with them. Even so I like doing something with my hands sometimes.

This is not one of those times.

I reclined on the couch and Ophis plopped down right next to me with an expectant expression. I just wrapped her in my void and she sighed and closed her eyes.

… I've actually got to do some things in this dimension and right now time's wasting. Come to think of it I should write all this down.

First is something that's pretty much a staple of this dimension. Sacred gears. Sure I could benefit off of the boosted gear, OP as it is, or the divine dividing gear, both being stupidly powerful, but I have a more… resourceful idea.

I happen to have a large amount of purity attunement in me from my silver eyes. Obviously it's not like my purity affinity since it amplifies it but I'd call it more like a catalyst for it.

Even so it's unrefined. It's just a mass of energy I can tap into. I happen to know two people VERY interested in this energy that I might be able to get to help me turn the energy to a more suitable usage. A more efficient usage for it.

The first option is Azazel. The guy's the obvious answer to my question. He loves sacred gears and having an energy that's probably appropriate to making one would be a great test for him to create one.

The other guy to use - I mean - work with, would be Michael, the angel Michael that is. Perhaps other archangels as well. The angel likes holy things, being angelic and all, so I can probably convince him to help me form a sacred gear from my silver eyes energy.

The guy was there in the beginning, when God created the sacred gears, so I'd bet there's something he can use to help me out in that head of his or something in heaven to assist me.

Best case scenario I can use both of them to make the best gear possible.

The second task is a bit less of a priority but I'd like Ophis' help to use void. I'm pretty sure that in her infinitely long life she's learned some neat tricks with that void of hers. I'd like some and I'm pretty sure she won't mind me learning from her. The problem is her teaching. Why would she put in any effort, after all? She never really does.

Third is the easiest objective. I want all the media I can grab and bring it over to remnant for my own enjoyment. If I wanted money I could sell it to remnant's media too.

Remnant has a crappy industry for… *Ahem* Adult material except for some tentacle grimm stuff… or so I've been told. From a friend of a friend of course. This perverted hentai dimension is perfect for corrupting the world back home (further) if I ever care to do so.

Finally is something a lot more complicated than the other stuff. When I release void into the world it conflicts with other affinities and disappears. When I keep going, releasing affinity, it just disappears as other affinities come appearing in the same space. Even Poledina's circle of affinity compression is unable to capture void. Void cancels out magic so it cancels out the runes too. My runes on my body have my mana and affinity running through them, including watered-down void, so they're exempt for reasons I don't understand but any attempts to replicate this are hopeless.

This inability to compress void makes finding an elemental for the element very problematic. I need to find an elemental for void or a being that can act as a contracted elemental for void…

Preferably a dragon from the void. That just sounds badass and I like dragons. I've always been a dragon nerd but remnant has no dragons that I know of besides the grimm one and that seems like cheating the system since Salem probably made that one. A real dragon. Not a corrupted elemental given a form that looks like a dragon. But that's for later

"NYA! ARTHUR-KUN I'M BACK!" A voice yelled out into the somewhat empty mansion. That's Kuroka… probably. And why the hell does she go 'NYAAA!'? There's no way she's not doing that just to play things up with her being a nekoshou.

A tallish black figure flounced into the living room. My eyes locked with hers, golden hazel with my dark yellow - which still caught me off-guard since I'm used to silver.

"Oh hi! And you are?" Kuroka, because who else could this be, smiled at me widely and leaned forward just a little, letting me peek over her kimono if I looked. Her kimono wasn't exactly subtle about her confidence. There weren't shoulders at all on it, giving any enterprising man a clear view of the top of her breasts, and the slit down her waist was large enough that you could glimpse her long legs. Other than the kimono she had a yellow ribbon, which I think is called an obi in Japan, around her torso.

Curiously enough I don't see any cat ears, though shouldn't a nekoshou have them? Maybe they're small and under her black hair. It's long hair, after all. Even more interestingly was something my senses told me of. Kuroka was turning out to be a very interesting individual already.

"I'm Abyss." I said with a polite nod. "Nice to meet you, Kuroka-san." Using Japanese honorifics feels a bit weird. I'm in Japan so I should certainly use them but it still makes me feel uncomfortable. To investigate what my senses were picking up I observed her.

 **Kuroka Toujou**

 **Titles: Last Nekoshou;**

 **Level – 502**

 **HP –**

 **AP – 13,020**

 **MP - 124,440**

 **STR - 371 (+350%)(80%)= 1409**

 **VIT - 362 (+350%)(80%)= 1375.6**

 **DEX - 473 (+350%)(80%)= 1797.4**

 **INT - 622 (+0%)= 622**

 **WIS - 651 (+0%)= 651**

 **LUK - 31 (+0%)=**

 **Semblance: Locked**

 **Affinities:**

 **Infernal: 1512**

 **Space: 1423**

 **Mystical: 429**

 **Perks:**

 **Weak divine core - Despite having aura this individual has only the faintest history of divinity in their blood, making their aura weaker than average compared to remnant. Despite this they are still capable of using aura, which is more than most.**

 **\- 50% less total aura**

 **\- 20% less benefits from aura**

 **\- 33% slower levelling speed for aura skill and aura based skills**

 **Stray devil (Evil piece) - Despite being a devil cut off from the affinity of your master you have managed to retain your identity and power through your high affinity for the infernal equal or greater than your master's affinity at the time of your escape. Thus you retain the benefits of being a devil while having no obligation towards a peerage.**

 **\- 5x total MP**

 **\- Innate infernal affinity**

 **-Innate capabilities for flight magic; wings are granted as a manifestation of your demonic power**

 **Bio: Left with the care of her younger sister Shirone (aka Koneko) after the death of their parents, Kuroka struggled to make ends meet. Eventually she surrendered herself to the peerage of Naferian Naberius, of a branch of the Naberius family, in exchange for the safety of her younger sister and for Naferian to provide for her and her sister.**

 **Naferian did provide for Kuroka and her sister, yet as his bishop Kuroka was forced to sell herself to him and follow his every order, which were endured for her younger sister and the hope of one day becoming a mid-class or high class devil and gaining more freedom from her master and managing to gain her own freedom from the greater opportunities given to higher class devils.**

 **Naferian, however, prevented Kuroka from attending the devil promotion ceremonies due to the fact that he himself was barely a mid-class devil himself, meaning that Kuroka would be publicly superior to her master when she reached the level of high-class. Having his most powerful peerage member and favorite plaything run free was naturally undesirable to him.**

 **Kuroka, after enduring three years under Naferian's service, killed him in a fit of rage after he suggested that she bring her younger sister into his service 'for protection'. She fled the underworld as a stray devil and soon made her name as an S ranked and later SS ranked stray devil.**

 **After catching Ophis' attention due to her strength she was recruited to the khaos brigade, though she doesn't really mind since she runs free most of the time. Her current goal is to make up with her sister and find a mate to restore her race with.**

"Ah, you don't have to use honorifics!" Kuroka said dismissively, a hand on her waist. I glanced away from her status and put it out of my mind for the moment, though my mind was racing with theories.

"Arthur-kun doesn't like them all that much but he's super formal. And you can use english too. We devils speak all languages and Arthur and Fey-chan like to use english. They don't get too many opportunities."

"Thank you, Kuroka," I said gratefully. Japanese still feels awkward on my tongue. It takes more than a few hours of practice to learn a language fluently even if I could technically speak it. "Arthur is getting Vali from the dungeons right now."

Kuroka laughed musically. It sounded honest, if a little exaggerated. "The manor doesn't have dungeons!"

"That's just what the Pendragons want you to think," I said ominously. Kuroka seemed to think on that for a moment before pushing it out of her mind. "Dinner will be ready in a few moments. Do you drink?"

"Just tea and water please!" Kuroka took a step backwards before plopping down on the couch. 'Make yourself at home' seemed to be unnecessary in her case. My parallels were already making some tea but I put on another pot of Raven's favorite tea.

It's deceptively minty and a little sweet like peppermint with that distinctive tea taste and I've only met a few people who didn't like it. According to Raven Summer was actually the one who got her into the tea although she never much liked any other brands.

I personally enjoy the stuff especially with a little honey to feed my sweet tooth. Since everyone is having tea I may as well make some more so we don't run out. Actually I'll make a third and put an enchantment for heat preservation on it just in case.

"Of course," I nodded, "We're having tilapia by the way."

"Sure." Kuroka didn't seem to particularly care. "You wanted to speak to me about senjutsu, right?" I nodded.

"I have a few conditions that let me resist mental influences better than most. However, I believe that I've already gotten a headstart on learning it." To answer the question Kuroka would no doubt ask I raised my hand and coaxed out my aura in it, letting a red glow envelop it.

Kuroka's eyes grew interested. "That would be toki," she said with a small smile. Then her smile fell a bit and she seemed to notice something off about my aura. She narrowed her eyes and stood up, coming closer to my hand in a few short strides. She kneeled down and was looking intensely at my glowing hand.

Then she put it in her mouth.

I didn't even react much. Did she just get really interested in my aura and then put my hand… no that totally didn't happen.

"How… strange." Kuroka was staring intently at my hand, which was a little wet with her saliva-dear god she just put my hand in her mouth for some reason. "You have senjutsu power with your toki but it's… weird. Kind of like they're closer than they should be." Kuroka stood up, still holding my hand. She rested my palm's heel right on her breasts and was looking intently at my aura around my hand. I have no idea if she's doing this on purpose.

"Senjutsu itself is controlling your life force and using it to your advantage to make you stronger, faster, and tougher. It's uses are many, from reacting volatilely with some forms of mana to coating objects in it to become more durable, healing people, storing life force, and so on. Touki is making an aura of your life force around you strong enough that it enhances your physique. It even has a faint physical presence. Enough to defend against magical and physical attacks at the expense of a little life force, which comes back over time. One of the biggest myths about senjutsu is that you don't get lifeforce back but…"

Kuroka seemed to think for a moment. The playful look on her face earlier was replaced with a more thoughtful, curious, and cunning one. "You already know senjutsu I think. Touki is doing just this but with your whole body." She flicked my hand for reference.

"You have something in you that makes your lifeforce WAY stronger though. Easier to draw out too." She looked curiously at me. "What is it?"

"A divine essence," Ophis said, surprising us both. Kuroka hadn't paid attention to her before but now she had her full focus.

"Could you elaborate on that Ophis-sama?" she asked. Ophis sighed.

"Abyss has a watered down amount of divinity in him. Hundreds of generations must have passed but a very strong god, perhaps two, are in his ancestry. It fuels his lifeforce to be greater than your weak essence does. Touki and senjutsu are just techniques for using lifeforce anyways. Abyss knows senjutsu far better than you, though he wastes his divine essence just enhancing his lifeforce when he should be able to control it better."

I just stared at Ophis for a moment. She had never spoken so much before. Kuroka blinked herself out of the similar stupor she found herself in and turned towards me.

"So I can't teach you to use senjutsu because you already know it!" Kuroka smiled mischievously but her eyes held a burning curiosity. "But about your space magic that you could teach me…"

I raised an eyebrow. "You haven't taught me anything, though. If it's a trade of spells you want I wouldn't mind much."

Kuroka's eyes glimmered. "Let's have a contest! It should be easy." She smirked, seemingly expecting to win. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Bring it, kitten. I have more magic than you have shamelessness and know more magic techniques than you'd learn in all your nine lives." Kuroka's smirk grew.

"Prove it then."

I was just about to respond when I noticed Arthur at the table with Le Fey. "Later," I called to her as I rose. Ophis looked over at the table curiously and apparently decided to eat at the table with us for some reason.

"Vali isn't feeling very well right now," Arthur explained. "I think he's talking to Albion and nursing his pride. You landed quite a dent in it."

I shrugged, completely unapologetic. "He deserved more. You should have seen him blowing me off, calling me weak and suggesting I stay behind. I thought about letting him try and fight his supposed rival, the red dragon emperor, but he was being an asshole so I decided I was going to fight him whether he wanted to fight me then or not."

"He's like that," Arthur agreed. "He's better when he's in a more civilized setting. It would be better to have my introduction in person but you seem to have gotten through to him to not belittle you. I heard him mutter something about Albion telling him so as I left. Since the dragons can sense magic in their gauntlets I assume they felt your reserves and decided you were a threat."

My parallels brought over all the food on platters for everyone and Kuroka raised an eyebrow. "When did you get magical dishes?" she asked Arthur.

"We didn't…" everyone except Ophis looked towards me. I shrugged.

"It's just telekinesis. If you want it a bit more long term I could enchant them I guess."

"Abyss-sama enchanting a whole silverware cabinet with even basic enchantments costs hundreds of thousands of yen," Le Fey said neutrally. I rolled my eyes and grabbed a platter a parallel was using my motion affinity to hold up. A glance showed me that it held everyone's tilapia.

I flicked my wrist and a razor sharp scalpel made of glass was in my hand. It barely took me five seconds to make the rune for mana collection on the bottom of the platter. I also made an illusory rune just in case somebody decided to try to learn my runes and a self-destruct rune if somebody disrupted the rune. That took another seven.

Enchanting is flexible and fast but it's also temporary and somewhat weaker than runes. Enchanting can make a sword spit fire with every swing but it runs out of mana quickly unless you have a huge affinity for fire. I could make one that makes lightning bolts for every swing, sure, but it would only last a few hundred swings before I would have to recharge it. Unless I have a rune of recharging on it, that is.

Even so enchanting is more of a household skill than a useful one. It's not terribly hard to do though. I consider it a poor man's runes, though being able to do it yourself quickly is useful and could be used in combat if you knew your stuff but there's always a better option.

That's why it took me just a single second to enchant the platter of food to float and home in on anything that sends a pulse of mana to it. It just takes a little motion magic and the intent. Enchanting is easy.

I tossed the platter into the air and I could see everyone tense and prepare to catch it. When it just floated in place they stopped and looked at it in surprise for a moment. As if I don't know what I'm doing…

I raised my hand and prepared a tiny pulse of aura, which would be visible. The little red pulse shot towards the platter and hit it flawlessly and it floated towards me. I stopped it with a finger and it stopped flying. I dished my plate up with tilapia and gave the platter a push towards Kuroka.

She stopped it and looked curious with it. She tried pulling it upwards and letting go, only to see that it stayed in place. Pulling it downwards did the same thing. She then dished up and pushed it towards Arthur and Le Fey. I was busy dishing up with the boiled vegetables and rice as well as pouring my tea.

It took a minute before everyone stopped playing with the plate. They at least got dished up. Nobody said a prayer, but then again Kuroka _is_ a devil so it would be kind of… meh. Ophis didn't even wait to see if we could pray. She just took a bite and froze. She looked between me and the food a few times.

"You made this?" she asked. Her eyes were as serious as I'd ever seen them.

"I'm a good cook," I said, trying to sound humble. Ophis glanced one more time between me and the food before deciding to eat, savoring each bite. This brought everyone else to try a bite too.

"Oh…" Arthur said. He did that same glance between me and the food like Ophis before he decided to just eat in his polite way. He never really vigorously ate anything but he seemed to enjoy it immensely.

Fey didn't say anything or look at me. She just ate a little faster than before.

Kuroka had the most interesting expression to me actually being a good cook. She ate one bite of the tilapia and I'm pretty sure me and Ophis were the only ones to hear a faint 'Nyah…' come from her. Maybe she isn't faking it? No she's definitely faking it. A faint blush came onto her face and her pupils turned to the slits again as she looked at the food. I remember having a cat before coming to remnant. Her eyes always became slits when she was stalking something. This reminds me of that.

I was the only one to eat my food at a more normal pace. I did the tea pretty well this time too, though everyone seems to be ignoring it. It's a shame. Tea isn't affected by my cooking skill. Raven actually takes pride in that it's one of the few household skills she's better than me at. I make decent tea. She does it better. I don't know how she knows just how to make it other than experience.

About halfway through my meal everyone else was three quarters done. "I'm making cookies too, you know?" I mentioned, "With homemade whip cream. Not that aerosol stuff from the store. Save some space." Ophis ignored me. She could probably eat forever if she felt like it. Arthur slowed down a little on his food and Le Fey seemed to have an intense staring contest with her food before eating some of her vegetables and pushing the plate away. Kuroka had a similar moment of crisis but decided to keep going.

When everyone was done we waited for Ophis, who decided to help herself to our leftovers.

"How are you such a good cook?" Arthur asked me seriously. "I've been cooking for most of my life and I'm not that good."

"I've cooked most of my life too," I said with a small smile, "But I learned from a friend of mine, Summer Rose, who made some of the best cookies known to mankind and was what her daughters called a super mom. When she died I took custody of one of her daughters and eventually learned to get better."

"How long ago was this?" Le Fey asked.

"Ruby was about six so…" I thought for just a moment. "Nine years ago."

"But at that time wouldn't you be…" Kuroka led the question to me.

"It's complicated but the short version is that I'm twenty nine and made a new body because I was stupid and died once." A moment of silence clouded the room's air, except for Ophis' eating, which slowed down for a second before picking back up again.

"You… what?" Le Fey seemed confused.

"Well if you want to be technical I've died twice now but I don't remember all that much from before fifteen years ago. At that time I was in what I think is a car crash and through some circumstances found that I had become one of the very few magic users around at the time."

"About four years later I was experimenting with a technique called soul hearth, where I make an artificial space in my soul and can store things there. I left my body there and tried possessing my friend Summer so we didn't have to buy two airline tickets. In the middle of the flight there was an incident with myself and magic and I ended up suffocating my body in my own soul and permanently possessing Summer for a small time before she died and I had to possess Ruby for a few years. I ended up making my own body through a lot of studying and filling in the gaps with life magic."

"That's… quite a story," Arthur said in muted astonishment. "But you said… your world."

"I'm currently taking a foray here but my home is called remnant and it's in a different dimension across the gap. Ophis can attest to it."

Ophis paused her eating for just a moment. "He's not lying." She immediately turned back to her food.

"It's no big deal," I said dismissively, "Our worlds are mostly equal in technology. Where earth is reliant on fossil fuels mine is dependent on dust, crystallized mana, though the world doesn't realize that magic exists because of government cover-ups and such. You would think that people would realize since it's pretty in your face there but people tend to not question what seems normal. Anyways, remnant and earth are pretty similar in most ways. It's inconsequential for the most part. Well, except that I'm going to be taking all of this world's media for myself. It's way too good to just leave behind. Besides, the USB drives really are universal."

"The more I learn about you the more I want to learn more," Kuroka said in fascination. Her eyes narrowed in a sultry manner. "Much more."

I fought back a blush and pretended to have not noticed her obvious flirting, though judging by her smirk I wasn't entirely successful. "I'm sure we'll learn plenty from each other." As soon as I said that I realized how flirty it sounded. I meant trading magic goddamnit…

 ***Ding!* New skill acquired! - Flirting**

" _ **Hey there Summer. Is it just your name or are you always hot? Wait! No! Summer stop laughing I'm really trying here! I'm not that bad!"**_

 **-Taiyang Xiao-Long, on asking Summer to prom**

Being compared to Taiyang is fine but on flirting? I feel degraded. I guess I never really flirted with Vera though. We've always been friends way more than lovers. Is this really the first time I ever flirted with anyone? Wow…

To my shock Kuroka laughed a little at that.

"Kuroka-sama do you have to do this at the table?" Le Fey sighed. Kuroka and I both snicker at her.

"Of course not." I said, already knowing what I was about to say was Yang's fault. "We would do _it_ in your dungeon." Arthur nearly fumbled with his tea and Fey blushed like a lobster. Kuroka blushed a little but she seemed more interested in enjoying how embarrassed Arthur and Le Fey were.

Ophis was almost out of food. She may have not even heard what I said.

"Oh look, the cookies are here," I said innocently. My parallels distributed the cookies unevenly, five per person except Ophis, who got like ten or a dozen and an extra glass of milk. I almost thought I saw her eyes gleam but Ophis doesn't feel a lot of emotion so I'm probably hallucinating.

That or the way to her heart and unending loyalty is through her stomach. Somehow that seems more likely. I'm probably the tribe's second highest priority under Raven solely because they wouldn't be able to eat a better meal ever again without me. Ophis reminds me of that sort of relationship.

"These smell… good," Le Fey said approvingly. She was the second to start eating (Ophis waited for nobody and was already devouring the cookies). After just one bite I knew she was hooked. She didn't actually stop eating to give her opinion but just went for another bite as soon as she was done with her first bite. That was signal enough.

The cookies did not last long.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _He's an ass!"_

" _And you weren't?"_

" _No! I just told him to wait until I was done with my rival! Then the fucker beat me over the back of my head and belittled me!"_

" _You told him to stay back and shoot some spells condescendingly when you first met him. Then he immediately showed how adept he was at spellcraft, far more than you. Did you realize that he used no mana in that attack? He simply willed the lightning to form and it did, and I believe that he didn't use it to its full capacity either considering that he took out exactly half of the enemies around you. In fact, he used no mana at all in that entire fight. Had he done so… well I would be telling my warnings to my next host."_

"…"

" _You were in the wrong here, Vali. True, he did not have to intrude in your challenge of the red dragon emperor but he was well within his rights to do so. None of his words to you were false although I admit that his belittling made my blood boil as well. Had you ever spoken to me as you did that man I would challenge you to a duel without question. You should not be surprised that he did the same. I even told you of his power during the toying with the mages and you dismissed me out of your focus on the red dragon emperor."_

" _I have to prove I'm stronger than him."_

" _The red dragon emperor, your defeater, or your father?"_

" _All of them."_

" _Then I suggest you ask the help of the man, what did he call himself? Abyss? Yes I believe that was his name."_

" _Why would I ever go to HIM for help?!"_

" _Power. He is a master wizard without doubt and he wields the void as if he were a spawn of Ophis herself, not to mention that he is somewhat skilled with that blade of his. You are resourceful. He is reasonable, or so he seemed. Deal with him as you have dealt with others like Azazel in the past."_

"… _Fine. I will speak with him but I will not bow to him for his knowledge."_

" _Have you ever bowed since we met?"_

" _No."_

" _And you never shall. Until you meet a mate that is."_

" _Ugh."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

It took a solid hour and a half of letting the food settle before Kuroka was ready to fight, or more specifically, fight with weapons and space magic. To me and the Pendragons it's more to see how long Kuroka lasts than if she wins.

I explained the absurdity of the inequalizers and we agreed that it was too unfair to use. I'm not beating gods with it but I'm sure not going to get my ass handed to me with them on.

However, the gun portion of the gloves had fascinated Kuroka. Nobody ever used guns in this dimension. When I talked about enchanting the bullets and using runes on the guns she seemed intrigued by the idea. I demonstrated with an innocent tree and I think I can say that Kuroka has a newfound respect for guns.

That doesn't mean she's getting a gun though. Fine by me.

"Ready?" I called to confirm the first round's start. I was answered with a slight pop behind me and my instinctual skill calmly telling me to duck. I did so and nearly got a haircut.

My halberd shot out of my soul space into my hands and I jabbed at Kuroka, to which she backed off slightly. I warped space so she was closer and slammed the spike at the end of my weapon into her gut, eliminating a third of her aura in one hit.

She was surprised so I twirled my weapon to an assault rifle and opened a tiny portal at the back of her head and fired a burst of bullets.

Kuroka let out a 'NYA!' of surprise - seriously I can't tell if she's faking - and took action once more. I felt her mana appear behind me and I teleported right behind her. Rather than use my hands to attack her I used the 'resist spatial interference' spell to make her stop magically playing with space.

I actually felt her try to teleport again but the space she was in resisted her leaving, completely catching her off guard again.

I took some small pity on her and swung my fist forwards to knock her out but she took me by surprise for the first time. She grabbed my fist with her hand.

I felt my body get sucked into something and found myself inside Kuroka's aura…

She brought me into her soul space? It looks like a grey field. Booooring. I should show her how to make it decent. I'll help her steal a house or two. Hm… but she would need a larger space affinity to really keep cool stuff in her aura. Like a lake…

She has, what, eighteen million liters in here? Ugh. Puny. You know what, she's pretty fun to be around. I think I'll keep her around if she wants to stay for awhile.

I rolled my eyes and felt her aura around me inside hers. My aura was so much stronger than hers it wasn't even funny. I slammed my aura into hers from the inside and she was completely caught off-guard. I did so again and her aura broke open. I pushed mine outside of hers and engulfed it, essentially putting her in a spiritual armlock.

With an almost leisurely feeling I exited her soul space and looked to see Kuroka cloaked in a red aura, my aura, over a faint midnight blue aura. A strand of aura still connected me to my aura as always. I scoffed and recalled all my aura. Kuroka, freed from the aura repression, swayed woozily from side to side.

"Muuugh…" she groaned. "What did you… do? Nya." I almost rolled my eyes a second time at that little verbal tic she does. It's almost getting a little annoying actually.

"Your aura is WAY weaker than mine," I said flat out. She looked somewhat offended. "I've been controlling my aura since I was four. More power and skill made subjugating your aura easy. Especially from the inside." She seemed to grudgingly accept that.

"I've never fought another toki or senjutsu user before," she muttered.

"Then now you know what not to do, hm?" I questioned. "If I were weakened you could have caught and subjugated my aura yourself. I've done that a few times myself against people I especially hated. I drained them of their lifeforce and strengthened myself by taking their affinities."

"Affinities?" Kuroka looked confused for a moment. Then her face lit up. "Oh! You mean attunements Nya!" I shrugged.

"I call them affinities. Anyways, onto the next challenge." I stepped towards her and rested my hand on her shoulder before offering aura to her. Her eyes widened and she looked confused. I rolled my eyes.

"You're supposed to take the aura you know."

"Ahh, right." Kuroka clumsily seemed to grasp my aura with her own and messily assimilated my aura into her own. Oh dust she's so hopeless.

"Close enough." I gave, though she really wasn't all that good with aura. Maybe slightly worse than your average huntsman by my guess. So by my standards she was crap.

I didn't react when she channeled her aura - sorry, life force - towards her head. Her eyes returned to focus quickly and she seemed lucid again.

"Oh. I'm better now." Kuroka stood up easily and dusted her kimono (and breasts that were somehow still covered) off. "So how did you do any of that? And was that a portal? Not to mention how you blocked my teleportation or how you knew when I was going to teleport and where."

"My teleportation was just practice." I explained and blinked left to right a little quickly to demonstrate. "I blocked your teleportation by… well the closest analogy is that I took control of the space around you and made it more solid, which makes moving through the space harder. However, I know a few more ways of blocking teleportation other than that. The portal was just that, a portal. Practice and experience has helped me to make them extremely fast regardless of distance."

"And sensing?" Kuroka prodded.

I rolled my eyes. "Mana sensing helps me tell both through the fluctuations of mana around me, but if you want to learn the equivalent of it I would suggest that you gain greater attunement. That's pretty easy too so it shouldn't cause you too much trouble."

"Nya… I have no idea how to raise my affinity. I know sorcerers do it all the time but I don't know how myself," Kuroka said sheepishly. I just looked flatly at her. I got the spirit checkpoint skill at two hundred fifty wisdom. No way she doesn't know how… right?

Kuroka looked at me with an insulted expression. "I don't know! I've always been focused on senjutsu and fighting or avoiding the devils out to get me!" She sounded frustrated, extremely so.

I think I get it. She acts teasing and joyful but she's actually really frustrated by how much more powerful I am compared to her. It probably hurts her pride as an SS ranked devil, which I'm pretty sure is a combat ranking, and from that whole terrible childhood and crappy master her bio spoke of I can understand how strength could be important to her.

"You could just ask, you know," I said in exasperation. Some people just won't ask for help if they want it. Kuroka tilted her head slightly towards me and I felt suspicion in her aura. Yes, yes, I seem like a suspicious bastard and all. Shame on me for feeling a little empathy for someone with a tragic backstory and deciding they were worth being friends with.

"I've got things to do so I'll see you around." The quicker Azazel gets to study the sacred gear stuff the sooner I get a stronger power to use against Salem. Well, probably stronger. I'll bet that I could use one of the archangels for the founding of a new sacred gear if I used my dark sage title to suck their essence and souls out of them and into a gear. I'm pretty sure anyways…

Without bothering to wait on Kuroka to hook me into a conversation I reached into the marker for Azazel and pulled myself towards him, feeling that queer pulling feeling for a moment before I teleported.

[|||| == ||||]

" _Who was that?!"_

" _Calm down, Kiba. He called himself Abyss. I don't think he was lying. There's no reason to."_

" _Who he is can wait until later. I'm more concerned about what he did than who he is. We know he's strong and that he's an associate of the Khaos Brigade and more importantly, Ophis herself, which helps confirm what I said about her leading the Khaos Brigade. Personally I'm inclined to believe him on this. It explains his amount of power if nothing else."_

" _I agree. His capabilities are more important than anything else right now. That power of his was strange. It was like the opposite of magic. Especially with how much of it he could use easily. I have no trouble labelling him as an SS rank youkai."_

" _Nekoshou…"_

" _I know, Koneko. Apparently you and your sister aren't the last nekoshou after all. I'm pretty sure he used touki to enhance his strength."_

" _He knows senjutsu. I sensed it… he's incredibly powerful. He easily has twenty times my lifeforce and that power he used barely consumed any of it."_

" _Perhaps his lifeforce is linked to Ophis' power? I've seen plenty of sacred gears before and that wasn't one. It seemed more like a more powerful version of the power of destruction you have, Sirzechs."_

" _His power wasn't like the power of destruction. The power of destruction affects magic and the physical world equally. His power destroyed all the ambient magic and attunement around us."_

" _Even I can sense it."_

" _Quiet, Issei. Onii-sama is talking."_

" _So while my and Rias' power is equally physical and spiritual, able to affect magic and mass his affects only magical power."_

" _Incredible. I wonder…"_

" _What, Michael?"_

" _What would his power do to an undefended soul?"_

[|||| == ||||]

"Azazel." I greeted. The man turned quickly and as soon as he saw me he reeled back and formed a spear of light ready to attack me with his only arm, that being his left one. Then he thought better of it when he saw I wasn't attacking and the spear dissolved into motes of light.

"Ahh, Abyss, right?" He wore his friendliest smile but I saw uneasiness in it. "And you're not here to kill me, right?" I almost cracked a smile. I like this guy.

"No I'm not here for that although I'd prefer that this meeting stays between us. I want your help developing a sacred gear." Azazel's smile was like plastic.

"And why, exactly, would I do that?"

"Because then you'll get to see how a sacred gear is made firsthand. I have within me an energy that causes my toki's attunement to purity, or holy as you call it, to be amplified immensely." I demonstrated by flaring the silver eyes essence in me, causing my aura to turn white and wispy again. Azazel looked at me calculatively.

"Unfortunately I don't deal with terrorists so you're going to have to find somebody else," he said with that same falsely pleasant tone of voice.

I sighed. "You don't think Michael would be terribly happy to help me, would you? I believe that he was there for the creation of the gears."

"Probably not," Azazel said simply. "But it's a holy energy so you never know."

"You're sure there's nothing I can do to convince you? I could show you quite a bit, being a nekoshou and wielder of powers you clearly don't understand. If this is about the whole Khaos Brigade thing I assure you that I can prove to be far more of a nuisance than they are."

Azazel looked contemplative.

"I have other things to do rather than work with you, you know," I said casually. "I heard that an idiotic bimbo serving under you, Raynare I think, extracted a sacred gear from that devil girl's soul. Twilight healing. I don't care about that myself but I also know of the user of the boosted gear. I'm certain that my ability to manipulate my lifeforce would lend me advantages in using the gears. They might even survive if I lend them my own lifeforce."

"You're not exactly a good person, are you?" Azazel looked at me flatly.

"No but I'm not quite a bad one either," I explained, "A bad person would kill the gear users and steal their gears, which is easy. I could kill Vali and Ophis would probably not care much since I'd have the gear myself." A flicker of anger went over Azazel's face at the mention of killing Vali.

"But there are plenty of other people I could take gears from too," I continued. "That Cao-Cao guy has the true longinus, you know? I wonder what I could do with that! But what I really want to try out is consuming the soul of one of the creatures in a sacred gear. Just wonder how much power I would gain by slowly draining Ddraig of his life force until he's a husk of a dragon fit only for euthanasia."

Azazel's face was ashen. Maybe filled with terror. I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh did you not know I could do that? Drain a creature of strength by eating their soul? I've only done it twice before, once on a monster that threatened my family and hurt my best friend and one other time on a serpent of Ophis' that she created by accident during a skirmish with great red. I wouldn't mind doing it a few more times. I mean, I can manipulate lifeforce and as a result of that my soul. Did nobody realize that we could sap a soul of strength until now?"

"You're a monster," Azazel said simply.

"A monster I may be but not because of what I do but what I can do,." I said chidingly. "I have monstrous strength, certainly, and monstrous potential but not monstrous morals. The monster you're thinking of would do those things. I have not done any of those things I speak of. Only considered them."

"… You just want a sacred gear from that energy within you, right?" Azazel asked, still pale-faced.

"Yes,." I confirmed. "Can you do it? I'm able to help." He waved me off.

"I can do it. Give me the energy and a month. I made the down fall dragon spear myself. The hard part is getting something that can be used to make the sacred gear. That you have the energy already to make the gear is enough to make one. Power without structure. Metal without a shape. I just have to take that metal and make it into a gear. Easy… well not quite but I can do it." A grim smile came onto his face.

"But I want something in return." Of course he does.

I rolled my eyes. "What?"

"Don't ever do any of those things you just listed." I stared at Azazel like he was an idiot.

"No." His teeth clenched but I spoke again before he got started. "I'm not actively going to do those things. Vali is a brat but he doesn't deserve death. The occult research club members are naive and so on but not deserving of having their souls torn apart. I do terrible things to terrible people. I don't do awful things to the people who haven't done terrible things. Even so, I'm capable of forgiving people who commit those crimes. My assistant back home used to run with slavers willingly. Now she helps me run my tests, sometimes serve as a subject if the experiment's safe, and manages my little responsibilities."

Azazel was silent but instead of saying anything he just sighed and walked over to his desk. He rummaged around a drawer for a moment before he pulled out a small gem of some sort. He slammed it on his desk.

"Here. Put the energy in and leave. Be back next week." Without waiting for a response he sat down at his desk with a scowl.

I shrugged and went over to his desk and picked up the crystal, though I observed it to make sure it was safe first. It was a crystal prison apparently, designed to store souls, mana, affinity, and whatever sort of energy fits. I closed my eyes and fell into meditation to look closely at my soul. I drew on the silver eyes essence first and felt the essence amplify my purity affinity.

I opened my eyes. "Do you want my purity attunement in here as well?" Azazel was quiet for a moment.

"Nah." Then he went back to ignoring me.

I turned away from the man and returned to my soul. The essence didn't want to leave my soul. It was latched onto my purity affinity. I focused my will and aura on the purity affinity and forced it to let go of the essence it was so bound with. The essence was cast loose in my soul and I directed it out towards the crystal prison. A second later I felt the absence of the amplifier and felt a little mournful. I miss it already.

I left the jewel on Azazel's desk and a small smile crossed my face. "Do you know where an evil dragon is?" Azazel stiffened.

"No." He said with finality. "All the evil dragons are dead or sealed."

"Sealed, you say?" I ask curiously.

"No." Azazel stonewalls. I don't think he means no as in not all of them are sealed but rather 'Stop asking questions'.

"Fine. Then where can I find strong people to fight?" Azazel sighs.

"Just go to the second circle of the underworld. Or the third. The farther you go the more horrible things get." I frown. I would probably need my purity if I needed to go somewhere likely to be high in the infernal affinity. That or I would need an infernal affinity myself. I'm pretty sure only devils have an infernal affinity, though. Them and evil beings… hmm. Well I guess I have a month off. Oh noooo…

[|||| = **NEXT LEVEL** = ||||]


	42. Chapter 42

**AN: Next chapter is an interlude covering a few things. As I think I said in the last one, they're all about perspective. To show the happenings that go on behind Abyss' back and to give a view on an event from a different perspective. They're to broaden your horizons, lets say.**

 **Large strides are made this chapter and this marks the end of the crossover mini-arc. Summary is next chapter.**

 **Another round of thanks to my editor, TheNightShinobi. He makes my life so much easier.**

[||||= **LEVEL 42** = ||||]

"Ophis?"

"Mm?"

"You know about the contracted elementals in me that stimulate my affinities, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you know if there's a creature that uses void like you out there somewhere that would be willing to contract with me? I can't make a void elemental by making a high concentration of affinity in the environment like normal and I don't know any other way."

"Mmn. Summoning. Or make one. There aren't many like me in this dimension." A surprisingly comprehensive answer to my question. It must be because I've been raising my void affinity lately. I've had six on void, one on heat, and two on motion.

I've also been considering carefully what I want to do with my broken semblance. As it is right now it's useless. I need to implant an affinity. It's not like I'm going to lose my affinity either. It's just making a decision, albeit a difficult one. Void is the obvious candidate but I can use void fine with my storm semblance and I need utility more than combat power right now.

Considering that semblances are based on your natural affinities, at least according to the huntsmen I've observed, I likely have space and light already forming my broken semblance. The question is what to put in it that would properly compliment the two. Chaos, maybe? I can't find an effective use for it immediately available.

"Make one? Interesting. I've never tried to make an artificial soul before. I think I could probably do that. Summoning is different though. I've never done that and it sounds like a pain to learn. I'm also wondering if you can give me some tips for using the void."

Ophis stopped for a moment and seemed to actually think, which was rare for her. I watched her carefully but the only thing indicating that she was thinking at all was her eyes. They seemed contemplative rather than half-lidded and lazy like normal.

"The void is negative infinity. The opposite of infinity. The absence of anything where there could be something. Infinity is the existence of so much that it all is meaningless. Worth nothing. Yet it fills the void of nothingness." With that little wisdom done Ophis looked away at nothing.

Well… now what? I have no idea what to do with what she just told me. Maybe combine infinity and void to cancel out and make super void? Probably not…

But wait… Ophis has both infinity and void at incredibly high levels. I can feel it just being near her. With my storm affinity I can sense when storms are coming and all the aspects of one easily. So for Ophis to comprehend infinity so… Nihilism and a degradation of value to all things would be at least one consequence of such comprehension. Understanding the value of nothing and understanding infinity to the point that nothing matters… how horrible. Considering that all this is true, that is.

"NYAAAAA! IT'S NOT WORKING!" I didn't even flinch at the loud noise from outside. It was hard to ignore the mana being tossed around by Kuroka. She had taken two days before she asked me to teach her space magic and senjutsu, meaning aura, in greater detail. It grates on her pride as much as I thought but she makes up for it by messing with me.

I showed Kuroka a warp spell, the basic of basic space spells I knew, and told her that it was all she was getting until she learns to properly meditate and raise her affinity while she was at it.

She sucked at it far more than I could have imagined.

Kuroka, and devils in general I think, are not sit still people. They're movement, energy, chaos, and the sins personified. Sadly, meditation, if I were to assign a sin or virtue to it, would be patience. Meditation was boring, no way around it. Useful as all hell, but boring.

Cats did not like boring. Thus Kuroka did not like boring. Nevertheless she is slowly figuring it out. She actually raised her space affinity four points so far. When she can focus on the affinity alone without using her mana to feel out her soul, as she was trained to do apparently, then I'll help accelerate her learning of affinities and provide her with the quick way to gain affinities if she's alright with it.

I had done very little by the way. The ORC (Occult research club) had finished end of year testing yesterday and were going on to the underworld to do a 'training camp'. I think they finished the testing early with permission from the student council so they could get training quick.

Azazel, in the past month, had done fascinating things with my silver eyes essence and my purity affinity. He had found that the silver eye essence was some sort of ultra-distilled form of purity affinity and lifeforce (aura) along with something else he couldn't identify that I'm pretty sure is aura's divine component. He's added a sort of magical scaffolding to the framework of a sacred gear and is filling out the gear with its energy. That's my understanding of it.

While he was busy I couldn't help but consider how I would get to the underworld. I could ask Ophis but how would I get back? There are gates to get from hell to the mortal realm and gates from hell to heaven but the gates are guarded and there are WAY easier ways in.

The ORC building had a circle of runes that could teleport people across dimensions when provided with mana and infernal essence.

Let me repeat, the ORC building HAD a circle. Now the Pendragon manor has one and several vials of distilled infernal affinity courtesy of Kuroka and my efforts. The Pendragons were somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of having a dungeon around so they refurbished most of it through some magical internal decorators and installed the portal circle. There's still two cells with implements for holding just about anybody but the Pendragons are nice people and really only kept the two cells because Vali asked them to.

Speaking of Vali, he turned down his dickishness to a three from the eight it was at before. He still glares at me sometimes and I'm pretty sure he growled at me once but he hasn't actually mustered up the will to approach me on whatever he wants to talk to me about.

I don't care if we never talk again. As far as I'm concerned I knocked the stupid out of him concerning me and I'm not running a program for troubled youths so he can glare all he likes. He's been in and out of hotel Pendragon anyways so we haven't seen each other all that often.

Besides my parallels grinding my affinities as is normal and my theft of a portal circle, which was quite easy, I've been lazing around. I sparred with Arthur a little and found that the guy was a FAR better swordsman than I was, on par with Raven I'd say. However, he lacks the raw power I have and so I'm the better fighter and Raven's strength continues to go unrivalled, considering I and the other two immortals eclipse her utterly.

"NYAAAAAA! ABYSS-SENSEI, TELL ME THE EASY WAY ALREADY!"

"Just tell her," Ophis muttered, "She disrupts my quiet and some people use alternative methods."

"Aren't you in a chatty mood today?" I commented. She looked flatly at me. "Fine. I'll show her the alternative method."

I stood up and stretched a little before walking outside and seeing Kuroka nearly pulling her hair out in frustration. I gave her a metronome to use to keep a steady rhythm of breathing but she seems to have thrown it into some bushes. That was rude of her. It was Arthur's metronome anyways. I picked it up from one of the mansion's old abandoned rooms.

"Fine. I'll teach you the alternative method. Just learn the other one eventually. You can only go so far with this one." Kuroka's eyes lit up and she sprung to her feet.

"Really?!" she exclaimed, seemingly relieved of all her frustrations for the past two hours. "What's it called?!"

"Sex," I said bluntly. Kuroka stopped dead and stared at me with her mouth slightly open. The perversity of this dimension must be at work here. Sex to gain ultimate power? Yeah that reminds me of highschool dxd for sure. That the technique originated in my world is irrelevant.

"Someone with a large affinity for space such as you or me can use a runic circle that compresses affinity to form it to a liquid substance. Liquid distilled affinity. Taking in so much purified affinity causes your aura to make you have a primal urge to find a mate, far preferably with a large aura and affinity for the affinity you ingested. For the best results you should drink of a much higher concentration than you currently have. Drinking your own distilled affinity only causes the mate effect."

"The mate effect?" Kuroka seemingly got over the surprise of sex causing increased affinities quickly. Then again, she told me about a senjutsu technique called 'the bedroom method' where skinship causes exchange of lifeforce. I'm pretty sure that the 'technique' is just an excuse for sex but then again, some interesting things happen to aura at times of intimacy with another soul.

"It's just what I call the effect of that aura-induced lust," I said dismissively. "So you'll have to find somebody you don't mind sleeping with that has a large lifeforce."

"Oh that's easy," Kuroka said with a sly grin. "You, nya."

I shrugged. "I won't give you kids, remember?" We had talked about that little goal of hers privately and worked out that I wasn't going to give her any kids since I have to be in Remnant. We had also clarified that I'm not really a nekoshou.

"Getting kids to restore my race is important but just having sex is different."

"Well that's true," I acknowledged. "You don't have any romantic obligations to a guy or girl, right?"

"Nyah." Kuroka said it dismissively, like she was saying 'nah'. "Besides, most devils are polygamous. The female to male ratio is actually two to one since mostly guys fought in the great war between the angels, devils, and fallen angels. Powerful devils get multiple women usually. Devils also have loose inhibitions. It has something to do with the sins but I never paid attention to that. So I'm up for the easy and hopefully not quick-" Kuroka smirked seductively at me "-method of raising my attunement."

Something seemed to occur to Kuroka. "Wait, you don't have a lover do you, nya?"

"Only a sort of lab assistant that I sleep with to use this method. Oh, and she's well aware that we aren't dating. She knows I might sleep with somebody else when I'm away. I'm seventeen, what did you expect?"

"I hoped you wouldn't be a virgin, nyaaa." Kuroka grinned. "And what else can this method do?"

"Gaining new affinities and enhancing already existing ones is it," I clarified. "And please don't equate this to the bedroom method senjutsu users do."

"Oh. I thought you had to sleep with a panther to get that panther form for a moment, nya," Kuroka said innocently. I groaned internally.

"No. Just no. I captured a panther and bound it's soul within me to a prison. Look, do you want that skinchanger thing?" Kuroka nodded with a grin. "Fine. Get me your favored animal before I leave and consider it a graduation present."

"Yes!" Kuroka cheered.

"I've already got liquid space affinity, by the way." I reached into my soul space and plucked out a smoothie in a vial that was infused with as much space affinity as I could. "You had to find inner peace eventually. Or Ophis would have just asked me to show you the easy path from the beginning."

"I'll need to thank her, nya." Kuroka looked eagerly into the vial of affinity and towards me. Oh, so she actually is interested in me rather than just going to the first person available. I was actually pretty sure she would want to just sleep with me but i figured that I should offer other people first.

I myself took out a hot coco in a vial that always stayed nearly boiling hot because of the fire affinity in it that Raven put in it. I poked Kuroka's arm and blinked us into an empty room of the manor.

"Let's get started!" Kuroka said happily. Then she popped the cork of the vial.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Abyss, I have to ask, ah, are you a nekoshou, nya?"_

" _No. I'm called a faunus. Basically a human with animal parts. There are plenty of faunus, from winged ones to ones with gills. I just happen to have panther ears."_

" _Oh."_

" _And why do you go 'Nya' all the time? I've seen your sister and while she doesn't talk much she doesn't go 'nya'."_

" _I go 'nya' because it's fun! Try it, nya!"_

" _No."_

" _Do it."_

" _Not a chance. I have pride, you know?"_

" _I won't tell anyone."_

" _I don't believe you."_

" _Then I'll mess with you and unplug that Xbox you're so fond of."_

" _Nya!"_

" _AHAHAHA! That-! NYA! AHAHAHAHAHA!"_

" _Ugh."_

" _That - hehe - how attractive, you sounded like a scared kitten! Nya!"_

" _Damned cat."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Kid, you smell like sex," Azazel said bluntly as soon as I teleported to him on the due date of the silver essence… you know what? Let's call it the silver gear.

"Guess why," I said dryly.

"Kids and their hormones," Azazel sighed. "The gear was done yesterday at eight PM. It's right over there." Azazel pointed to a large shoebox on a side table of his office. I walked over to it and made sure that it had no traps on it.

"I figured that you'd prefer the gear in your soul like most of them are but of course all gears have a physical form. You didn't specify but the gear was based around magic and attunements so I gave it an appropriate form."

I lifted the top of the shoebox and brushed away some paper. My breath caught.

"Whatever essence you gave me it had some weird effects," he started. "The gear sort of shaped itself, kind of like it had an entity inside it but not quite the same. More like it had a will in it. In old china, around maybe two or six hundred AD, they had scrolls you could write on and the scroll would answer as the ancestor whose will was linked to the scroll would have. I'm guessing that the essence was very important to somebody."

My eyes felt wet. Azazel must have seen something because he seemed to soften a little. "Do you know what drives sacred gears, Abyss?" I didn't answer. "Desire," he said grandly. "That Issei kid wants a harem. Sure, it's childish, but his desire for one is already affecting his gear, making it more powerful. Vali wants to prove his lineage and become the strongest. Also childish, but both he and Issei are honest in their intentions. I think honesty with yourself is also a factor in a sacred gear's power, but that's just me."

Azazel got up and walked over to see the sacred gear with me. "My artificial sacred gears aren't up to my old man's work. I blame desire. I want to make the gears but they're being made because I want to make them. They aren't made with a desire to fulfill some grand purpose in mind. But this one is different. This one had desire. It wanted to be shaped, to be useful. It's the strongest sacred gear I've ever made and it's not even my fault. Whoever you got that essence from had a desire like hellfire and a will strong enough to impress itself on that energy."

Azazel was silent. "I only opened it once." With that said he seemed to have darker features and stalked out of the room. "I'll see you out of my office later. Have your moment."

I said nothing but stared at the pendant. It was small, silver. The chains to go around your neck were a shining silver but very faintly tinted in alternately red and white. The exact shade of Summer's aura and my aura alternating. On the chains were faint etchings of vines with rose flowers on them spiraling around the individual links. It was clear that an exorbitant amount of time and care was given to every single link, of which there were many. A modern yet simple clasp tinted my red held two chains together at the back, making it easy to remove.

At the body of the pendant it was a pure white colored silver with Summer's emblem, a rose, etched into it. Flipping the pendant over showed my symbol in my more red tint of the man by the abyss with grimm crawling out of it. It was a stark contrast to Summer's simple and peaceful emblem to my darker and more detailed one. Summer and I were like that sometimes. Opposites in many ways…

With trembling fingers I opened the pendant with a faint click, pulling the pendant back from the whitened side. A picture was on the right side. A picture nobody had ever taken.

Summer was crouched on a knee hugging Ruby and Yang, both of whom were nearly in tears. Summer's cloak was worn by travel, clearly, shown by a few ragged tears and some dirt on it. Even so her smile was brilliant. Off slightly to the side was Taiyang smiling proudly at his children.

Behind Summer off to the side I was almost leaning against the wall, more shaded by the portrait. I was more easily ignored but if noticed the expression on my face was clear in the smile.

Peaceful.

Under the portrait on a small amount of whitened silver lay Summer's epitaph, "Thus kindly I scatter".

On the other side of the portrait was a far different scene. Summer, Tai, Ruby, and Yang all stood in awe of a clear night sky, Summer and I were nearly side by side looking at the family with nearly mirrored expressions. Soft smiles were expressed on both of our faces.

But neither of these scenes were how the events had gone. I had been taking a picture when we were in Summer's soulspace. When Summer had come home it hadn't been travel worn and to teary faces. Summer had called everyone with breakfast. I hadn't even had a body.

Something itched at my consciousness and I closed the locket. Then I flipped it to the red tinted side and slowly opened it. My lips pressed together at the different pictures.

A larger man with lean muscles and a black goatee flecked with dark grey wore strict frown on the left. He was dressed in black pants and an untucked maroon dress shirt. Always a little stiff, a little more formal than necessary. He was a poor stepfather too.

Beside him stood a smaller and petite lady in slightly more relaxed clothes with a neutral yet intense expression. The lady was missing an eye, wearing a pirate eyepatch over it instead that was partially covered by long dark brown hair. The neutral expression and oddly comical pirate eyepatch seemed like they should clash but looked strangely natural on her. Mom always did

In front of the two were three others in order of height. First was a young man with raven hair in a dark blue dress shirt in the same style of his father and grey jeans. He wore a faint smile, like somebody had told a joke a few minutes ago and he was reminiscing on it. Looking at him gave me the faint sense that the joke he was told was about me.

Roger always did like pissing people off. Except me, luckily.

Second in the line was a bored looking girl with dark brown hair in a ponytail that looked closely like her mother's. She wore, in a deviation from the others and their style, a leather jacket and a white shirt underneath. Her jeans were the same grey as her brother but with zippered pockets. Given an estimate most would say she was in her late teens.

Ruby… the other Ruby.

Finally was a somewhat short brother. His hair, in seeming defiance of the rest of the family's genetics, was a pale blond. His eyes seemed more guarded and a little harder than the rest of his siblings. He wore a slightly ruffled suit his size colored black but with a dark grey dress shirt underneath. If you looked closely you could see dried blood on his nose that had tried to be hidden. Looking even closer would show that he seemed to lean back just a little bit towards the lady.

I forgot… didn't I…

I almost closed the pendant then and there. But when I glanced to the other side it was too late. But I was lucky. It was nowhere near _that_ family.

I myself was sitting down, like most of the clan. We were all in something resembling a circle around a pine tree that had various ornaments on it, some of which were the typical colored globes and some of a more interesting variety like carved animals. Ruby was holding out a rectangular christmas present that I recall had the schematics for the mechanical armor I still have. I should give that to somebody now that I have my gloves. I hardly ever used it anyways.

Raven was glancing at a book down in her hands titled 'Leadership and tactics for dummies'. Her new swords lay at her side in their sheath. This was right before the icy forest, hm? I remember.

There's no inscription of any kind on these set of photos. Good. Some things are better off forgotten. Damned pendant.

I closed the pendant once more before I lost myself in memories and looked silently at it. I think I know what this pendant is based around… of course it is. Summer only ever desired one thing. Desire fuels it, hm? …

 **Argent mother - Sacred gear; Magic accessory**

 **Rarity: Unique**

 **Material composition: Silver eyes energy (physically shown as silver and silver alloys)**

 **Balance breaker: Thus kindly I scatter - Sacrifice all mana and aura in a massive unavoidable strike against all those considered threats to family or yourself. Only works in a variable radius dependant on aura and mana used. Mana and aura will not regenerate naturally for 24 hours after use. Affinities will be unusable for 24 hours after use.**

 **Special traits: Family-bound (Xiao-Long; Mavros; Rose; Branwen)(Will always find its way back to family possession; cannot be used except by those considered family to those listed), Specific magical affinity foci (Purity) (x125(x5 due to foci skill)), innate affinity (Purity - 8700),**

 **Bio: Upon the death of Summer Rose her only wish was to protect her family. Her eyes were gifted to a trusted family friend and personal 'bestie' Abyss Mavros. The eye's essence was combined with his own purity affinity to gift to him more powerful silver eyes not seen in centuries and believed to have died out completely.**

 **For years Summer's eyes served her friend stalwartly until an accident in divine beginnings and endings caused his silver eyes to be tainted by the divine affinity and their essence gifted back to Abyss on the duty of a goddess of light called Althea. However, the eyes were tainted with their origin, Summer Rose.**

 **Upon seeking out a fallen angel to forge the silver essence to a greater form a new origin was created. The origin of a new 'sacred gear', the argent mother, was created more powerfully from the slight divine power in it's being and shaped around the desires of Summer Rose, to protect her family no matter the cost.**

Summer… always keeping me on the straight and narrow, huh? And that balance breaker. It's either a stupidly powerful kamikaze move or… no. It's certainly a stupid kamikazi move. I doubt I'll be using that often, if ever. Hopefully not ever.

I quelled my tears and grabbed the necklace, putting it firmly around my neck. A connection between my soul and something in the sacred gear formed and i felt it turn to an essence in me. A brief flex of my will brought it out to physically manifest itself and I knew that I could manifest it at will whenever I want. Kind of like the gauntlet the boosted gear serves as.

A long shuddering sigh left my lips and I pulled myself to the Pendragon manor. The change of scenery was barely noticed as I plopped down in the rec room and collected myself.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Qrow we have a problem."_

" _Huh?"_

" _Not right now but, uh, your sister. Should we reserve a seat for her at the wedding or… "_

" _She'll probably turn up as a raven in a tree somewhere and watch the proceedings."_

" _Are you sure?"_

" _What, do you think that she'll go down into the seats and say 'Oh hi daughter of mine. Be quiet for a moment so I can watch my brother's marriage.'"_

" _More like she'll grab me from my bed at night and interrogate me to see if I'm suitable to hold the blood of the Branwen tribe or something."_

"…"

" _Qrow?"_

" _Well… maybe?"_

" _No Qrow seriously."_

" _I am serious. She really might do that."_

" _Oh dust."_

" _She isn't going to kill or seriously hurt you-"_

" _What?!"_

" _-but she might show up beside your bed one night with her blade to your throat. When-if! I mean if! If she does then just calmly answer her questions and when she asks you to prove your worth in combat… well, run."_

" _Run?!"_

" _Rave's a maiden and one of the deadliest huntresses on Remnant, not to mention whatever stupid bullshit powers Abyss taught her. You better run and hope she doesn't feel like following if you think you can get away. If you're not confident you can even run from her then… well, improvise."_

" _Wouldn't your sister respect honorable combat or something? Trying my best? I know I suck at real fighting but I can hold my own with an average huntress."_

" _Being average isn't good enough. Even if you try you know she's a maiden and you know how stupidly strong she is. Fighting her would be stupid and my sis doesn't like stupidity."_

" _Then… hm."_

" _Don't do it."_

" _Do what?"_

" _Whatever you're thinking to do don't. I know that look."_

" _I'm doing it."_

" _Dust-damnit. Just don't die. Also, keep a knife and some explosives under your pillow."_

" _We sleep in the same bed, Qrow."_

" _She killed two goliaths in one strike once."_

" _Five knives then. Do you know where I can get a ballistic missile?"_

" _The missile would fly away from her in fear."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The gargantuan stony hide of the beast cracked in tandem with the lightning once more and it roared in agony. I aimed my rifle at the open wound in it's armor and a rhythmic crack of bullets signalled pain for it. I faintly saw shards of stone fly out the other end and assumed that the bullets pierced through, hopefully causing internal damage on this creature.

The beast turned it's bull head towards me with bestial rage in it's eyes once more and belched black flames. I already knew them to be infused with a pain affinity of some sort and I teleported through the air as the flames heated the already burnt and cracked ground upon which I once stood.

Teleporting wouldn't normally be an option but if I cleared out the mana from the air it worked perfectly until the ambient mana crept back in. It was a little heavy on my mana to get rid of all the thick affinity around me and keep the area clear but a little mana and void combined made a potent reaction that worked fine.

The beast in question had a bull's head with glowing red slits resembling gills around its neck, a man's torso, and what seemed more like pig legs than bull legs, all of which were red or black. He was as tall as a two story building and his skin was hard and stiff like stone with no real entrances other than his mouth and the gills.

To top it all off he had a magical resistance of some sort that made the void/mana black hole not one-shot it by tearing it's affinity and mana from it. Even so it's soul was permanently marred each and every time it got hit by the black hole.

The thing that made fighting him so easy was how stupid he was. He also couldn't fly and had no counter to quick attacks other than to pour affinity in the air from his gills and tell the elementals that spawn from the concentration to attack me.

I liked using void to rid his skin of whatever magical trait gave him a resistance to magic and then using destructive methods to wound him. Lighting was just one such destructive method.

The creature roared once more and his hands lit aflame as he hurled fireballs at me. I dodged them all easily and sent another spear of mana infused with void at him. The black lance tore through the air and buried itself in the beast's gut. It snarled and turned itself to make the target I opened harder to hit but not fast enough. A barrage of lightning tore into the weakened patch of hide and caused the beast to spasm. Hacking snarls escaped from it's snout.

One more teleport to it's front let me point my finger to it's larger open wound and release what looked like a shotgun blast of mana all attuned to purity and enhanced with my sacred gear acting as an amplifier.

The beast roared weakly once, twice, and whimpered a third time before it fell to its side, too weakened by the purity burning in it's insides to act. I walked to it's throat and it weakly lifted it's head to look at me before letting it's head fall to the ground once more.

The gills on its neck glowed weakly with the red of concentrated infernal affinity, far weaker than before. I doubt it could summon enough affinity to make the air hazy if even that.

I leapt onto the beast's face and made a spear of purity mana that was swiftly aimed in the beast's eye. Since the battle was over already now I used my sacred gear to enhance my purity affinity. I might as well make it quick. A brief thrust and the creature was dead.

The message of XP was easily ignored and I looked over the creature's body. Could I do anything with it? It had a rather strong affinity for fire…

No. The fire is tainted with the infernal affinity. I'd rather stay far away from devil stuff. I kind of like my humanity and absorbing random affinities I find lying around is likely bad for my health and immortal soul.

I sighed and looked towards what I had deemed as the west, though there wasn't actually one. The underworld didn't have a sun below the first level, or circle as it's called. The first level only had a sun because a guy named Beelzebub made one for the newly reincarnated devils to feel more at home. Nice guy but going down below the first circle showed just how alien the underworld was.

The air seemed to be… breathing, for lack of a better term. The infernal essence was thick and clumped together often, forming elementals that looked like what I imagine an imp would be portrayed as. Short and humanoid with wings and small horns. As they grew stronger they stood taller mostly with a few other minor differences such as slightly less repulsive faces and the ability to manifest their infernal affinity into a ball that they threw at me. It looked like fire, quite a bit, actually.

I wonder if the infernal affinity exists on Remnant? I've never looked much at the religions of Remnant but I know monotheism exists there. Summer was a bit involved with religion for a time before I met her. Other than that I guess it never popped up. Ah, but Qrow has that necklace, the silver one with the crooked cross on it. So maybe the christian religion does exist on Remnant.

It doesn't matter right now though.

I turned my attention away from the beast and surveyed the molten fields. A whole herd of creatures like the beast milled around nervously. They're all significantly smaller and their gill-like slits glowed less intensely not to mention that they're much weaker. I think they're all females though I already assumed that the one I killed was the alpha, the male of the… herd. It's like with normal cows but they're all more evil looking.

I ignored the herd of creatures and sensed as far as I could for a strong affinity or pool of mana. I found none except a pit that I know leads to the next circle.

A scowl ran across my face. The bull was a little strong but it wasn't… good. I hadn't even used my glove and it had died without too much real effort. I want a challenge. Sure it's a bit arrogant to go deeper looking for a fight but I need to do something at least.

Also I just want to go down here. I'm curious. Sue me.

I just hope there's something more interesting as I go farther down.

[|||| =+= ||||]

 _Concerning Miss Ruby Rose,_

 _Hello Miss Rose, I am Ozpin Meridian, the headmaster of Beacon. My apologies for the abruptness of a personal letter from myself in the midst of your summer but with such a long time between your formal application and your official due date to enter the academy you and an adult with whom you are taking residence with or your legal guardian must meet with an official of Beacon, namely me or any other staff or counsellors. The adult in question should be family of immediate or extended relation. You and your associated adult must be present within one month of Beacon's initiation._

 _Typically these measures would not be taken but as of extenuating circumstances such as your official guardian being of renown, the early admission of yourself, the questionable actions of your guardian as of late, and other such factors, I felt the measure should be taken. Mister Mavros, to my understanding, is unavailable so while he must have the same measure taken I will personally have the same meeting with him and streamline the process so as to ensure your and his admittance to Beacon is smoother._

 _When next you see your unofficial sibling please inform him of this decision as I understand him to be out of mail and scroll reach. Have a pleasant break Miss Rose._

 _-Ozpin Meridian_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I may have overestimated myself a little.

The beholder, or at least that's what observe called it, shot another blast of infernal affinity at me. The concentrated affinity mixed with something called force affinity slammed into my icy barricade. Even with the ice augmentation and my creation of packed ice, which was harder than solid rock, the blast blew chips of ice around and made a sizable indent on the wall.

The other five beholders in a half-circle around the wall readied their own blasts as well. Stupid giant eyes. I would have killed them if not for how big and magic resistant they are. They're all the size of mammoths and I think that only half of my spell's power affected them. They were anti-spellcasters, in other words.

At least the blasts were manageable now. Before I wiped out the infernal affinity around me with void the blasts of infernal and energy affinity condensed all the affinity around the area and used the ambient affinity to make a bigger, better explosion that sometimes made more explosions. A single bomb became one big explosion and twenty smaller ones. Such a pain in the ass…

With a small focus of void affinity I peeked out the side and threw my hand out. Tendrils of void affinity lashed out and struck at the beholder's souls and made the beholders shudder and one to even die. In their hesitance I lashed again and sliced the soul of another nearly in half, causing the death of the creature.

By then the beholders had recovered and shot more blasts at me. One came particularly close to me and threw me back a little, singing my right arm and hand a little. It would have been worse without aura. I hissed and flowed a little life affinity at the burn. A moment later and my arm was fine.

I winced at the booming of another barrage of infernal blasts. That's it. I'm done with these guys. Stupid one-trick ponies.

I reached into my prime affinity and drummed up a storm from scratch. The underworld is too dry to properly make a storm. The beholders' barrage stopped for a moment.

Right, they don't have storms down here. It's all magma and ashen soil besides some few gnarled trees and geothermal heated lakes with a red bacteria that makes the bubbling waters look like blood.

The storm I summoned was just a medium to strike at the beholders though. I focused on it and brought my lightning affinity to bear with an infusion of half a million points of mana. A deafening boom sounded, or it did for them. I protected my ears with motion affinity slowing the air around my ears, my air affinity being occupied with the storm.

I peeked out from my wall once more and saw all ten beholders I had killed throughout the battle laying in deflated heaps. The four I had just killed were easily identifiable, being blackened and charred around the pupils. Four more were easily picked out due to being dead by my attacks with my weapon or guns. Then I had to retreat behind my wall and they pinned me.

The final two were a little suspicious just because of how healthy they looked. They had no magic power whatsoever but they still looked like they should be alive in body yet they weren't.

I glanced at the gloves on my hands. If even the sixth circle couldn't stand between me… what could the seventh do?

A smile crept onto my face. I'd like to fight whoever's there.

Before I moved on, though, I heard a creaking to my right. A glance showed another face trapped in a scream looking out at me from one of the gnarled trees. It's eyes seemed to follow me.

As of this floor I had started seeing souls tainted with corruption trapped in the trees and rocks, suffering. I decided early on that if they're in hell I probably shouldn't have anything to do with the people.

It also took on a new view of the corruption affinity. Did being evil grant the affinity? Did the god of the bible decide all those with the corruption affinity were evil? Corruption was malicious, certainly, but for people with corruption to be sent to the sixth circle of hell? Harsh…

I ignored the screaming face and continued on. To the seventh circle I go. Hopefully there's no more damned souls. They make me feel uncomfortable since I can feel the souls here but I just know that messing with the damned is a bad idea.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Ruby what is this?"_

" _Um, I got it at dad's house. It arrived in the mail."_

" _Ugh."_

" _That's what I said - or, well, muttered."_

" _Yes, well, this isn't exactly subtle of the old man."_

" _He wants to meet with me about the maiden stuff, right?"_

" _He wants to get a read on you and probably set the record straight. He also seems to want to meet with me as well."_

" _Huh?"_

" _He wants extended or immediate family that you're living with. Other than me there's nobody else."_

" _Oh. Maybe… Hm… "_

" _I'll come."_

" _Huh?!"_

" _I'm under Abyss' protection. Ozpin won't strike at me and I'm the spring maiden not to mention I'm your family and Qrow's sister. Ozpin can't strike at me without striking at Qrow, you, and Abyss. I'm invulnerable. The most he could do is keep me for a little while but even then I could tell Abyss and any hope of alliance between the two would be more a dream than a hope."_

" _Oh… so you want to come?"_

" _No… but going to Beacon is important you you, isn't it?"_

" _Well yeah."_

" _Then I'll be coming. Besides, letting you go to the old man on your own is risky. I don't trust you to not spill something to him."_

" _Oh… that makes sense."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

There was a massive guy frozen in ice… well that's not true. I mean, sure he's probably a guy but… well he's also a monster. Let's just call him a monster. It's easier.

The monster was similar to a fallen angel, that much was certain, though he had twelve sets of wings like Azazel so he's pretty clearly strong. He had the upper body of a fallen angel and the lower body of a snake. He also had several strange features. His fingers were clawed like a bird's talons and he had no lips. His hair was long and drawn to a short ponytail that didn't look very feminine at all. All of this was much larger than the norm. He was as big as Icmant was, towering above me.

All of this was certainly intimidating and made me a little uncomfortable but… why is he here? Or, more specifically, why is he hidden behind so many protections? He's trapped in some sort of magical ice and under the ice in silvery chains covered in runes. So many runes. I can feel the magic like a massive pressure on me. It's like standing next to the biggest bonfire imaginable that's running on gasoline.

I could feel his soul too. Even through all this protection I can feel his utterly huge soul leaking out through the bindings just a little.

I could… release him. I mean, the runes have all sorts of mana and affinity reinforcing them but they're using magics. I happen to have void, a literal anti-magic…

Who is this guy to have so much protection keeping him in?

 **Samael**

 **Titles: The first serpent; Original sinner; Defier of divinity; Personification of evil; Poisoned heart; The first deceiver**

 **Level – 10,747**

 **HP – 97,590**

 **STR - 7,407**

 **VIT - 9,759**

 **DEX - 6,102**

 **INT - 16,855 (+1000%)= 185,405**

 **WIS - 13,639 (+250%)= 47,736.5**

 **LUK - [NULL] = [NULL]**

 **Affinities:**

 **Serpent (Sealed): 9,825,738 (x32) = 314,423,616**

 **Poison (Sealed): 7,083,956 (x32) = 226,686,592**

 **Corruption (Sealed): 4,585,370 (x32) = 146,731,840**

 **Nature (Sealed): 2,759,345 (x32) = 88,299,040**

 **Fire (Sealed): 1,049,475 (x32) = 33,583,200**

 **Earth (Sealed): 7,739,474 (x32) = 247,663,168**

 **Water (Sealed): 4,639,375 (x32) = 148,460,000**

 **Life (Sealed): 2,483,041 (x32) = 79,457,312**

 **Origin (Sealed): 12,753 (x32) = 408,096**

 **Purity (Sealed): 51 (x32) = 1632**

 **Perks:**

 **Defier of divinity - The divine commanded and you rebelled. For resisting the commands of the first one, the almighty, you have survived to grow stronger and wiser. For what may stand over you if not the divine?**

 **-+250% WIS**

 **-Immune to compulsions via fate, origin, reality, mind, or any other compulsory force other than yourself, rendering the LUK stat null.**

 **Elder being - You existed before the dawn of the world. Before the species of the world spread like locusts. You have seen the world at its birth and been born of the first being at the time when the world was rich with the rawness of affinities. From this age of origin you emerged and until the time of your end you shall likely remain. Yet, mana was not present at your birth and your soul has grown numb to it's embrace.**

 **-+2000% INT**

 **-Affinities are 32x more potent**

 **-Mana may not be used internally**

 **-Your soul cannot be erased. Only assimilated, transmuted, or otherwise changed.**

 **Divine seal - The one known as God has placed a seal upon you to the best of his ability.**

 **-No perception of time**

 **-No movement is allowed**

 **-No use of affinity is allowed**

 **-No amount of physical force may break your cage**

 **-No personality may be expressed**

 **-No escape may be conducted by an internal force**

 **-So long as you reside in Cocytus you may not be freed**

 **Bio: Samael was one of the first of God's creations, one of the few to reside in his garden when the earth was still inhospitable to most life. Over thousands of years in God's gardens, however, Samael grew bored of the endless monotony of the garden. No conflict was allowed, nor any form of chaos whatsoever. This was unappealing. Samael thus strove for God's attention, becoming a troublemaker simply to liven up the garden.**

 **Upon the creation of Adam and Eve, the most promising of God's new creations, Samael sought to bring them to chaos, bringing more liveliness to the garden. However, Adam and Eve, after taking part in the games of Samael, were cast out as God's patience snapped as he felt rage at Samael interfering with his grand plans for a brighter future and the peace of the garden was restored with their casting out.**

 **Samael, however, was not simply cast out. He was imprisoned with the greatest of God's runes and magics holding him. He still feels bitterness towards his creator for seemingly overreacting towards his games. In his imprisonment he became powerful and cruel.**

 **Seeing his imprisonment of Samael simply let a wound fester God sealed Samael fully, locking him away as best he could, letting a dark mistake die in the darkness.**

Well no. I'm just going to… go somewhere else. Yeah, somewhere else.

I mean sure the guy is super weak sealed the way he is and I could break that runic matrix easily but why though? I would get a buttload of experience but… well he's really, REALLY strong. If I weaken those seals on his affinities even a tiny bit he'd utterly crush me. Seriously those affinities are plain stupid, though the fact that he doesn't have mana would make him a lot weaker. I'd bet that he can use mana pretty easily with a catalyst though. I could make one really easily…

Sure I have stupidly large affinities too if I use a catalyst. I have over fifteen million storm affinity with my glove multiplying my affinities by so much.

Could I kill him if I dumped all my stats into WIS and INT? Probably… right? I mean, I have void with me and getting all that mana and the power of a stronger soul from the WIS checkpoint skills… it wouldn't even have to be all of my stats. Just to a thousand INT and WIS would let me know. I'm not even gaining all that much power from training any more… a month could net me what? Maybe a paltry point in INT or WIS? Certainly not both.

You know what? Let's just leave this place. Leave and never come back. Even so, though, I'd bet that somewhere else in this prison area there are other beings I can fight…

No. Not with people like Samael around to harm me. If I miss some void attack I could release a prisoner I can't handle. It's not anywhere near worth it.

I stopped and sensed for a moment longer.

There's still more below me… an eighth circle.

I stopped and looked down contemplatively…

Down we go.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Why the hell do you care about some random girl in a random forest pathway in… well who cares about some girl?"_

" _She is not some girl. She is Amber, the… well actually I can't tell you."_

" _So you don't even know what's so special about her?!"_

" _I do. I just can't tell you. Ask Branwen."_

" _If you want this girl dead just have me hire an assassin or ask the bosslad-"_

" _Quiet. She's coming. Remember, I get the final blow and she has to be looking at me when she dies."_

" _Why?!"_

"… _Because somebody with a possession semblance is looking through her eyes and we need to send a message."_

" _Well why didn't you say so Cindy?! Dust damnit is is really that important?! Look, now I'll be quiet."_

" _Right…"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The hooded people were creepy.

"Ah, hi." I frowned at the hooded guys and observed them. Levels about two hundred or four hundred between the seven of them. They were apparently reapers, servants of a being called Hades, the god of the underworld.

I'm more concerned that they all possess a death affinity. Nothing I've ever seen has had that affinity. So they're probably closer to the undead than the living. I'd bet that my life affinity can repel their affinity for death. Void would be better, though.

One of the hooded beings stepped forward, the strongest of them at level four hundred twenty two. "Silence," she said cuttingly while politely. It was a strange inflection and I didn't expect a womanly voice from such an ominous getup. "Why and how are you here, mortal? You are neither demon nor spirit, though you possess a connection with spirits within. So what are you?"

"My name is Abyss," I said a little casually. "I'm something like a powerful wizard. My race doesn't matter, though I'm something like a nekomata without the element of a youki. Don't ask."

"No matter," the being said dismissively. She waved her hand and I saw a small glimpse of hands made of bone under her thick sleeve. "What is your purpose in the realm of the dead? The living and those without the spirit of the infernal have no place here." The being paused. "Do you seek death?"

"No," I said neutrally. "I quite like life and I've already died twice. It becomes boring."

"Twice?" the being asked curiously. She peered at me and hummed. "Perhaps so. You carry a faint taint of death… your soul resides but you are not truly that which you appear. You are simply possessing such form as you are in?"

"Yes," I confirmed. I was curious as to how she figured out that I was more possessing this body than bound to it like most people were.

"Like divinity," one hooded figure in the back muttered. He sounded masculine. So they have genders then. I couldn't confirm it but I think the gazes on me grew more intense.

"How did you come across such a… trait?" the leading reaper asked.

"I worked," I said vaguely. Clearly the reapers were displeased by my vagueness so I continued on. "I'm currently here because I was scouring the underworld to find enemies to fight that stretched my limits. There are not many that I can fight on even terms. At this point I need to find somebody to train me properly, recede to train myself and discover strength for my own, or sacrifice what potential I have for a more substantial gain right now."

The reapers shuffled uneasily. A silence rang out between us. I waited for them to respond feeling a little impatient. These reapers in front of me probably aren't worth much to me unless they're really skilled but I somewhat doubt it.

"If you wish to fight a reaper you may either fight all of us or none of us and I assure you that lord Pluto, Thanatos, and Orthos are all at the peak of our race's strength." The head reaper concluded, "I will relay your request for mentorship or strong enemies to learn from to lord Hades. Do not expect a reply."

I looked at the reaper in irritation. "I do not want your god's mentorship. Nor do I want enemies provided for me with the intent of acquiring a favor from me."

"No matter," the reaper said with another wave of her hand. "Now leave."

I rolled my eyes and turned away. "Enjoy reaping souls or whatever it is you do in this circle." I found the pit in the ceiling that I had descended from and leaped, rather easily loping up the sides.

I think I learned a lesson here. There's a power gap between the middle of the pack and the top only crossable by nefarious deeds or inborn traits.

I grunted as I hit the top of the pit, breathing a little heavily. As if from my subconscious thoughts my character menu appeared in front of me. So little gain… I had gained only thirty four points in INT since Icmant.

My hand clenched a little and I looked at the points. My selective memory could recall every moment where I had gained points.

Even now the gap between my acquisition of them was getting bigger and bigger. It was one week for the five hundred first. Then a week and a day. Fast forward to the twentieth and it was more like a month and a half.

I could be so much stronger. Keeping an ace up my sleeve isn't a good idea, is it? Like the transition to a higher soul gave me intense pain and then I barely stayed conscious before fighting Icmant.

I was still for a moment before I sighed and waved away the points.

Maybe my patience is wearing thin. I'm not fighting. My life's not in danger.

I'm always in danger. I could get new parallels. New skills to train. I could still get stronger. My growth would be exponential.

Or would it?

I stopped playing back and forth with myself and growled to myself. This accomplishes nothing. I've done fine so far. Why change what I've been doing if it works?

Even as I ascended the circles of hell my mind kept leaning towards the points. I could be so much more…

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Sis! You're back!"_

" _Uf! Ah, hi Jaune. Aren't you getting a bit big for hugs?"_

" _Tell that to mom."_

" _I like my life. I have enough trouble dealing with Ozpin and work already."_

" _I'll say."_

" _Mom… it's nice to see you again."_

" _How long are you back this time?"_

" _Summer break. I get the whole time off but I have some papers and stuff to fill out. Glynda still helps me with that but I'll just need an hour or two a day to work on them."_

" _Wanna spar? I've gotten a lot stronger!"_

" _Maybe later, Jaune."_

" _You could have visited, sweetie."_

" _You know I would have. I was busy. Being a teacher isn't exactly easy."_

" _Hmph. You had winter break at least."_

" _I… yeah. I'm sorry. You're right."_

" _Of course I'm right. Running off to Vale is fine so long as you support yourself but running off and not contacting your family for weeks at a time is far less okay. You know I don't even like you dealing so close to Ozpin."_

" _He's a family friend now, mom."_

" _Ozpin seemed alright when I met him. I liked the guy."_

" _Seeming nice and being nice are two entirely different things."_

" _Like Glynda."_

" _Not her."_

" _Well that seems awfully two-faced."_

" _Deal with it sweetie. Now come inside. It's hot out."_

" _Maybe you shouldn't wear a sweater than."_

" _Maybe you should shut your mouth honey before something flies into it. Such as my fist. I'm happy to spar, you realize? I'm your mother. I can beat you without even using my hands."_

" _We both know she's right."_

" _Yes mom."_

" _Good call, sis."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

Time passed once more. I spent it in a bit of a dry period of sorts. Kuroka's training went smoothly and we grew a bit closer. Ophis was a little clingy and I spent my time giving her a quiet space or cooking. She stalwartly took three meals a day, having discovered the wonders of food. She doesn't really like other food though. I know my food is good, but nobody ever likes it that much. I don't get it but if she really likes my cooking that much it's fine.

I actually found that trying to infuse void into a sandwich and leaving it bare of affinities made it much more appealing to her. I ended up just assigning a parallel to her to cook for her at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, of which breakfast and belgian waffles were her favorite. I guess she doesn't get fat so of course she would eat as many sweets as possible.

Arthur seemed to warm up a little to me. I didn't realize that it was actually him that bought those game consoles, although he didn't often play anymore. We played a few times together and had something of a light friendship.

But of course… I had only so much time. I had felt the dimensional anchor tensing on my body and soul. It was like a chain at the center of my soul but I couldn't touch it with my mana or aura or… well anything. I didn't dare use void on it but I'm not sure that would work anyways. The chain was likely more existential than magical, though if that's truly how it is I have no idea how Salem did that.

At least I had gotten most of what I wanted to do done. I got my purity affinity made into a gear, I fought some moderately strong beasts in the underworld, and I know now that I'll probably have to make my own void elemental from void and something else. I have some ideas.

That doesn't make leaving easy at all, though, with unfinished business and all.

"NYAAA! Don't go Abyss-sensei!" Kuroka said dramatically, clinging to me. She wasn't actually that emotional but she was just dramatic. I have no doubt that she is really a bit upset, though.

"Mm," Ophis hummed discontentedly. She wore her usual emotionless expression but I still felt quite clearly how annoyed she was. I was HER friend. Not that she was MY friend, though I felt she was… I would say that it's somewhat like a relationship between a dog and a woman except less degrading, though sometimes it feels a little like that.

"Do visit eventually," Arthur said crisply. The slight increase in formality in his tone hinted at a little discontent at me leaving. I was never really a burden for the Pendragon family and Ophis was just a force of nature that occasionally popped off to manage the khaos brigade. She couldn't really be stopped.

"Goodbye Abyss-sama," Le Fey said nervously. We hadn't spent much time together. She spent most of her time practicing magic and all the magic she practiced was very different from what I used. She often exercised the mystical affinity that Kuroka also had and used ritual circles, both things I have no experience in.

"I'll see you all eventually," I assured them. "Unless I'm unable to, which is improbable to say the least."

"Don't take too long!" Kuroka sniffed.

"It was enjoyable to play video games with you," Arthur said with a glance towards the rec-room.

"I'll visit," I repeated. "I just have school, unfortunately. I can't let my sister go to the old wizard alone and I prefer to keep my promises."

"You never explained that to us," Le Fey interjected quietly.

"I know," I said with a small twitch of my lips. I felt the tug on my soul increase and I winced. Just a minute longer. "It's time. Goodbye, you a-"

The anchor, unfortunately, didn't care for my politeness or goodbyes. The tug this time was far stronger and I felt that pulling sensation. The images and colors and worlds flashed before me the same as before and I closed my eyes at the brightness of it all.

The red dragon glanced at me and snorted disdainfully before turning into a barrel roll.

An angel with a face so cold that it was inhuman barely glanced my way yet a force pressed against my mind as I passed by her. It passed too quickly for me to think on it.

A man with golden hair and a beast filled to the brim with corruption faced each other. A woman with long dark - is that Raven? The world passed.

A woman with red eyes and a porcelain face stared into my eyes. They felt faintly menacing but also cunning and curious. "You're back. Do you have time for tea before you go? I'd like to hear about this other world."

I blinked. Oh, I'm here. "Er, right. Just a moment. Transporting dimensions is… odd." Salem nodded understandingly and seemed to glide across the room. Right, she does that. I saw that tea was actually already out and that Hazel did not fit well in the small seats that were laid out for us.

I sat down a little shakily. Salem politely poured a small cup of chocolate brown tea in front of me before tending to her own cup.

"We never really got to talk before," I started. "Would you mind that we do that now? I still have a lot of questions about you. You seem far more tame than I had thought you would be."

"Of course, so long as you answer mine in turn," Salem answered smoothly. Did she get tea for me as soon as I travelled back since she knew I'd be queasy and feeling off?

"How was your stay in the other?" Salem asked. I assume the other is the other dimension.

"It was… pleasant," I said hesitantly. Salem nodded and I took the cue to continue. "People are luckily civilized there. I woke up in a field near some forests and immediately met a person who felt my entrance named Ophis. A god of infinity."

"Oh dear," Salem sighed. "A reasonable one?"

"A nearly emotionless one," I explained. I still felt off from going from the manor to Remnant directly and suddenly having tea with Salem. "At least in expression. Her aura faintly projected her own emotions. She was also very closely affiliated with the void. She was kicked out of her home in the void surrounding her world by a deity of exactly equal strength. She didn't want to share, you see. So she clung to me and I got rid of the affinities around her, giving her more comfort than she could really have before."

"A slave?" Salem questioned. I shook my head.

"No. She would have actually followed along with me and teleported to attend to any responsibilities of hers should I have wanted to leave. The path of least resistance, you see. I went to a few events, had an energy of mine made into a more suitable form, made a few friends, and learned a fair bit under Ophis, though I learned from my observations far more than she tried to teach me."

Salem nodded and sipped her tea a little. "Do you recall what I said to you before you were transported?"

"Trust goes both ways," I repeated. "Believe me, I recall. I trusted you to cast the spell and you trusted me enough to give me more power over the void."

"Indeed," Salem agreed. "Though I wish to know what lessons you learned while in the other."

"A few." I stopped and thought for a moment. "The biggest one is that those who are not human are truly not human." I frowned sadly. "Ophis is not human. She does not particularly care about humans. She cannot completely relate to humans. This is all because she is not human. The same goes to other mortal species as well but to a lesser degree. It is the immortals who are so very different. The ones that are above humanity. They are different and there is little we can do to change that. The differences may be subtle but the point stands."

Salem was silent for a few seconds, thinking over my perceived lesson. "You mentioned an object and an energy?"

"I'd rather keep that relatively private actually," I said apologetically. Salem raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Let's say that it involves an angel, old eyes, a friend's sacrifice, and old memories."

Salem nodded once more and sipped. I glanced at my own tea and tentatively tried it. I blinked in surprise. I don't really like tea other than Raven's, which isn't quite traditional, but this is good.

"Surprised?" Salem asked dryly. I glanced up from the teacup to her. "I've seen the so-called tea that passes in Remnant today. The traditional way is still the best way, though the inconvenience of making the brew is still that, an inconvenience." She took a meaningful sip once and sighed softly. "Unfortunately, I don't truly need to eat anymore after becoming what I am yet I still enjoy the tastes of tea and such commodities."

"That seems convenient, if a little saddening." I paused. "I don't truly need to eat either." Salem didn't seem surprised for some reason. "But I still try to eat a meal a day at least. I still need sleep, unfortunately, though the definition of sleep for me is looser than that for most people."

"It concerns your odd soul, yes?" Salem asked.

I blinked in surprise. I didn't know it was obvious. Still I nodded in confirmation. Still, though, I have a question that I need to ask. "Out of curiosity what is the date?"

"August sixteenth, though it's almost midnight. Beacon starts on the eighteenth, yes?" Salem seemed a little amused as I scowled.

"My apologies to cut this short but would you mind if I asked my own questions and went on my way? I need to check on my company and family before Beacon starts. Not to mention that I need to pack."

Salem nodded easily. "I already told you there's no need to be formal with me. You are not my subordinate. Your questions?"

"To summarize them, your ex husband, your goals, why exactly you're so respectful of me when you could just as easily be commanding and imperious, and whatever you can tell me of the gods to help me understand them. Not the goddess I met but the god and goddess of Remnant."

Salem nodded easily. "I am respectful because there is no reason not to be." I tilted my head slightly and she continued. "Being respectful is simple for me. I do not enjoy fighting. It is easier to talk and attempt to understand a potential ally or associate before fighting them should you believe that they will give you trouble. If I was rude to you I would not gain anything from it. I do not even particularly like being rude, though I occasionally have to do so in order to deal with my subordinates."

Salem looked down into the tea and smiled. It wasn't a kind or even smug smile. It was an angry smile. It promised revenge. "The story of my being the first demon is not quite true or false, yet I cannot tell you why. I can assure you, though, that I am not a demon in soul, though some would say I am in body. As for the other three…" Her eyes looked back up to me and I saw a vicious glint in her eyes.

"It is an old story now known as the girl in the tower. It stretches back to the first races of man and tells the story of Ozman the hero and his love for the lady Salem and how they ruined the world and drove the twin gods from Remnant, cursing the world. Would you care to hear it?"


	43. Chapter 43

**AN: Here we are. Initi** **ation is just up next. The moment you've all been waiting for. I almost put a Penny interlude in here but decided against it. It's full enough already with content.**

 **Here's the summary of the crossover. There's also a Q &A of sorts on the bottom of that. **

**SUMMARY OF CROSSOVER:**

 **To get started Abyss met Salem and talked a bit with her. Please read that part for yourself. It's not even a crossover at that point. Chapter 40 for 1 or 2k words. Read it to get a little insight on Salem and the end of chapter 42 for more insight.**

 **Now, Abyss met a 'god' named Ophis. She was really emotionless but she had an immense void affinity and an insanely strong affinity for infinity. He thought 'I'm not screwing with a god' and sort of befriended her. She's one of the only void-using beings on that world so she and he kind of bonded.**

 **Abyss crashed in a guy's mansion and revealed his ultimate weapon of destruction (Ch. 40 bottom parts for the data sheet on his weapon) and crushed the poor fellow in a spar.**

 **Fast forward a little and Abyss crashes a conference and beats up a dick because he kept insulting him. He smacked down that a-hole and showed off a little before heading back to the manor to play video games and chill out playing games like spiderman and whatever, which don't exist in Remnant.**

 **Now comes the good part. He meets a 'nekoshou' which is basically a catgirl (Fukin' anime… wait… *turns slowly to RWBY* oh god… the furries!) and he tries to learn a skill from their universe called senjutsu (fuck off Naruto) and it turns out to just be aura. Fail. He talks a bit and just shrugs his shoulders when she asks if he would teach her 'senjutsu' since he is WAY overpowered for that world.**

 **He teaches her and they end up sleeping together (he and Vera are more like casual sex-friends than boy and girlfriend but we've been over this. No he's not building a harem) to raise her affinity and because sex is fun and Abyss is seventeen and hormonal.**

 **THE BIGGEST THING TO HAPPEN** **was that Abyss met a guy named Azazel. He took the 'silver eye energy' that Abyss had in him and made it into an amulet. There's a stats sheet on 42 and a little emotional episode that hints towards a long-dismissed subplot.**

 **Other than that Abyss took a dip into hell to fight stuff and left disappointed.**

 **That's it! Okay, go read the other stuff now if you have questions. Have fun!**

 **Q & A (From the comments)**

 **-Broken semblance**

 **Abyss' semblance was sort of 'broken when the gods made the FATE system, that is the system that tells all the skills and stats and such. There's more to the system that hasn't been explained yet but the gist of it is that Abyss previously had a natural fate affinity. It was made to the FATE system the same way his origin affinity was taken for the ORIGIN engine that hasn't really been brought to play yet.**

 **So without his fate affinity his semblance won't work. Think of it like his artificial affinity he made from his storm affinity. If he didn't have his storm affinity the semblance wouldn't function. The same goes for the fate semblance except that it was never unlocked. Without a fate affinity it can't be unlocked. However, Abyss plans to make it a true semblance from an existing affinity. He's just being indecisive.**

 **-Romance**

 **Yes I have romance planned. No it hasn't happened yet. No it's not Ruby or Raven. Romance isn't going to be a large part of the story. A facet of it for sure but it's not going to be central to it.**

 **Right now Abyss is sort of single. I think the best term with what he has is sex buddies with Vera and, briefly, Kuroka. They aren't romantically involved. I want to be clear that this really isn't a good idea for teenagers to do but then again, all the highschoolers I know who 'date' are just physically involved rather than having an emotional relationship like adults do.**

 **-Interdimensional stuff**

 **Dimensional stuff is going to get a bit heavier somewhat soon. DxD will be revisited later on but there are a few other worlds that will get involved. I'll make a poll of sorts when we get there. The next one is set in stone though.**

 **-Update frequency**

 **For those of you who didn't see the AN a while ago I try hard to put out an update every 7-14 days. I sometimes fall behind or go ahead but those chapters are outliers. So far I've been pretty good with the updates. I've been leaning more towards nine days on average I think. Maybe ten. That's just an estimate though.**

 **-Salem having four or five kids**

 **Oh shitshitshitshit! I didn't mean to break canon! I could have sworn she had five!**

 **I didn't mean to break canon here. I'm very sorry about that. Fixed as of this update, although I doubt most people even noticed this little slipup of mine.**

 **Actually, pokemonrot377… you were probably the ONLY person to notice this. God, that was one wrong word back four chapters ago… geez man. Well spot on with noticing that. Thanks I think. Sorry if you feel lead on. My bad there. The slight breach on canon has been fixed.**

 **-Just Salem in general**

 **Ozpin called her pretty much the devil herself. Basically the manifestation of all evil. I call bullshit. She might have destructive tendancies but evil? Nope. I don't believe that. Salem's a person and thus complicated. Sure she might be on the darker side of good and evil but is that bad? Evil used for good can be good. Like violence (in my opinion).**

 **So yeah, Salem's not pure evil. She's damn far from being a goody-two-shoes hero, though. As if that wasn't obvious.**

 **-The first interlude in this**

 **No Coral didn't come out of nowhere nor did her situation. I mentioned in the last interlude (Maybe one interlude before the last one? I think it was the last one) that Coral left the Arc family to serve a dragon, though she was more of a mention than an event that was directly pointed out. She's going to pop up here and there but she's going to be more like Ember's been. A sort of background character. Let the ripple effect commence.**

 **-DIO!**

 **Hah! You thought this was a part of the Q &A! But it was him! TheNightShinobi! **

**Thanks to my beta, whose name is above. And I mean Dio obviously… no I don't. Betas are an author's best friend.**

[||||= **LEVEL 43** = ||||]

[|| = **!BONUS LEVEL!** = ||]

 **Scales, fire, and the gleam of steel**

Coral was angry. At her family and her new master and herself and the world.

But mostly herself.

Coral once more glared at the sleeping old fart. It was a little difficult since he was so big. Still, though, she managed it. The old lizard was huge, the size of her old house with her family. One of his talons extended would be as long as she was tall, though she was a little on the short side.

That said, Old lizard (he had forgotten his name long ago) wasn't too impressive looking. He was, as the name described, old. His scales were a dull grey that barely shined like Coral assumed they were supposed to. Dragons were majestic, after all. Everyone knew that. But he could barely stand, for all the good having four legs gave him. He had to dig through dirt with some sort of dirt magic since he was literally so old and worn down that he couldn't move himself with muscles alone.

Old lizard wasn't exactly normal. He was a dragon. One of the last ones left apparently. The only reason he was alive at all was due to something called a metal affinity and a stone affinity but quite honestly Coral didn't care about that.

What Coral cared about was the opportunities Old lizard had given her. She still remembered the words her mother had said to her when she and two of her sisters had arrived.

" _You… you have potential, young one. But it is untapped, unlike your kin. What do you desire?"_

" _I-"_

" _My daughter is family, Old one. My apologies but she will be with us."_

" _Family, hmm? Very-"_

" _What do you want?"_

" _Hmph. To see growth, youngling, and to pass on with my deeds all finished. And you are not yet grown, are you? Perhaps we can come to an understanding…"_

A smile almost bloomed on Coral's face at the memory but it withered when she remembered the price of leaving the family. She didn't think she could even look at her mother for years to come. It hadn't been pleasant for anyone, her decision to leave the family. In such a precarious situation too, the Villain having traumatized three of her sisters and their new alliance with Ozpin coming into full swing.

Maybe she should have waited a year. She wouldn't have hurt the family as much and her mother was right that family should stick together through thick and thin.

But that just didn't work for Coral. She never liked being a huntress. She wasn't forced into it but she just didn't find anything else that she enjoyed doing. From business to sciences she just found everything dull. Metalworking was almost a hit but she couldn't really do it. Learning weapon-making was a city craft and they were country folk. Fighting was something she was good at so she just did it.

Being able to fight would help her defend her brother too. He was the only one in the family she was close to anyways. If she couldn't find something that made her happy for herself she had her brother to rely on.

He was her purpose and that was okay for a while. Crimson and Azure certainly were able to make him their world. He wasn't deified, thank dust, but letting her life revolve around his well-being like mom and the other two just didn't fit quite right.

This did. When Old lizard showed her what he called the scale arts she just seemed to know that it was what she had been waiting for. Something to live for that was hers and hers alone. She went so far as to retire as a huntress, suspending her license. The arts fit her like a glove, ehh, most of the time.

Okay so maybe she struggled a little… or a lot. But she did it! Old lizard said that no human had wielded the scale arts for many decades, almost a century. Not many humans or faunus are fit for them and a lot of the training is intense.

Luckily being a huntress had toughened Coral up. Eight hours of practice a day? Psh! Her mother had her working twelve. She devoted fourteen to the arts every day. If she loved it, why would she stop practicing?

The things Old lizard taught her were weird. Filling a pot with holes in it with earth. It wasn't so hard. She just had to pack the earth together. Then she had to melt steel with aura and dust alone and not that much dust either. Like a thimble of dust for a solid square of steel.

She was getting it, though. It was obscure and strange training but Old lizard wasn't joking when he said it was all training. As it turns out, the fire dust had been getting less and less pure as she used the thimble. By the end of her training with that melting steel technique she wasn't actually using dust at all!

That's right! She, Coral Ferrier Arc, had done magic!

It was fucking horrible.

Sure she could melt a little steel but the strain on her aura was huge! It was ridiculous! Old lizard said something about training affinities but she seriously thought he might be a bit batty. A month of training and she could melt twenty steel sheets.

Three months and she was doing fifty.

Six months and she was doing a hundred twenty.

It was grueling and tiring and frustrating but she kept going on resolutely. Her mother had given her two things that she would always be thankful for.

Will and grit.

Arcs did not give up. Arcs did not break their word - not even to themselves. That, at least, was something that stuck. Coral had promised herself that she would stick with Old lizard and that was that.

She would be melting steel sheets around him until he finally keeled over and did whatever that 'awakening' thing was. Something about being one with the dragon within. Whenever that happened she would be ready but until then she had the most boring and grueling magic of all time to keep practicing.

When he had shown her to make aura solid as steel and twice as resilient to fire she had been even more shocked than she had been at being able to melt steel with her bare hands. Sure, melting steel and lighting things on fire was cool but this? This was actually useful.

Sure Old lizard took a year to teach her about the technique but she was patient and just a little obsessed. So she would wait and learn from the old fart.

At this rate, though, she would only be out of the dwelling when she was old and wrinkled, but damn if she wasn't going to laugh in her mother's face when she showed off her new tricks. Suck on them apples, mom! You can make blades? Well, I can melt them WITH MY MIND!

That'll be the day. Just one more stone to break bare-handed and Old lizard will teach her that there's some sort of cool move she can do. Like, make stones into gold or something…

But DUST could this be any more unpleasant?! It's nearly ninety degrees out! Screw Mistral. The place sucks and she can't even watch TV since Old lizard lives in the wilderness. More like stupid lizard…

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **A rough start to a great friendship**

"Hiya!" Nora said cheerfully. The girl in red, who looked entirely too awkward in a refueling station, startled easily. She couldn't have been older than fourteen, about their age.

"Um, hi!" The girl smiled while Ren looked her over cautiously. It wasn't that she was hostile to Nora's bubbliness, but she did feel uncomfortable and she was armed. Perhaps Nora should have introduced herself to somebody different.

"Sorry for her enthusiasm," Ren apologized. He stepped almost in front of Nora, acting as a buffer. "She gets hyper when she's had sugar."

"It wasn't even that much!" Nora protested. "Anyways, where'd you get those weapons? They look really cool!"

"I, uhm,-" the girl stammered and blushed in embarrassment. She took just a moment to collect herself and perked up a little. "My name's Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos. It's nice to meet you."

Definitely not a native to the area, as if the clothes she wore weren't enough to make that obvious. She was entirely too formal, which nobody in the seedier regions of Mistral was. That left the question of why she was in such a backwater village anyways.

"Cool! It's nice to meet you too!" Nora easily pushed Ren away a little to be more face to face to Pyrrha. Ren internally sighed and stayed a little off the side, looking over the snacks that they had come for.

"So why are you here anyway? You really stand out, you know!" Nora's smile, despite her warnings, was as bright as always.

"Oh, um, my father and I are only here for the contract on the crocus in the area." Pyrrha smiled, still a little nervous. Ren's eyes widened a little. She was a huntress?! Or one in training at any rate, but as far as he knew there was no huntsman contract on the crocus. Nobody was rich enough to put one up. Why would any huntsmen be here at all?

"Oh, awesome! That grimm's been sort of a menace recently. A guy lost his leg yesterday in his boat. So how do you fight a water-based grimm anyways? Explosions?"

A little twitch of Pyrrha's lips upwards helped show her amusement even if she was a bit too nervous to properly smile. "Oh you just, um, well shoot at it mostly but we actually got a harpoon to use on the grimm. My semblance is polarity, you see so I can pull the harpoon and the grimm upwards out of the water while my father gets a clear shot at the crocus' head. It should be easy but we think that there might actually be four to six crocus' in total since they're territorial and the local bayou is pretty big. Besides, the attacks happened in really different locations."

Ren nodded and brought Pyrrha's attention back to him. Nora went to a shelf and looked over some of the goods there. Best not to linger too long in this place.

"That seems like a tough job. Aren't crocuses at least meant for a team of four hunters or more?"

"They're ranked that way because they're really big," Pyrrha explained. "I can counter them and my dad bought a few really big weapons to use against it so we shouldn't have much trouble. If we have to we have a few sort of secret weapons we can use against the grimm just in case and a jar of white sap to get them out of the way if we're REALLY desperate."

"Sounds like you're prepared," Ren observed.

"Ren! I got it!" Nora said with a smile. She came back to him and Pyrrha with a mostly fake smile and a box of breakfast bars and snack food. Ren nodded and took the bag of snacks from her before showing them to the bored looking cashier and paying while Nora invaded Pyrrha's personal space.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you," Ren said to Pyrrha with his bag over his shoulder. Nora was shoulder to shoulder with Pyrrha gesturing out the shop's window to the bayou not far away. "I hope to see you again but Nora and I have to set out tomorrow morning and we need our sleep."

Pyrrha nodded uncomfortably. Nora might have gone a little too far this time. "I, ah, goodbye to you as well." Ren took that as his cue and grabbed Nora as he went outside.

"Bye P-buddy!" Nora said happily as she was brought away from the store. Pyrrha weakly waved back.

"She seems nice," Nora said to Ren. He nodded in response.

[|||| =+= ||||]

Nora was quieter than usual in the mornings when they had to travel. After a long time travelling she understood that they had to conserve energy for later on in their hikes from town to town. That meant that as much as she obviously wanted to bounce along the path she had to stay and walk at a moderate pace like Ren was.

Even so, she could certainly distract herself.

"Do you think they have cool stuff at Greygrass? Like sloths! I'd take an elephant personally but sloths would be awesome! From the name you'd think they just have grass that's a boring grey but of course they have to have something! I mean, it's the third largest town around northern Mistral! It's practically a city! Do you think we can go see Mister Lute when we get to Kissam? That's next on our never-ending road trip, right?! It totally is! Ooh! I bet they have tons of candy and explosions at Greygrass! The name is a lie!"

"That sounds unlikely," Ren said calmly in response. Nora grinned widely.

"But it's totally possible!"

Ren's eye caught at a particularly solid looking portion of the marsh by the path. He stopped and looked at it intently. Something about it felt off. Be around dangerous places often enough and you tended to start listening to those feelings. More often than not they were right.

"But of course they've got pancakes! This sucky place didn't even have that! I need my fix, Ren! I NEED MY FIX!" Ren saw as Nora turned to her right, where he should have been, and looked back to see him looking between the marsh and her.

Suddenly, Ren noticed the black part of the marsh move slightly. He whipped his hands down at his belt, where his weapons were. Nora immediately turned a little more serious and reached behind her to grab Maginhild, the hammer extending to full length in just a moment.

The strange looking marsh reared upwards and Ren almost gulped as a large black shape showed itself. It looked like a huge crocodile except for the long mask over its eyes and a bony spiked ball on its tail like a mace of some sort.

The crocus, because clearly it was a grimm, was big enough that it could probably eat Nora or Ren whole… combined with it's armor there wasn't much they could do for now.

Ren turned to run but then saw another bunch of black shapes. Of course. Beowolves. Fantastic. They were sandwiched between a pack of beowolves and a crocus. With the wolves they couldn't quite run or hide. Despite being weak individually they were fast and numerous enough to catch them. The crocus was too strong and armored for them though. Maybe if they had an electric dust crystal for Nora's semblance… but no. They had run out a few days ago and hadn't had a chance to restock.

So fight enemies they were VERY unprepared for or run hopelessly.

Ren used his semblance to clear his emotions and thought quickly through their options as he and Nora drew close and the beowolves began closing in. The crocus let out a sort of hissing noise and drew itself out of the muck of the marsh.

"Use maginhild to scatter the beowolves," Ren said softly. Nora nodded silently, seeing the situation was dire. "After that we run through-"

*BOOM!*

Ren flinched as an explosion tore through the area. He glanced at the crocus and nearly gasped. The grimm was missing a head it seems. A trail of flame led away from it to a figure wearing red on a small hill behind them.

Ren heard the beowolves howl and he turned his attention from his and Nora's strange rescuer to them. His stormflower submachine guns pointed themselves at the grimm and he began letting loose, causing the grimm to howl in pain as the small bullets wounded them.

Nora rushed into the pack swinging maginhild around like it was made of plastic, shattering ribs left and right. Ren quickly joined her, slashing away. He and Nora could handle just a single beowolf pack.

It was to Ren's surprise that the figure in red was suddenly among the grimm stabbing with a short spear at them as they came. A pilum? Ren ignored the weapon and turned to his own task.

It wasn't long before the pack was finished. Nora personally smashed maginhild down on the alpha's head, cracking it's mask in the process. It was only then that he turned to their savior and paused.

"Um, hello again!" Pyrrha said with a somewhat nervous smile on her face. Ren just blinked at her blankly. This was an odd coincidence. "You're heading to Greygrass, right?"

"Yup! We're going to see so much cool stuff!" Nora said happily, unflappable as always.

"My father and I just finished hunting the other crocuses. Now we're heading to the same place. Maybe you'd like to come with us in our wagon? We've actually been behind you for a while now. We only just caught up when we saw that you were in trouble."

"Sure!" Nora decided for them. She looked over to a wagon approaching them with a scraggly but well-built man waving at them. She waved back.

And so the friendship began.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Remnant in metamorphosis**

Sampson Woods tended to be pretty normal as far as a faunus in Vale could be, which was pretty damn normal. He used to be a dockworker for the Vale shipping service, or VSS as it was called. It was big business, dealing in both air transit and sea transit.

It was a quiet life most of the time. There wasn't much trouble around the docks. Even the companies with more racist tendencies didn't extend that viewpoint to their grunt labor. The SDC troops and laborers that often worked alongside them to load dust to and from the transports weren't bad guys. Sampson personally attributed the good treatment to a sort of camaraderie among the working class.

But the docks weren't exactly the place to work when you wanted to move up in the world. Sampson still lived in the slums and wasn't quite content with his lot. So he looked for an opportunity. Job opportunities, that is. As he was, he could move up the chain of command in the docks little by little until he was a manager for life. Not exactly appealing in the grand scheme of ways a life could be spent.

It took three years of sweating every day moving cargo and having Saturday night poker that Sampson found a new opportunity. What he had been looking for.

"They're called Nature's Bounty," his buddy Vert explained, "they're hiring out of Patch mostly and a minor operation in Vale. They're big news in both faunus rights and shipping. You know that sap you can get in Forever Fall? They monopolized it. Somehow they've got a way to farm it like maple syrup but better. But the thing is that the sap is refined enough that it attracts grimm. They love the stuff. Huntsmen use it all the time now since… well, they can. It's useful."

"More importantly, though, is white sap, as they call it. It repels grimm. Don't ask me how. They just don't like the stuff and so they avoid it. They've even got the stuff in aerosol so you just spray a bit and the grimm fuck right off. It's worth almost as much as gold, though."

"You said something about faunus rights? And they're hiring?" Sampson asked, getting a little excited. Opportunities like this didn't come around often.

Mark nodded. "They hired faunus off from wherever at first. It's cheaper but mostly nobody wants stuff handled by faunus so they made a company settlement at Patch. They terraformed a ton of land, hundreds of acres apparently, and set up two orchards. They need workers to handle the machines and build the town. But the thing that makes them special is that they're co-owned by a faunus and a human, though the faunus guy, some guy named Mystic, is cavorting around the higher-ups and causing ripples. Every bigwig is in a fit over their potential or something like that. Point is, they're hiring and they're hot in the market."

Sampson looked into it with high hopes and he wasn't disappointed. People were making out the company and the guy leading it to be visionaries and entrepreneurs of the highest order. The guy leading it was a success story from the bottom to the top and a badass to boot. Even his nephew, some sort of prodigy huntsman, was a complete badass that could whup asses from Vale to Vacuo.

It didn't take long for Sampson to pack his things and talk to the union about changing jobs. It was so simple. He just took an interview to see if he was fit to work in the town, signed a few sheets of legalese that was clear and to the point, and he was off on a ship with a hundred other hopefuls. A train ride later and he was at what looked almost like a dust boomtown but… cleaner.

There were actual streets as opposed to dirt paths. Houses rather than hovels. There was an administration system already in place that sorted everyone out to communal housing based on their job assignment.

A whole two years passed and Sampson had no doubts that the town was the right place to be.

He had been a little freaked out by the White Fang presence in the town at first. They kept on the down-low but they weren't exactly subtle. They brought discouraged faunus from all over to tend to the growing town. They also had a recruiter in town although most people didn't care to leave the town when they got there. Taxes were light, utilities and necessities were fair, and the town even encouraged people to start families.

The whole 'stay and start a family' angle had confused Sampson a lot at first. They wanted people to… huh? Company towns usually brought people in from elsewhere to fill out the town's population. Having kids was costly and kids couldn't often work what with the laws about child labor. So why would they have kids in the town?

But the town didn't have racism among humans or faunus (apparently significant work had been put into stamping out anti-human or anti-faunus sentiment either way). It didn't have the high city taxes or pollution. It was almost a paradise in a way. Work wasn't even harsh, though it was still work at the end of the day.

It had hit Sampson after six months in the town. Administration. They had an administration in the town. Not for just sorting people out but for doing the taxes, keeping PR settled, as though it was even necessary, and all manner of desk jobs were becoming available at the little company town. Buildings started going up to three or four stories and a few offices began to appear. Districts had begun to form.

This wasn't just going to be a town dedicated to an orchard. This was going to be the HQ of Nature's Bounty.

Sampson dedicated extra effort every day to work when he realized this. The company was a rising star and Sampson was sure as hell going to ride it all the way to the top. The SDC and White Fang were somehow both on good terms with the company, the goods the company were selling were monopolized and expansive, and the name was known throughout Remnant.

Oh yeah. Nature's Bounty was going places.

So he worked. Two years in and he was vice-manager of production, meaning production of all the white and red sap in the orchards. The guy above him was an old guy named Hill that was seemingly there to stay but damn hard work paid off well when your job wasn't dead-end.

That said, change was coming again.

The conference. It was practically mythical in the town. The SDC and Nature's Bounty discussing a huge expansion to the company and a joint deal that was being televised internationally. People from all over would be listening in. He even got a letter from his mother in Menagerie and people there were bouncing off the walls too.

And, of course, Sampson worked. He worked like a devil. He actually scared his boss a little at how hard he worked but why wouldn't he work? There were a rumored two new crops coming in and by dust or death Sampson was going to be spearheading it. White sap changed Remnant from the ground up. The huntsman community was still adjusting. What would this new deal bring in?

He nearly had a heart attack when Hill handed him the invitation to attend the conference in his stead.

"I'm old, Bee," Hill said with a grin, "I got this little town moving though. Don't get me wrong, I'm here to stay but I won't delude myself that you're less important than I am. You've got this place working like a well oiled machine pumping out sap like we're made of it. Get in there and make an impression while your blood's still hot."

And of course it didn't work out like expected.

"You're… Sampson, eh?" the boss asked, a large man. Mahogany… he was here at the top with people like him. Sampson swore that he was out of place here at such an important conference - he was only thirty four! - but here he was with the boss of paperwork himself talking to him.

"Yes sir." It took all of Sampson's training to not stutter and to remain calm.

"Hah!" Mahogany barked in laughter, "An up-and-comer! Old Hill is a smart one and a big help getting set up to boot. Definitely one of the more competent workers. If I recall he said you were hard working. That's you, right?"

"Yes sir," Sampson said again. People always did say he was hard working over everything else.

"Hm. Well go impress people or whatever it is you care to do at this dinner. I'm off to see where Sienna got to."

It was… weird. Definitely weird. Mahogany was the co-owner of the whole company but the man was so casual. His entire time at the formal dinners and such was spent with Sienna Khan, as in international terrorist Sienna Khan, and messing with the rich people. He did a bare minimum of socializing (except with Khan and a few employees) and was clearly not taking the whole meeting too seriously. At least he didn't outright insult Jacques. He was pretty competent all in all.

But the Mavros' on the other hand…

"And of course the fiscal reports of last year are a mess in the R&D department," one higher up in the SDC criticized, "the full report was filed away by accounting incorrectly and several inconsistencies were observed. That said, we straightened out the problems. You can find the full report under section 2A of your packet and corresponding articles in the other lettered sections of the packet's second section."

"Mahogany do you want some cookies?" a voice asked. Everyone looked blankly towards a scroll at an empty seat. The screen showed a kid with dark hair and strange eyes in a kitchen. More noticeable was the apron he had on with black birds and roses sewn onto it's purple cloth. It was a little stained with cookie dough.

"Sure," Mahogany said casually. Businessmen were silent and more than a little baffled while the kid - Abyss Mavros that is - dished up a platter with five cookies.

With a little clatter a plate suddenly appeared in front of Mahogany, who calmly picked up a cookie and took a bite. A wry smile came onto his face.

Dear dust those smell incredible.

"Do you think I could have a few of those?" somebody asked. Everyone was looking towards Sampson… he just said that didn't he?

"Sure, kid," Mahogany said easily. He pulled out a handkerchief and put two of the cookies away before handing the cookies over the businessman next to him to Sampson.

Feeling incredibly self-conscious with people like Jacques Schnee and his boss of all people staring at him Sampson did all he could.

He took a bite…

"Anyone else want some?" Abyss Mavros asked casually. He nibbled on a cookie absently. Was this really the guy who fought Pyrrha Nikos to a standstill and took out most of her aura in one hit?

"Abyss are the cookies ready?!" A cheery and high pitched voice called from the scroll.

"Yes, Ruby!" Abyss called off-screen. A red blur passed through the screen and a plate of cookies was missing. Then he looked back to the scroll and took another bite. Sampson felt strangely like Abyss was mocking everybody with that bite.

"No takers?" hee asked them.

Long story short, everybody had at least one cookie.

Nature's Bounty really didn't make sense sometimes. At least Sampson could retire in his fifties with his salary the way it was.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Rose tinted world**

"This brings back memories," Raven said airily. Ruby's eyes darted almost greedily around the architecture of Beacon.

The school almost looked like something out of a fairy tale. It was bigger than one might think. The tower took precedence in the center but surrounding it was almost a small town of student dorms, teacher housing, and classrooms. A large field took up half the plateau the school was built on.

Faintly, Ruby remembered what she had read about Beacon. It was built on a plateau, lending a view to the Emerald Forest in the south and Forever Fall in the north.

She was a little disappointed that she wasn't able to ooh and aww at the view with other students but Ozpin didn't really give her another option. Well, there was a road constructed up the plateau half a century ago, (at great expense to Beacon) but nobody in her family had a car.

Who needed a car when you could use puppy eyes on your teleporting brother?

"Over there," Auntie pointed down at the field's edge, "there's a slope down the cliff to the border of the two forests. Follow a path and you'd find a tree house that we often used."

"A team tree house?" Ruby asked a little excitedly. Raven nodded.

"I wonder if it's still there, " she mused. "it might be in disrepair or some irritating brute might have abused it somehow."

"I wonder if me and my team can make our own clubhouse." Ruby smiled pleasantly at the thought. It could have a super secret entrance. Ooh! There could be a radio and hammocks and everybody would wonder where they went. But it would be super secret and hidden and-

"We're here," the pilot announced. Ruby came back to herself, saw her Auntie walking off the bullhead and ran back to her.

The campus was mostly empty but there were a few students around. While Raven ignored them Ruby looked critically at all their weapons, not noticing the small amount she was drooling at them.

With a little disappointment, Ruby stepped into an elevator, which was a bit boring.

Then she snapped out of it.

Beacon was great and probably a great place to make lifelong friends and make a life for herself beyond family and a light social life but right now she wasn't really in Beacon. She was on her way to meet Mister Ozpin.

On her way to get grilled on everything she knew about her brother most likely.

A small sigh escaped her at this revelation. It was nice to have that small moment of blindness. Maybe in another life Beacon would be overwhelming and awesome. It was more like she was walking to take a test right now.

With a small ding the elevator opened up a little grandly. Professor Ozpin was behind his desk already ready for them, hands clasped. It struck a little annoyance in Ruby that there was another person in the room. A tall lady with a white blouse and a purple cape. Oh! That's Miss Goodbitch apparently. Auntie had told her all about the strict teacher, though Ruby felt sorry for her that she had such a terrible name.

"Hello Miss Rose, Miss Branwen," The headmaster said calmly. "You're here for the review on your admission I presume?"

"Of course we are," Auntie said snappishly. Miss Goodbitch's hand drew near her waist, where a riding crop was. Was that her weapon? Mmm… nope. Her weapon affinity said that while it was a weapon it was more of a school weapon than her actual weapon. Like how her brother used that shortsword all the time rather than his gloves.

Auntie took a moment to glare at Miss Goodbitch, who glared back. It barely took a second before Miss G, who was to be called that until she says otherwise, backed off and drew her hand away from her crop. Auntie turned back to Ozpin with a scowl firmly in place.

"Could you just get to the point for once? Or do we have to dance around it for a few years before you decide to actually face an issue."

Mister Ozpin raised an eyebrow slightly at her Auntie's bluntness. She had learned it from her brother. It tended to work well when you just showcased your brute power apparently. "I can assure you that this will be over within a half an hour. However if you wish to avoid the pleasantries I will oblige."

"You make that sound like you're doing us a favor by ignoring social pleasantries. As far as I'm concerned I don't owe you a thing for inconveniencing us very slightly less." Auntie strode forwards and Ruby tagged along at her side, watching the displays closely.

"Of course you don't owe me anything," Ozpin said consolingly. Raven looked a little flatly at him and he continued on uninterrupted. "However, a check of your credibility as Miss Rose's family member is required."

"Ugh," Auntie groaned, "could you just ask already?"

Ruby privately thought that her Auntie was acting a bit too much like her brother right now. Then again she didn't want to be around the headmaster too much either. She sort of had to pack.

Mister Ozpin frowned for a moment. "Alright then," he conceded. "Firstly, Miss Rose do you feel you are properly treated in your residence?" Everyone looked towards Ruby, who blinked at being so suddenly addressed.

"Um, yeah. I mean, I don't really have to do much other than training and not being in the way so…"

"I'll take that as a yes then," Mister Ozpin concluded. "Do you feel that you are properly prepared for Beacon?"

"More like over-prepared," Ruby admitted. Ozpin nodded and looked down at a sheet of paper.

"I suppose you seem fine right now. If you feel that your wellbeing is safe then I can't do much about it." Ruby frowned at that. That makes it sound like Mister Ozpin wanted to do something but couldn't since she was happy.

"Well then now we have to focus on you, Miss Branwen," Ozpin looked neutrally at Auntie, who met his stare evenly, "considering that you're a criminal and a formerly S-ranked huntress the kingdom would be well within its rights to take Miss Rose into custody, although since it's Mister Mavros that has custody of Miss Rose he could be tried for negligence due to your association with his sister. However, we both know that he could just throw money at a lawer until that issue is fixed. Not to mention that Miss Rose seems stable."

"Are you going to grill us about Abyss or our maidenhood soon?" Auntie asked dryly. Mister Ozpin sighed lightly at her bluntness.

"Fine." Ruby felt a sudden change in the conversation, like it had taken a much more serious tone compared to the sterile and bureaucratic one Ozpin had tried before. Not that the pace Ozpin had tried was working anyways.

"Your maidenhood I can understand," Ozpin looked towards Auntie. Then he turned to Ruby, "but how exactly did you become a maiden, miss Rose? And how are you planning to deal with such a burden?"

Ruby would have squirmed if she hadn't been standing. As it was she curled her toes in her shoes. Mister Ozpin's stare was piercing. It made her uncomfortable. "I… I killed Miss Null."

Miss G's face darkened a little with anger. Ozpin seemed neutral. "I see," Ozpin said, "and what events led up to this?"

"Icmant," Auntie interrupted coldly. "We met that monster and the first thing we had to do was hide in Abyss' soul space. Ruby saw how powerful the things he was one day going to face were and determined that she had to grow stronger just to keep up. Being human was no longer good enough. I was of the same mind. I tracked down Dianthus and subdued her. Ruby executed her and received the maidenhood. From then on we trained under Abyss daily to control our power. Ruby began learning while I continued my own training."

Ozpin looked to Ruby and she nodded meekly. Auntie's answer was spot on. "I see." He took a moment to think before continuing. "While I can't truly punish you-"

"Ruby is not under your authority on this whatsoever," Auntie interrupted. Ozpin glanced towards her. "You have no grounds to punish her at all. Dianthus was not working with you and Ruby isn't either. When Ruby is in Beacon you can tell her off for missing homework or so on but you can't punish Ruby for doing something you don't like. You aren't her employer or authority in any matter other than schoolwork."

Ozpin frowned. "I see. I had hoped you would allow me to grant you protection from Salem."

"Unnecessary," Auntie said shortly.

"Apparently Salem isn't as terrible as you've told everyone she is," Ruby said quietly, "Abyss talked to her."

"And that leads us to our next topic." Ozpin sighed. "You brother is allied with Salem."

"Bullshit," Auntie scoffed, "he's talking to her. He hasn't been corrupted or whatever you care to say about it. He's talked to you once before and he isn't spinning drivel about being the heroes of humanity. He can talk to Salem without trying to destroy the world. Now that he's told me and Ruby a little about her I don't think she's much like what you've described her as at all. Even magic is far less dead than you would have had me and the team believe. 'Gone from this world', you called it. I've seen for myself that it's plenty alive in a good many places."

"Exactly what do you mean Miss Branwen?" Ozpin asked.

"Maidens. The reserves. The managuard. Was all that work I did for you to erase the managuard?" Auntie asked.

"The managuard?" Miss G asked.

"An organization in the government that sought to understand mana." Ozpin explained. "And yes, Miss Branwen. Much of the work you did under my employ was to stop them from revealing magic to the world. Such a reveal could be catastrophic."

"I'm starting to doubt that too," Auntie muttered. Ruby glanced towards her aunt curiously but she continued on. "Will there be anything else?"

Ozpin looked neutrally at Auntie. "Send Mister Mavros in when you next see him."

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Cake makes everything better**

"Jaune," his mother said sternly, "you're heading out for Vale next week." Jaune didn't really have a response to that. Sure, he was heading out to Vale with big sis but it would take about a month travelling on foot like they planned. He nodded respectfully and waited for his mother to continue, as he should.

"That means in all likelihood that neither I or the rest of your family besides Crimson will see you again for over six months and even so she'll be busy teaching."

Jaune saw where she was going with this. She was going to ask him to… to…

With a sigh Argent stepped back from the mirror. This had to be, what, the fifth time she had practiced this speech? With a glance at the digital clock on her left it showed over half an hour had passed.

Honestly she normally practiced for longer.

It was such a conundrum. How do you tell your kid that he's going out on his own? That he won't have anybody to coddle him? That for the first time he was going to have nobody to rely on but himself?

It wasn't like he was getting a job and moving out but it was close. Beacon might as well be a job in and of itself. With Ozpin there it might be a slight bit easier. He might be able to skip a little homework here or sleep in a class there but even so the school was hard. Reportedly it was harder to be in the school than be a fulltime huntress. It was preparation for the world. Swords had to be in fire before battle, after all. Beacon was like that. A trial by fire.

Except that it was more like a flood of papers and teenage hormones that you faced.

Perhaps the worst part of sending Jaune off was that she couldn't really help him. She had spent her teenage years being taught by her grandfather in the art of the sword and her years as a young adult wandering around a little and finding Vert.

If she had wandered a bit more then perhaps she could help. She never learned higher mathematics or studied poetry. She was a country girl at heart and never quite possessed the cunning and sense to live in a city. Managing the Arc estate and collecting rent from the lands they owned kept the family afloat and sure she could do that decently well but only with a lifetime of practice. Even now it was mostly her more civilian daughter that kept the ledgers and such.

Her son, on the other hand… it was hindsight that screwed her now. She had never taught him social etiquette like you might learn in a typical school or how to treat others who were different than you. Sweet dust he still wore that pumpkin Pete's hoodie with sports shorts! Teenagers would tear him apart. He's be dead meat if they ever saw him in his onesie. He had been with his family all his life and never really met others and you could tell. Not going to primary school had stunted him somewhat.

In a way he had been taught like she had. Education took a backseat to learning combat and survivability. It was only thanks to his sisters that he wasn't hopeless at academic matters.

With a resigned smile Argent reached over to the old family photo on a nightstand next to the bathroom mirror. She still remembered when things were simpler. When things weren't all sword drills and wizards and turning her most innocent child into a war machine.

It left her empty, in a way. Even so, she knew Jaune would be targeted either way. Perhaps she should have drowned him as a child like her father had said…

No. Her child wasn't a mistake. Even if his life was hard he would be better off living than not.

With a small tension lost Argent set the photo down, ignoring how happy Lavender was in it. She had to get ready for the day and talk to Jaune about Beacon. He would be leaving tomorrow, after all.

Grimly she supposed that she'd have to improvise her talk to Jaune. Oh well. She had done so plenty of times before.

[|||| =+= ||||]

She wasn't wearing armor to practice tonight. There was little need. With sharp eyes she inspected her son on his usual stump by the storehouse. He was looking at his naked sword with an odd expression. Something like sadness but different. "We're learning something special today," Argent began. Jaune's head snapped up and he sheathed his sword.

"Something special?" He stood from his seat with starry eyes, all previous melancholy forgotten. "Is it that Arc secret technique?!"

"Not even close. And I'm telling you that there is no 'secret' technique," Argent said plainly. This only seemed to make Jaune more excited. Dust knows what fantasies were going on in his head. "We're going to talk."

Jaune's excitement seemed to slip away to confusion. "Uh, huh?"

"Sit down, Jaune. We aren't sparring or training today." Even if it was more out of confusion that her son actually obliged, he sat down, moving blanc lumiere onto his lap. Not that he needed to sharpen the damned thing with how stupidly durable it was.

"We haven't ever really… talked." Argent almost winced at how awkward she sounded. Not that her son noticed. "About what you're going to do now that you're to going to be away from home."

"I'll be fine," he said with a flippant smile, "I'll have big sis with me anyways and schoolwork can't be that hard."

"I'm more worried about safety," she said, "not to mention that you've never really met anybody outside of the family. Getting to know other people…"

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Jaune said reassuringly. "If the people in the city are anything like the people in Ansel I'll be better than fine, even. Sis can keep me out of most trouble and I'll learn as I go. I won't have much time in Vale alone anyways. I've got people to meet."

"Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet," Argentum recited. The corners of her mouth crept upwards a little at the memory of her telling him that. It really had shaped him, that saying. She had hoped that Jaune would never go beyond Ansel, where the saying held true. Everyone in Ansel really WAS a friend he hadn't met, not that there was anyone he hadn't met in town, but out in the city the saying held much less weight according to her daughters.

Conmen, gangsters, hoodlums, criminals, and nasty people of all sorts were focused in cities. Her poor, innocent, and immensely powerful son could be tricked for all sorts of things.

Some of the stories Olive, Crimson, or Azure had told her about were quite telling on this. Olive lost all of her money within a week because some asshole befriended her and robbed her place. Crimson had some man sleep with her and run off into the sunset the minute she said 'long term relationship', and Azure had probably fallen for a hundred things without knowing it.

She was worse than her brother in how innocent she was, almost, and one of her duller children, though she had incredible luck due to her semblance, which caused convenient coincidences for her so long as she acted on some sort of gut feeling she had sometimes. How she accidentally joined a gang and cleaned them out through poker was just unfathomable but that semblance of hers was probably the most useful one she had ever seen, if not the most combat oriented.

"Worst comes to worst I can ask a teacher for a little advice," Jaune continued, "I'll be fine."

"I hope so," Argentum said, a little worried now that she considered how her daughters had fared. "Are you sure that you'll be fine without Azure? She's open to going to Beacon rather than Shade."

"Shade seemed nice to her. She had her gut feeling," Jaune explained.

"Your sister's semblance isn't always right," Argentum said with a frown. It wasn't always good for everyone, that is. Azure always came out on top somehow.

"Mom, I'll be fine," Jaune repeated, "and if I have some troubles I'll have help. I'm not alone in this."

"Alright." She conceded. She wasn't done worrying, not by a long shot, but he was right that he wasn't alone. "If ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING gets to be too much for you - from classwork to supernatural matters - I want you to call and tell me."

"What if the dustnet is down here?" Jaune asked. It was a valid question. Ansel didn't have a great connection to the outside world, being mostly a farming and trading town, albeit a prominent one.

"Send a letter or get the wizard to open a portal," Argentum said easily. She had made Ozpin make what he called a portal gate to their basement and even though she didn't trust it she would prefer that they had it and not need it rather than need it and not have it.

"Oh. Okay." Jaune looked a little sheepish. He forgot about the portal gate hadn't he? Of course he did. Argentum sighed softly at her son's foolishness but didn't say anything.

"Come on. I'm making dinner." Argentum turned around and got walking while her son hopped up.

"What are we having?" he asked, a little excitedly.

"Pasta and a salad and then we have two ice cream cakes your sisters made." Argentum nearly smiled at the thought of dessert. Her daughters, manipulative as they were, could make her favorite dessert like masters.

"Yes!" Jaune whispered with a fist-pump. He then immediately looked embarrassed. When Argentum gave him a look out of the corner of her eye.

Nevermind all that reassurance he had just given her. Teenagers were going to tear him apart.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **Gangsters and terrorists**

"I don't care," Roman said bluntly. "I'm not going up to Mountain Glen to manage some of your pet terrorists. For one thing I'm a racist and I don't bother hiding it for anyone except the boss, who doesn't tolerate that shit from me so I don't give it. If you want supervision up there send a clan member."

"That's fine," Cinder said, a subtle growl in her voice. Not a sexy kind but the angry kind. Normally it worked to intimidate men a little. Then again, she wasn't used to working with anybody. Roman was… difficult. He was clearly used to being the boss and she was too. The only way to work with him was to appeal to his pride and arrogance or compromise with him, which was often to his favor. He was cunning enough that you didn't often realize you got the short end of a deal.

She chose to compromise and appeal, which made their forced partnership somewhat work. It wasn't pleasant but she had to admit that Roman was useful. He was worth having as an underling if only for his capabilities with his gang.

That said, while she was the superior combatant to Roman by a wide margin Roman also had Raven behind him. Well, not quite behind him but rather acting as the moderator between the two of them and doing a good job of it.

It was obvious that Raven had conditioned Roman. Training was just subtle reinforcement of superiority while keeping him up to par. To communicate with her he had to send a message through her clan members, eliciting a delay and making it clear her time was more important than his. There were other ways she reinforced her superiority as well from the way she talked to him to the way she managed his empire from time to time. He was conditioned to be her subordinate completely. Mavros either didn't know or didn't care.

Not that she could say for certain. He was with her mistress learning the things she wished she could learn.

That changes today.

"The White Fang will be at the glen. They have a camp there," she began, considering how to present this. As needing his help? No. That implied need for cooperation. As a request for cooperation to appease Raven gives comradery of a sort and will work so long as he doesn't bring her actually into the movements at the glen.

"I will allow several of the clansmen into the operation," she said, specifically saying allow so as to show that the glen was her operation. "They will supervise the fang with Adam Taurus at the proverbial top of the pyramid." There. Adam would enjoy feeling important and allowing more cooperation between herself and him would adhere her to him, which was important in case the backup plan was needed.

"And you're certain that this operation won't permanently harm Vale?" Roman clarified, and rightly so. Letting grimm into the city? His city? He was against the idea but booting Ozpin from his seat required a public incident. Roman would have the more elite gang members, mostly comprised of the clan, at the site to combat the grimm, dressed entirely in his colors.

The obvious display of power and a suggestion to the local news stations would reflect badly on the huntsmen and huntresses. What does it say about the huntsmen and huntresses when a gang had to do their job for them? Securing the city was a huntsman job. That the gang could and would do it reflected badly on Ozpin and well on Roman since people will compare his gangers to huntsmen.

That was just the beginning. This? This was the prologue. It was tedious and simple but managing the man's pride was grating on her patience, though her sister had similarly tried her patience and was far better about testing it that this gang boss.

"The only way this operation could harm Vale is if your men fail to contain an incursion of weak grimm, which I expect will be easy for you." There, placing potential blame on him and agitating his pride.

"Fine," Roman growled a little snappishly. "They'll be there. And Neo for good measure."

The midget at his side grinned with a little bloodlust in her eyes. Cinder turned her eyes from her. She was completely loyal to Roman and for what? Ice cream? That and a loose leash. A favorable deal for one with such tastes as she.

She was almost as deadly as Roman. Should she care to she could be more than simply his enforcer but that she chose not to was almost impressive to his displays of leadership. She was strong too. For a gang enforcer that is.

"Select which clansmen you wish to send to the glen. I will arrange for transport tomorrow night."

"Fine," Roman said again. "You go do whatever it is you do. I've got work to do."

Once more Cinder's patience was tested. Once more she came out better for it.

"Enjoy your cigars and pleasantries. Don't grow fat on your success or you will be butchered like the pig you act as."

Roman rolled his eyes at her as she turned to leave, easily making her way out of the building and downtown, where she and her two underlings were staying.

It was a simple affair to pick them up. Mercury and Emerald both knew what was happening and all the risks.

Now to the actual work. Briefly Cinder wondered if Roman had ever gotten his hands dirty. From Raven's talkings she had done most of the work after Abyss introduced her as his second in command and thus above Roman. Roman was the cleanup crew and manager of territories.

How sad that the so-called ruler of Vale was a janitor and paper-pusher. The true ruler, though, was almost admirable…

[|||| =+= ||||]

Abyss Mavros had placed Roman in the line of fire and reaped all his successes. He did no work and instead conversed with her mistress and dealt in arts far above those like Roman.

He was a manipulator. A chessmaster. A wizard. All traits that seem to be intrinsically bound almost. He ruled Vale from the shadows easily, facing almost no opposition since he had killed almost all in his way. He was so cautious so as to have three backups in case Roman should fail. Raven, That Cesium child, and Neopolitan. Such caution was admirable.

Despite his skill in manipulation and nearly absolute power over the city there was something he had that was far, far more intimidating.

Power.

Abyss Mavros was a wizard. No maiden or charlatan but an honest (or as honest as a wizard can be) wizard. Perhaps beyond that.

He was powerful. Greatly so. By her mistress' estimates he could destroy Vale within days if that. Acting on his own that is. Were he to release his followers upon the cities he would collapse remnant in a day, perhaps less. It would be destroyed in a week.

Of course he was not stupid. He wouldn't do that. Why destroy when you can control? She would prefer to rule Vale herself but that power was easily taken away. Uprisings, revolutions, natural disasters, and more could take a kingdom away not to mention how you had to 'serve' the people. She preferred the maidenhoods. The power to summon a fire, flood, gale, or storm was so alluring and you did not have to be beholden to anyone. The power was unequivocally yours with no competition.

More recently that plan had changed.

Branwen had the spring maidenhood and Abyss' sister the winter maidenhood. That changed things. The original plan had been to become a sorceress on par with Salem, at least in power, through the fragments of Ozpin's power scattered in these women. Now that only two of the maidenhoods are available she had to improvise.

Luckily there were options. Magic was versatile and there was always another path to power.

Mavros was the solution. She had seen the clansmen. What they could do. Flight, invisibility, nigh-invincibility through an impenetrable armor, strength and durability beyond most huntsmen, powers from lasers to a localized earthquakes to aerokinesis and more.

He could _grant_ power. He could… dish it out. Like a gift to his followers.

That Mavros could do that meant he was smart. His mistress had learned of these gifts of magic and demanded she researched it.

So she did.

Her mistress had laughed. _Laughed._

She had seen what she called a bodily runic matrix and smiled with glee of all things. Then she had begun to explain.

She had summoned the entirety of her subordinates with a smile on her face and slowly, meticulously, explained exactly what Mavros had done.

A runic matrix for collecting mana.

A system for using said mana.

It was so simple.

He put them on his follower's bodies.

This was impossible.

Her mistress had said so. It had been tried hundreds of times in the past. People had tried everything. Runes on an individual leaked the smallest amount of mana, letting it breach in and out of the runes as the ambient mana was agitated.

For example, the mana could, through a small imperfection in the runes, leak into the system. This mana would activate the system, causing its effect to occur.

This could cause the runes to be unpredictable and fire off randomly. Were one to have, say, a pyrokinesis runic set they would have burned skin and clothes all days not to mention heatstroke. Affinities protected their users as much as they caused destruction. Fire created through affinities did not harm it's creator.

This is why Mavros' runes were perfectly made every time to the point where there was no breach of mana at all. All on a biological surface with a tattoo gun of all things. Her mistress had even commended his runic matrixes for being ingenious. Even had they not been on a person of all things the runes would be that of a master of the craft. These were simply mass produced runes too, according to her mistress.

What did Mavros have hidden in his bag of tricks? A master of runes. A manipulator at the national level. A bringer of ruin had he just the whims to be so.

He was, for all intents, a living god. He granted boons, commanded the heavens, and was so far beyond everybody else in power. How could such a being not be more than human?

He held the keys to divinity for her. The maidens alone were not enough to grant her power absolute as she intended.

And from there her mistress' goals could be accomplished. A new breed of humanity. A new wave of archwizards. They would be the start. The forerunners of a new empire spanning the world. Humanity at its greatest.

This was not her dream. Yet it was her goal, one of them. But who would bring in the new wave? A new population could not be simply poofed into existence. Childbirth was a necessity for making a soul. It was a ritual of sorts. Her mistress understood it better than she.

It came down to but a few. Mavros was the only wizard in existence willing to support her mistress' goals.

She was the only woman supporting her mistress' goals and soon she would be as a sorceress. A higher state of humanity.

It was natural that she would bring in the strongest wave of humanity with the strongest male in the world, besides Ozpin. The man was weak in magic but his bag of tricks was endless. Abyss was a more suitable choice on all fronts.

Her mistress agreed fully. She herself was not quite suited for childbearing in body or mind. Cinder herself was young still. For this purpose her mistress had changed her boon. The grimm parasite in her arm was different now.

It would not take her arm as it was to do before. Rather, it would be devoted to spreading throughout her body, slightly strengthening her entire being with the power of grimm. As being beautiful was more useful now it was necessary. Having the better weapon of her entire left arm being of grimm was less useful now that the maidens were less viable as a path to power.

She had but to ascend to nearly goddesshood and seduce the strongest man in existence. Not that seduce was quite the word. She was attracted to power and Abyss Mavros was beyond powerful. He could grant her power provided she prove herself worthy of it, of that she was certain. Power one was not worthy of was not their power at all but simply a borrowed gift free for the taking by the strong and worthy.

Were she to be his wife she didn't believe she'd mind at all. The benefits were far worth the duties. She might even fall in love according to her mistress. That was not so important to her as the fulfillment of her goals, however.

The first step, however, was up to her to take.

With a fond smile she recalled Abyss Mavros' first step to power. The slaughter of Vacuo, in which so many gangs perished. Human trash all of them. She would be a little quieter but no less impressive. Perhaps more so in the size of her prey.

Amber Parsian stood in her way. She would be the first step on her path to what could only be her destiny. The moment she kills her and takes her gift for herself she became something greater. Something closer to perfection.

Just one step.

[|||| = **NEXT STAGE** = ||||]

 **The sides of the coin**

Ozpin glanced over the forms for the new school year mechanically. It was a practiced routine and doing it was nearly effortless at this point.

What many people didn't realize about Beacon was how precarious it was bureaucratically. Managing the school required immense amounts of paperwork and a solid foundation of experience. If there was to be an inexperienced headmaster for too long the school may very well crumble.

It was for this reason that Ozpin had personally taken care of the school and it's intense standards of paperwork for almost four generations of new bodies now, though this changed dramatically recently.

He always had to make a replacement for the position so that while he and his new body got acquaintanced the school didn't fall to ruin. Glynda was already a fantastic administrator for the school but she was extremely stressed while managing only three quarters of the paperwork full-time.

Were she to be the headmistress of the school she would also have to conduct interviews of promising new students, keep an eye out for the real talent that didn't have the resources to truly shine, conduct meetings with the council of Vale to satisfy their irritating political endeavors, and more yet. Just eating had to be done quickly and efficiently.

Even with his mastery of administration he could only spare four hours every other night for sleep. Aura and coffee kept him sustained enough to be alert and capable. Any longer than those forty four hours of work and he began to drop in efficiency, which led to a backlog of work and him falling asleep anyways.

This all changed roughly four or five years ago. Glynda did much of the paperwork now. He could sleep every night nowadays with her help and he had the added benefit of a better combat class instructor (Miss Crimson's focus on physical combat rather than her semblance allowed her to better criticize the student body's fighting), the easing of Glynda's paperwork, and his own free time being truly free.

He was so flush with time, the rarest commodity of all, that he could teach a class next year. Students would be able to choose between Doctor Peach's dust studies class or aura control class with himself, which was truly a joy to teach. Aura was such a personal power that controlling it was greatly up to the individual, making it quite esoteric to teach and not to mention difficult. It could be done but it wass more often an individual pursuit.

That simply made it more fun. If it were easy and predictable he would be a master at teaching aura control as he's mastered so many other skills over the years.

With his workload so diminished one might wonder what he did with all that time. Did he spend it taking greater command of his war against the grimm? Or training new warriors in his eternal quest to preserve humanity? Not in the slightest.

He spent it composing music.

It was such a strange and baffling idea that humanity's stalwart protector and the worst yet most dedicated workaholic of all time could do something so mundane. Composing music? Why that specific hobby, exactly?

It was his semblance, in fact. Eidetic memory was as much a curse as a boon, considering his infinite lifespan. A song lasted but a minute and to the trained ear it was unique every time, no matter if the song was the same or not. So many factors might change the result from the infinite amount of acoustics possible to the personal flair of every musician. Nobody played an instrument in quite the same way as somebody else. Pressure was always a little different, a voice leaning towards the louder side a little more or less.

Remembering everything made repeated experiences beyond stale. Music, though, was always fresh and different when played in person depending on so many factors. Even written music could be interpreted differently depending on the musician. It was for these reasons that Ozpin considered music to be the most personal of all art forms and the most valuable to him.

It was to this scene that Abyss Mavros saw the headmaster. In his room drawing on a musical staff.

Ozpin's first impression of him was that he was nearly unchanged. His eyes, at least, were no longer imitating _those_ eyes. There was some sort of intense affinity for purity in him. It seemed like an untapped well of sorts. A magical artifact, then. Somehow it's affinity felt strange to him. Like it was aimed specifically towards Mister Mavros.

Mister Mavros was mostly unchanged physically. A sleek build dedicated to flexibility and lithe muscles designed to react quickly. Not an uncommon build among huntresses but less so among huntsmen. Huntsmen were usually a bit more muscled while huntresses were faster. He seemed to have perfect control of his body now, shown by a perfectly steady heartbeat and no involuntary movements.

He had grown up. Not drastically but to the point where it was noticeable. He was still unforged, however. He was a teenager and a vicious one at that. Looking into his eyes Ozpin couldn't help but feel that Mister Mavros' first look was to consider a person's worth.

He himself had been like that once. He still is, in a way.

"Composing?" Mavros said with some fascination. "Not quite what I expected from you but I suppose everyone needs a hobby. Come to think of it it's rather fitting somehow. Kind of old fashioned."

"Mister Mavros," Ozpin greeted curtly, "how was your trip?"

The corners of Mister Mavros' mouth twitched upwards for just a moment. He had the gleam in his eyes of someone who had heard some amusing inside joke and wouldn't tell.

"It went… rather well," he said with that gleam again, "I learned a bit and saw some very _interesting_ things. I do think I'll visit your ex-wife again."

Ozpin paused at that. She truly told him… of course she did. She never was one for slowly pulling back the curtain. She was more of the type to control by fear or some desire.

"Ah. How much did she tell you, exactly?" He kept his voice impeccably calm, as always. Nevertheless he felt that Mister Mavros saw some of the unease creeping into him. Salem and her actions did that to him.

"Most of the story apparently," he said casually. He glanced around and his eyes landed on a chair. With a seemingly casual movement he pulled it to him and sat down.

An interesting move. Sitting down indicated comfort and while Ozpin didn't exactly cut the image of authority the casualness with which Mavros acted could be called disrespectful rather easily.

Not that he ever seemed to give respect to anyone but those close to him, or so Crimson told him from her surveillance.

"To sum it up you and Salem were married in a fairy tale ending of sorts. Storm the tower, save the princess, and get the girl before marrying and happily ever after."

Ozpin openly winced slightly at the summary of his entire first life. Yes, it did seem to be that way but it was more complicated than that. In that simplified lineup he seemed to have forgotten the political scandal of a major noble's daughter running off and the reveal that she was locked away in the first place. There were plenty of misadventures they had after the tower as well. Salem was a prodigious mage and rose to the rank of archmage very quickly in their time together.

Overall, though, it was rather like the simplified lineup Mister Mavros suggested.

"That is… not an incorrect retelling of events," he admitted, "though it was more complicated than that." Not that the rest mattered so much now.

"It's overall rather unimportant," Mavros dismissed, "though seriously, dungeons?" He sent a judging look to Ozpin, who frowned.

"They were the proving grounds of the light and dark gods. They were a place for the gods to rain gifts down on those they felt worthy of them, proven through combat and skill in crafts," he defended. Nowadays it may seem odd but the dungeons were perfectly normal back then.

"Of course." A slight drawl in Mavros' voice irked him. It was like sending a judgemental look towards him without actually doing so. This was likely the influence of Raven Branwen. She was an expert at getting on people's nerves.

"Anyways, dungeons and dragons aside-" Ozpin's lips briefly pressed together before he righted them, "-Salem went to the gods, the light god was a right bastard that went on about balance, the dark god was quick to judge her as a deceiver, and they cursed her. She built an army and they cursed her again, destroyed the world, dropped the relics, and left you in the body of some hapless teenager. Then you built a kingdom, you spilled the beans about the relics and that the gods sent you to Remnant to kill her, and then you tried to take the kids, failing horribly. Am I missing anything?"

That she had told him so much… how disturbing.

"That's all correct, yes," Ozpin admitted. He needed to return this conversation to his stay at Salem's tower. It was in Mavros' control right now. "What else did she tell you of?"

"A few things," Mavros seemed unconcerned with the other knowledge, "aether, the fallacies in your books, and we have an agreement of sorts now."

"An agreement?" This could be bad… catastrophic, even.

"She will continue her operations and I will not interfere. I hold dominion over Vale through Roman and will continue my expansion of Nature's Bounty. We agreed that fighting each other is pointless. I am a well of potential yet and I'm not adverse to her beliefs. This makes me an asset of sorts. A contact at least. Both of you are equally interested in me. You for my ability to combat Salem in ways you are currently unable to and Salem for my ability to have children with magical potential."

A smirk crossed Mavros' face. "Not to mention a few other factors in the works. I agreed to not tell, however. You'll have to figure out my secrets yourself. Salem is simply too big a presence for me to keep secret." A strange look entered Mavros' eyes.

"I want to be perfectly clear here that Salem and I are amicable associates. We are not allies. I haven't been corrupted by black magics or whatever you might imagine. I am a neutral party in this domestic spat of yours and Salem's. I want my family safe and I'll try as hard as I can to keep them alive. That's all. What else are we here to discuss?"

Ozpin's face was perfectly neutral but he was scowling inside. He was under no ideas that he and his party was stronger than Salem's. He would go so far as to say that he was the weaker party due to his need to be defensive. Salem couldn't be killed, for example. If she chose to she could wander into a major city and slaughter everyone. Her immense magical might could not be bound by a curse and her inability to die permanently left her as a walking force of nature beyond any magic user before save perhaps the archmagus of soul.

That Mavros was not going to be an ally to him was a setback. Hopefully a team with Mister Arc will draw ties between them strong enough that he is swayed. Such an emotional weakness, not to mention miss Rose, creates an emotional chink in Mavros' armor, which he could use to draw him into favorable relations with his faction.

As hard as Mavros was resisting his attempts to recruit or befriend him to the side of humanity he was still nearly unshaken.

Perhaps Glynda was right… but as of now he was too powerful. Pushing hard will result in not only alienating him but allowing Salem to further sink hooks into him. He knew how she worked. She had ideas for a greater humanity, an enlightened humanity, that sounded great at first. But then slowly she turned you towards darker methods. Turning the world to war and genocide to bring magical humanity to supremacy being the one he himself had been drawn to. Perhaps she was doing the same to him.

The idea of Mavros turning against humanity… 'a strike against humanity now for a brighter future' she'd call it. Genocide and slaughter to 'uplift' humanity. A pain today for a brighter tomorrow. He'd fallen for all this and simply turned the world to war. No. Salem's way was not the right way. Peace could be brought through peaceful means. The kingdoms were a testament to that. Seventy years without war they have stood and they'll go without war a hundred more.

If Mavros were to turn against humanity he could easily incite the White Fang to war. So very easily. Call a scandal against the Schnees, rally the Fang to impact the SDC supply lines, undercut the SDC, and engineer public scandals of racism.

It was so very easy to gather racists and make them a threat against the White Fang. Simply drop a few armaments here, a pile of lien there, and mercenaries would kill anyone. Bombings were simple for the dedicated terrorist, magic making it beyond trivial, and beyond the White Fang scene he could easily assassinate the world leaders. It wouldn't even be an exercise. It would be a small chore. Blame it on the White Fang, then, and a race war breaks out.

This is all assuming, of course, that Mavros doesn't simply make an army of invincible magical golems and bring ruin to the world. Actually that sounded more like him. A massive storm over Vale ruining the city would be equally trivial for someone like him.

An if… if he were to acquire the relic of destruction… could Ozpin even bring him down then? … Yes. He could. But the costs…

He shook the thoughts from his mind and refocused himself. Only a second had passed but Mavros seemed to notice his pause.

"Your attendance to Beacon," he started, his voice somewhat colder than before. The idea of Mavros laying waste to Remnant like a child and a sandcastle stained his mind. That future was too close to being reality for any sort of comfort. "You are attending, yes?"

"I am," Mavros confirmed.

"Why?"

He seemed to consider the question for a moment. "I prefer to respect any deals I make," he started, "but that's just a courtesy. Easily bypassed. I've pulled a lot of strings. Pyrrha, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao-long, and several others. My presence at Beacon will assure a number of things. Attending your school is also a way for me to assure you that I don't intend to burn all your work to the ground. And I'll be honest, the school is prime for recruiting agents of my own. Qrow and Raven came from here, hm? School, for me, isn't about the education. It's about the people. That and the reputation I'll earn in the huntsman community."

Ozpin looked hard for any bit of dishonesty in Mavros. There wasn't any. He did have a strange sense of candor didn't he? And his motives were all reasonable and even relatable. Pulling all those strings and leaving them loose? Nobody sane would do that.

Still, though…

"Strings you've pulled?" Ozpin began. "Like the Arcs?"

The effect was instantaneous. Mavros stiffened. His eyes trained on the immortal with laser focus. A tension in the air that had never been there before erupted full force.

"You know," he accused.

"That you ruined a family, traumatized all of them, especially their young child, and broke their home?" he asked rhetorically. "That you incited them to train their male heir to war? That you took away a happy childhood? That you utterly convinced him that there were monstrous people in the world?"

"Yes," he ground out. Mavros glared at him. "You want me to open up, hm? Show a moment of weakness or more honesty?"

Ozpin was silent. He was confused. Mavros had never acted this emotional about his exploits before.

He breathed out in irritation. "Fine. I fucked up. Screwed the pooch. Call it whatever. I learned of the Arc family and I went to investigate. A little digging told me of their heart-of-gold male child and I figured out what I wanted to do. I wanted them to stop coddling him. Another good person in your spat could save lives. Help children and hold you to not get tunnel vision dealing with Salem. He's to be a moral compass for your group of a sort. It makes you less dangerous."

Mavros had only a trace of deceit in his talk when he spoke of Mister Arc saving lives in his side. He did what he did for something else. Someone else? Interesting.

"I was stressed," Mavros continued, "I had a lot of issues, mainly Summer and trying to raise Ruby, but things felt like they were collapsing around me. I had no body for the longest time and that leaves a mark. I was in a bad state. I won't say I should be excused because of that. That would be ridiculous. I did what I did. I simply wanted to investigate them though. When they discovered me I had a sort of snap. I could have - should have - left. I didn't. I reacted with hostility because that's how I was met. Then it escalated. I wanted the Arc heir strong. So I made him strong."

Ozpin considered that for a moment. The Arc heir was strong. Absurdly so. He was a perfect storm of training, blood, and magic. He was simply naive due to his own nature.

"Do you wish to make amends?" Ozpin asked. Mavros looked into his eyes.

"I want to never touch that kid's life again. I just know that I will."

Ozpin reconsidered his plans. He's heavily suspected that Mavros was the so-called Villain, a strangely apt yet childish alias to use. He hadn't been certain that it wasn't one of the few cells of so-called magicians around Remnant. Not that they were anything more than pretenders and hobbyists. Summer, even as an amateur, was a hundred times their best mage without even her skills as a huntress and not even due to her silver eyes.

The cells aside he was fairly certain it was Mavros the entire time. But what of pairing him with Mister Arc?

Perhaps… he could simply stay away from him. But that would be more akin to leaving a problem for later, would it not? And even enemies are able to be friends with enough time and empathy. Mister Mavros was by no means a bad person. Misguided, surely, but not bad. Mister Arc was naive and lacking the greater view of the world Mavros possessed.

Opposites attract in their own way. Mister Arc was not a child to hold grudges, the only one he had belonging to Mister Mavros.

They could balance each other out. Work through their differences. The worst case scenario was that they hated each other and separated. But that was only the case if they were improperly managed. If he pulled a few strings they could meet in a way that wasn't without safety nets of a sort.

Forgiveness wouldn't come easy. But time and the seemingly endless empathy of Mister Arc would prove him right. If anyone could fix Mister Mavros' darker tendencies, reign him in, it was Mister Arc.

No. They were going to be volatile but with the right touch they could be something wonderful. True teammates weren't two people in complete agreement on every point. The best teammates were those who would cover the deficiencies of their allies.

They had to trust one another.

This could be done. It simply took time.

"I believe that is all Mister Mavros." Ozpin decided. Mavros nodded and stood.

"You have a plotting face," Mister Mavros said casually. "I have one too. Whatever you're plotting I suggest you think it through ten times. If I and Arc never speak again I would have no troubles whatsoever."

Ozpin nodded. "Of course." This wasn't anything more than an acknowledgement on his part. Mavros looked at him suspiciously but turned away.

"Goodbye Ozpin. I'll see you in two days."

"I will see you then. Do be excited. Initiation is a very important day in every person's life, should they attend Beacon. I hope you are prepared."


	44. Chapter 44

**AN: Shorter chapter than usual but hey, it's out.**

[||||= **LEVEL 44** = ||||]

It was odd, really. I never quite expected… this.

"You're a maiden," I said with a neutral expression. What had changed? Had I done something? I hadn't thought that Cinder might actually become a full maiden for some reason. She hadn't changed that…

Oh. Ember Fall. I don't recall Cinder ever saying she had a sister in the show but she never mentioned one either. I'm not sure whether Ember is native to this world. I'm evidence enough that this world is different than the show portrayed it as.

Cinder's smirk grew slightly, as though hearing it from another's mouth made it more satisfying. "Yes." She savored the word, like it was delicious in her mouth.

"Hm…" I stared at her as I considered this. "How did you kill Amber?"

Her smirk stayed firmly in place. "I ambushed her. Mercury kept her busy whileand I used a technique granted by my mistress to sap her powers."

"The parasite," I noted. She didn't seem surprised at all that I knew of it.

'Yes," she said easily. "It is necessary to use the parasite to take the powers. Killing them is somewhat safer but less assured."

I nodded understandingly. I wonder what changed to make her kill Amber more easily? Curious… but not entirely terrible. Cinder being the fall maiden was a game changer. Ozpin only had one maiden now…

Wait… would he bring her to Beacon or squirrel her away? Should he bring her to Beacon the third season could be reenacted in a way with Cinder stealing her second maidenhood through the parasite. I wonder what she has planned after?

Should the maiden not come to Beacon Cinder would have to track her down. Or maybe this mysterious 'Ember' would do it. Whichever way it goes it isn't my problem. If it becomes my problem, however, I'll likely not have much trouble solving it. I'm not averse to killing Cinder. It's Salem I'm concerned about. Killing Cinder would piss her off immensely and that was quite bad.

"Strange," I muttered. "And what do you have planned now?"

"The original plan is still happening," Cinder said smoothly.

"Good then," I said easily. "And trouble controlling the powers?"

"They try to act on their own sometimes," Cinder admitted. "But they are controllable."

I was slightly relieved that I didn't have to teach remedial mana control again. I wouldn't particularly mind it since I could be harsh with Cinder. She wasn't grieving or anything. Hell, I don't even care if she likes me, though that's no reason to be an ass like Roman would.

"And what of your subordinates?" I asked.

"Mercury was injured. Emerald is fine." I raised an eyebrow. Mercury wasn't injured in the original timeline… I think.

"Anything other than your ambush happen?" I asked.

"A man with a sword showed himself as we were leaving. Amber must have had some sort of emergency beacon she switched on." Qrow then.

"Fine," I sighed. "Just… do your work and play with your powers."

"Is that how they get stronger?" Cinder asked in what I think was amusement. "Playing with them?"

"They get stronger by a few different ways," I said. Cinder knowing how powers get stronger isn't a big deal. We aren't enemies anyways. Her having something like goodwill towards me could be useful. At least taking my word on these matters will be useful. "Meditation is the fastest way for me by myself. For Raven or Ruby it's constant use or training."

"The fastest way alone?" Cinder raised a manicured eyebrow and looked at me.

"With a partner and a runic matrix I devised it gets far easier to raise affinities so long as you have a partner with the affinity at a higher level than you do."

"Oh?" Cinder seemed to want to hear more. The fastest way to power, right, I almost forgot for a moment that she was a power-hungry backstabber.

I looked steadily back into Cinder's eyes. They weren't as brutal as Salem's but there was a fire in them. Not a pleasant one but a hungry and consuming one. How these villains get such interesting eyes is… you know what? I can't talk on that topic. It'd be hypocritical.

"Yes," I said clearly. My tone clearly indicated the end of the topic.

"Hmph." Cinder didn't appear upset at all. "Alright then. You have Beacon to attend tomorrow, correct?" I didn't respond. She knew I did. "Enjoy your night then Abyss."

I teleported and frowned. Cinder using my name felt weird. Like… somewhat like if I were to call Yang 'big-sis'. I could, but I don't. It's out of the norm. The problem is that there's nothing else to call me. Abyss is my name.

I'll just get used to it.

But before that…

"Abyss you're back!"

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Holy shit is that…"_

" _That's Pyrrha Nikos. You… remember the tournament?"_

" _I heard she was so disappointed by what she considered a draw that she retreated to train alone for years."_

" _I heard she decided she wasn't worthy of Mistral, having lost, and left."_

" _What do you think she's doing here?"_

" _To become a huntress, maybe?"_

" _Well this is Beacon. So probably."_

"…"

"…"

" _That's Abyss Mavros."_

" _Uh-huh."_

" _Holy shit."_

" _Uh-huh."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"You have everything you need?" I asked to make absolutely sure. "Absolutely everything and I mean everything you need? Not too much or too little?"

"Yup!" Ruby said cheerfully. She glanced once more at the runes on her skin and flicked them on and off once more, seeing them fade and appear on her skin. She had asked for them to be a sort of pinkish color and found some nail polish for reference. I got some tattoo ink in that color and just did it.

I think doing hers in pink made her a little special but then again her runes were a little special. She was like Raven and me. Her runes didn't need a power source since she was the power source.

"You don't want that poster?" I pointed at her wall, where a poster for something called the Achieve Men sat.

"Nope!" she said in the same tone as before. She made a little flame in her right palm and made it shaped to a little serpent. It twisted and turned around her palm. With a happy gleam in her eyes she watched the ice dust from the dust system get melded with the fire serpent, making it burn blue and cold. A huge grin went over her face at the frostfire. She never really got that spell quite down. With the dust system she could do it effortlessly and with a far greater control and power than before.

"Fine," I said with a shrug. "You know how to do it, right?" I referred, of course, to her new link to my soul space. A tiny tattoo that was on the back of her hands with tendrils down to her index fingers and thumbs. She just had to touch something with either fingers or the backs of her hands and channel aura or mana.

With a small giggle of giddiness Ruby poked her suitcase, packed full of clothes and knickknacks, and it popped away. She laughed at the disappearance as her runes faded to be hidden from view once more.

"Woohoo!" she cheered, "I don't have to wear gloves anymore!"

"Like that's even a big deal," I muttered.

"It's a huge deal!" Ruby insisted.

"Not even," I denied. It was no big deal to wear a glove in exchange for a near infinite spatial inventory. I swear I cater to her too much if she can consider that an inconvenience. At least she's not spoiled. Raven made beyond sure of that. Not that Ruby was ever a bratty girl. Well, except for her princess phase. Luckily that was only a month of embarrassment. It was better than her emo phase. Gods that was just beyond embarrassing.

"So we're ready?" I confirmed.

"We have to get the kitchen," she reminded me.

"I already got that." I dismissed. Everything was packed in the house I have in my soul. I had all the food I could ever need and the house was self-sufficient. I had a gas stove and enough gas to keep it going for a year with all burners on high. Ridiculous? I call it being prepared for the possible apocalypse.

"Everything?" she prodded. By everything she meant enough cookie dough to last her rampages.

"Everything," I assured her. We'd still be having school lunches and breakfasts but we might have dinners in the team rooms. It wasn't against any rules and it'd be a good team bonding exercise. Eating together brings comradery of a sort, right?

"Then we're ready… right?" Ruby glanced around one more time, as though she had anything left in her room she might need to take.

"We're missing one thing. She's loud and flirtatious and takes up the whole room."

"Oh!" Ruby realized. "Right. Let's grab Yang and get going." Then her eyes lit up.

"Ohmygodwe'regoingtoBeacon!" she squealed. She leapt from her bed and hugged me hard. I took it in stride and opened the portal. Ruby kept hugging me even as I stepped through my portal to see Yang mostly packed putting on some makeup. Not something big but just some stuff to accent her eyes and face.

And her breasts because she's just like that.

Yang glanced at me and Ruby before grinning and seeing what was going on. "Family hug?" she asked. I rolled my eyes.

"You tell me."

Yang got up and slid over to Ruby, hugging her hard. "Welcome back to Vale, little bro," she said fondly.

"Yang!" Ruby said excitedly. "We're finally going to Beacon!"

"I know!" Yang said, mimicking Ruby's enthusiasm. "Who do you think will be your partner?"

"A totally awesome girl I can be bestest buddies with who gets me!" Ruby's eyes went a little sparkly as she fantasized about her dream partner. "We'll go on rollercoasters and be awesome besties who hug all the time and kick bad guy butt!"

I ignored the fact that Roman Torchwick was a bad guy. THE bad guy, in fact. And that he had met Ruby a few times before. He didn't like her but Ruby thought he was funny with his uncomfortableness in trying not to insult her. I don't think she realized how much she annoyed him.

"Totally!" Yang agreed, getting really into the mood. A large grin went over her face. "I'm going with whatever comes but I'm hoping for somebody who can party!"

"Because you're so lacking in parties," I said with another eyeroll.

"Well… actually, yeah," Yang admitted. Both Ruby and I looked at her in surprise as we separated from the group-hug. "Kerrigan is… well he's a really good boyfriend. I didn't think he'd be so attentive. Normally the guys I go out with are just in it for the thrills, which is fine by me but Kerrigan is really attentive and surprisingly good at parties. I just have to get him out of his shell."

I nodded. As if Kerrigan had a shell. The man was made of stone. He was attentive, perceptive, and clever, but a party animal? Not quite. Not at all, I mean. He could definitely fit in with how socially adept he is but a natural partier he is not.

I had checked in on Cesium and the gang and they seemed fine. Cesium was working a little better with Roman and sort of working with Cinder. He had met her and knew her at least. Ocean had scouted out the White Fang base in Forever Fall, where Adam Taurus was. Kerrigan had been proactive and poked around to learn a little about what he and Ocean were both doing. He learned a little of how to do both their jobs.

Roman and Cinder had worked something out. Mostly Cinder manipulating Roman according to Raven but that's fine.

Raven had taken some of my snark about getting lax seriously and trained a little. Her skills were as sharp as ever and her continuous practice of magic made her only stronger.

Other than my side and my machinations Bella's wedding planning was going steady. Qrow was drinking less, apparently. Not that he wasn't a complete drunkard still but he was less intense in his drunkenness.

I'm more curious about whether or not they'll get a honeymoon. With Salem getting active again and myself shaking things up I think they'll have to put it off for a little while. Or maybe spend a week or a month in Vale off just doing as they pleased. It's inconsequential to me in any case. They'll figure it out.

"You ready to make a portal?" Ruby asked. I blinked and effortlessly made one to Beacon.

"Not there!" Ruby said in an offended tone. Oh no. "We're going to ride the ships! Everyone rides the airships!"

"Why?" I asked. It was nearly rhetorical. A look in Ruby's eyes told me everything I needed to know. She had prepared to convince me of this for a while now. She might pull out the puppy eyes if I resist. "Nevermind." I waved my hand once more and a new portal opened a block away from the airship docks. I remembered the location since I'd been there a few times for gang related matters and the pamphlets Beacon gives to every initiate say the location.

"Now if you'll excuse me…" I stepped to my Beacon portal but was pulled back before I could get through. My eyes widened a little. That's Yang's hand. It's bigger than Ruby's. Did they plan this?!

Yang was taller than me and effortlessly pulled me into the air and through the portal to the docks. Oh no.

I looked to Ruby only to see her pushing mana and aura into the portal. THe delicate construct of mana was destabilized and collapsed at the instability, winking out of existence.

Yang looked incredibly smug. Ruby held up her hand and they high-fived. Dust dammit they did plan this.

"Come on!" Ruby said, ignoring how they had kidnapped me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me upwards, which I grudgingly allowed. They had planned this whole thing out. I might as well play along. I'd just take a nap if I got to Beacon early, after all. I might meet Pyrrha or Weiss or so on if I got on the ship.

Oh. That's why Ruby and Yang are taking the airship. To socialize. Right. I forget that I need to do that sometimes.

"Whoa that's a pretty big ship," Ruby said in fascination. I looked over the carrier vessel critically. It was cheap and mass-produced but it did look pretty sleek, as almost all of Remnant's crafts did, and it was larger than most buildings. You could fit most of the student body on it with ease, but I'd bet it could carry over five hundred if it really had to. As it was there were three of the ships, all of which had students just beginning to funnel into them.

"Which one do we get on?" Yang asked concernedly.

"Any of them," I replied. "The pamphlet was pretty clear on that. Any student can get on any of the ships. They're not particularly stressed over protocol when it comes to transport."

"Oh." Ruby paused for a moment. "Which one's Pyrrha on?" She asked me, looking with the beginnings of her dreaded puppy eyes. She wasn't using them full blast yet.

I could, of course, easily tell that Pyrrha was on the leftmost ship, the one least full. I could sense her aura passively but if I wanted to be sure I could sense through space with my affinity or use mage sight, the most foolproof method.

Not that I was telling Ruby this. She dragged me here. She can figure it out for herself.

"You can figure it out," I said casually, ignoring Yang's eye roll at my petulance.

"The left one then!" Ruby declared.

"How-" I immediately shut my mouth as Ruby grinned victoriously. Cheeky brat… that was textbook stuff, using my expressions. I should really be more guarded when she's manipulative like this.

Ruby grabbed me once more, as if I'm going to run off like this. She got me here fairly I can get out of it fairly. Teleporting away would be rude.

I'm also not really upset about seeing Pyrrha again. She's nice and I want to see how she's changed. I can already sense that her affinity for magnetism has grown quite a lot and her aura is far more controlled now. Does she still use her weapons or does she rely on her semblance more now? Does she use it subtly like she did in the show? How much has she learned?

I guess we're going to meet her soon.

Nobody quite noticed us when we got on the ship. I may be famous, but less so than I was as Mystic Mavros. Besides, Yang drew the eye far more than I did.

Ruby kept her eyes vigilant for Pyrrha. I saw her easily and nearly laughed when Ruby's eyes went over her several times. Pyrrha looked different to an insane degree.

First of all she REALLY didn't stand out. She wore slightly muted red colors, firstly. They weren't the striking and vibrant colors worn by a lot of huntsmen nowadays. Leaning against the airship walls like she was she was well hidden. She also had darker skin than before, likely from getting tanned on the road. It blended her in with the walls nicely.

Her armor was interesting. Extremely so. I don't know what exactly it was. Some sort of metallic weave of cloth and metal that was flexible enough to appear like regular cloth. My most useless affinity, being the metal affinity, whispered of its properties. It was harder than high grade steel and about an inch thick, better than most armors. This made it extremely heavy, however. How she was lifting it…

Oh right. Semblance.

The actual clothing was practical but didn't stand out either. It looked like a long sleeved shirt under a light jacket with leggings at its base, all somewhat plain with the flashiest thing on her being the red on her clothing. Not that that really made her stand out at all amongst all the bright and colorful clothing on every huntsman and huntress in sight. She looked like a civilian at first glance until you noticed some small things.

Her jacket's left and right sides were heavier than they should be. Odd but not unwarranted. She kept a dagger in the left side's inner pocket and more interesting things in her right pocket.

Iron sand.

Or I think it's iron. It's certainly something metallic and fine-grained. I'd bet she can use it quite creatively.

Even with two spare weapons, well, one spare and one more flexible weapon, her old weapons remained in good repair and mounted at her sides rather than the back-sling she seemed so fond of before. Upon a closer look I saw that they had been designed to be foldable in half to be convenient. They were partially hidden under her jacket.

Overall she looked a lot like a huntsman dressed to blend in or kick ass. It was impressive, really. I wonder if she has a more combative outfit? Possibly. This seems like practical wear more than combat wear. If she had armor somewhere I wouldn't be surprised.

She was also looking right at me. Did I mention that? No I don't think I did.

I smiled at her and she smiled back.

Socializing completed. Now I'm going to go meditate a little until the ship lands.

"Hi guys!" Pyrrha said, suddenly right next to us.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby exclaimed. She leapt forwards and hugged her easily. Pyrrha was a little awkward at first but seemed to put it past her.

"Hello Ruby," she said cheerfully. "You got in?"

"Mmhm!" Ruby acknowledged with a grin. "I got in early. It took a ton of work but it could have been worse."

Pyrrha looked a little confused. "I thought Beacon didn't allow underaged students. They've never done that before."

"They made an exception for me because of a few reasons," Ruby said, a little more sheepish now.

"Huh. Alright then." I raised an eyebrow at Pyrrha. She just… accepted that? I mean, it's kind of a big deal to some people. Huh. Okay then. I guess she learned to just roll with it during her time spent travelling. I wonder what stories she's got to tell. I seem to be wondering a lot from her now. We'll have to catch up later.

"Hi! I'm Yang. Ruby's sister." Yang stepped in, extending a hand to shake with Pyrrha. She didn't even blink. She easily shook her hand with a smile on her face. I guess she had a lot of experience meeting new people.

"Nice to meet you," Pyrrha said with the same cheer as before. She looked over all of us. "What sort of teams are you all hoping to get?"

"The best buddy ever!" Ruby cheered.

"People who can party," Yang grinned.

"People who I can work with. A high bar," I said smoothly. I was hoping for people who won't mind me doing my own thing sometimes. To just cast my net wide, however, being able to work with me was a good goal to set.

"I'm hoping for somebody who can push me." Pyrrha's old fire got in her eyes again. I felt a reassurance at that. She still had her fire to be better than before. That she'd gone years and still had that was something I could barely help but smile at. As it was I think Pyrrha and my sisters noticed my slight glee.

In response Pyrrha cracked a grin. She seemed better now. More free. More expressive. Less meek. I liked her, though I hope she's still reserved. I don't need another Yang, though I don't think it'll come to that.

"So what have you been up to the last few years?" Pyrrha asked, her eyes clearly interested. Since she never quite finished Sanctum I'm not surprised that she's curious.

"Well…" Yang started. We all looked to her. "Abyss got the school under his thumb completely and fully after he made a school mafia that doubled as a spy organization,-"

"Allegedly," I interrupted.

"Ruby scared our replacement weaponsmith for third year so bad he peed his pants before she replaced him in all but name throughout fourth year,"

Ruby's eyes got angry, a rare look for her. "That faker didn't know an iron alloy from a steel alloy if they were labelled!" she spat. Pyrrha looked a little surprised she could even be so angry.

"We got occupied by the White Fang,-" Yang wore a full blown smirk by now.

"Blake does NOT count as White Fang occupation," I said with irritation. Yang and Blake didn't even know each other. Yang just heard Blake was White Fang on the down-low and after I confirmed it she used it as joke material.

"And our uncle got hitched!" Yang grinned from ear to ear and Pyrrha just stood there in stunned silence.

"Um, really?" she squeaked out. The three of us glanced between each other for a moment before coming to a collective answer.

"Well yes," I admitted. "Allegedly I mean."

"But Yang's leaving out some serious details there. There were a lot of events leading up to my frustrations with Mister Ferric, the weaponsmith," Ruby said.

"So pretty much true on all accounts but at face value it seems a lot more impressive." Yang summarized. "The White Fang thing was a stupid rumor that was kind of funny so it spread around, for example."

"Oh." Pyrrha seemed a little taken aback still. "I killed a leviathan. Want to hear about it?"

We were all silent. "You mean one of those super huge ocean grimm?" Yang said questioningly. Pyrrha nodded. I refrained from saying how many of those I had killed. They were really quite easy to kill even without purity affinity or my silver eyes/essence.

"I wanna hear about it!" Ruby said excitedly. I recalled that she had actually killed one herself. She just removed rose eclipse's limiters and shot it to hell and back. I think she might be able to handle one with just her magic by now though. Her purity affinity was up to par at least.

Pyrrha smiled a little relievedly. I think she was getting self-conscious and blanking on her stories.

Just as she opened her mouth the doors to the outside opened and she had to close them. She smiled at us reassuringly. "I'll tell you guys later. I think we share a communal bedroom."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Are those runes?!"_

" _WHAT?! Uh, no-wait, what?! Uhhhh!"_

" _Ohmygosh! They're totally runes! Hold on that's… Oooh that's really cool. It kind of looks like… oh, um…"_

" _Ruby what are runes?"_

" _Who are you people?! Oh, are you with the wizard?"_

" _What the…"_

" _It's, um, it's a game thing, Yang! A, uh, nerdy game thing! Like a secret call-sign that people do on… weapons."_

" _Oh. Weird."_

" _She's not… um, yeah. Did you get to the part where you meet the wizard?"_

" _Uhm, yeah. But I play as a maiden."_

" _WHAT?!"_

" _What's so… you know what you two can talk about your nerdy game stuff. I'm gonna go talk with Adrian. He waved to me back there and I need to catch up with him anyways."_

" _I don't know who Adrian is but okay! Bye Yang!"_

" _I'll meet you back with little bro!"_

" _Okay!"_

"…"

"…"

" _So-"_

 _Should-"_

"…"

" _Right. I'm just going to speak then. My name's Ruby. I'm, um… you know about magic?"_

" _Um, yeah. My family works for Ozpin. We have a sort of ancestry thing and… well I'm not really supposed to talk about it. You said you're a maiden, right?"_

" _Yup! I'm the winter maiden and I can totally say that to whomever I feel like saying it to."_

" _So you work for Ozpin?"_

" _N-no. Not really."_

" _Oh are you like Amber then?"_

" _Who?"_

" _Nevermind…"_

" _Right, anyways, no I don't work for Ozpin. I'm sort of like… well it's complicated."_

" _All the magic stuff is. Wait! You said you know about runes?"_

" _Not as much as my brother but yeah I'm pretty good with them. I know the basics at least. I couldn't make any good matrices but I could at least read the basics of what one does."_

" _Cool! Here."_

" _Ooooh… this is a pretty good-holy cookies this is a good sword!"_

" _It was a… a gift. It's called-"_

" _Blanc Lumiere, yeah, it's stenciled right there."_

" _Oh, uh, yeah."_

" _Huh. It seems kind of basic. Just sharpening, durability, some kind of tricky weight stuff, and an elemental sheathe."_

" _Elemental sheathe?"_

" _Like it gets sheathed in fire or-"_

" _Oh! Yeah, it does that."_

" _Uh huh. Anyways, it's pretty simple. The weight thing makes the metal weigh more when striking downwards and lighter striking from the sides. When locked with another piece of metal it gets heavier. So it should be helpful when you really want to break somebody's guard."_

" _Huh. Cool. I mean I kinda already knew all that but… thanks. I was always worried that it could self destruct or shoot lasers or mind control people or something."_

" _Pfft! Lasers are hard to make. Just use a railgun. They're WAY easier."_

" _A railgun? What's that?"_

"…"

" _Oh… oh no. I know that look. What did I say? Wait! Don't walk away! No! Ruby! What did I do?!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

Ozpin's speech was boring. A bit about comradery and the loyalty of teammates. Not exactly surprising. I'm pretty sure he had me in mind when writing it and wanted to impress upon me to trust my team.

I can try at least. I'd rather my team be _my team_ than Ozpin's spies on me. I want a team. Not prison guards.

Finding the communal sleeping room was surprisingly easy. It was only about seven o'clock by the time we all got there. We had the day to tour Beacon's campus and meet the faculty first. School really only starts the day after tomorrow, although tomorrow older students start turning up to watch us puny freshmen attempt to survive in the Emerald Forest where they take casual walks.

Looking around you can see that most Beacon freshmen are pretty puny. Only a few were over a hundred fifty and not too many at all were over two hundred. Ruby and Pyrrha were both around the mid two hundreds I'm proud to say. Observe on Pyrrha didn't tell me all her tricks besides the physical ones, all of which I already knew from looking at her. I'm eager to see what she can do with her semblance when she gets serious.

I spotted some familiar faces. Cardin Winchester was the first one I recognized. He was a big fellow that turned away in disgust and perhaps some small amount of fear when we met eyes. I noticed his potential future posse around him too. Dove, Russel, and nobody number four all in a cluster. I wonder how Beacon will play out this time? I highly doubt team RWBY and so on are going to be a thing.

I'm pretty certain Weiss is around somewhere. Probably touring the campus. I noticed her aura as well as Blake's poking around Beacon. They seemed to meet and stick together. Fine by me.

Pyrrha and I have all been chatting and playing some board games Beacon left around the lunch hall. We could have toured, but I just used mage sight and Pyrrha wasn't all that interested and figured she'd explore later.

Yang had stuck with Ruby a little and went out to see their new school. She didn't know Pyrrha all that well and our catching up left her a little out of the loop.

It took a while until something interesting happened around nine o'clock.

"I'm just saying, it's totally a normal thing to not know what a bullet's caliber means!" I recognize that voice.

"It's not!" A higher, more petulant voice sounded. Ruby.

"Is too!"

"Please, you two, get a room," Yang's voice said. She sounded amused.

"Fine," Ruby said, a pout in her voice. I could hear where they were coming from but I couldn't see them around. Then Ruby said two words that spelled doom.

"Bye Jaune!"

I winced and Pyrrha glanced at me curiously. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Jaune. I know the guy. He's… well it's complicated. I'd rather not talk about it." Pyrrha nodded and let the subject be.

Ruby walked over looking somewhat happy, Yang being not far behind her approaching at a more leisurely pace. "Hey Abyss! There's another magical guy in the school!" Some heads turned our way at the words 'magical guy' but turned away after I swept my eyes over them. Nobody likes to be caught eavesdropping.

"Jaune, you mean?" Ruby nodded. "Right. We can talk about him after initiation. He and I sort of… know each other."

Ruby smiled brilliantly. "Great! That just means more friends!" I actually hid my wince this time. I don't think friends is quite the right word for it. Well, for me at least. He'll be a great friend for Ruby hopefully. I guess I'll have to meet him eventually. I don't care about being Jaune's friend myself but for him to be close enough to Ruby to keep her safer than I could is important. I can't spend time protecting Ruby from people like Cinder. Ruby's far safer with a guardian of sorts. Not that she doesn't completely kick ass herself.

"So what have you guys done?" Yang asked.

"Mostly talked," Pyrrha said with a shrug and a smile. "Neither of us want to give away what we can do for now. It should be a surprise for right now so we can fight seriously."

"You could at least demonstrate your railgun," I sniffed.

"Nope," she denied.

"You have a railgun? Where?" Yang seemed confused. Ruby held back a giggle.

"Yang, Pyrrha _is_ the railgun." Yang took a moment to think about that.

"Semblance?" We all nodded at that and Yang growled.

"I completely got the short end of the stick with my semblance," she growled out.

"True," I acknowledged, "the semblance to throw a temper tantrum is hardly impressive." Yang punched my arm as we all snickered. Well, everyone except her.

"Yeah sure. And manipulating space is so great? Why not time? Too lazy to go the full mile?" Yang shot back. I smirked.

"Speak for yourself. No pyrokinesis?"

"I kind of got the short end too, Yang," Ruby added.

"Not even!" Yang protested, "Just go poof and nobody can touch you! Not to mention that you're faster than I am with Bumblebee!"

"Not invulnerable," Ruby muttered. True. Destroying the flower petals when she was using her semblance made her aura drop. Not by too much but it was still just shy of invulnerability. Not that I could talk. I could literally not exist in space and hurl spells at people.

"How would you make a railgun anyways?" Pyrrha questioned me.

"Secret," I said amusedly. It was just motion mana on an object. Apply a ton of force throughout the whole thing and boom. Railgun. Runes also work and I have the Inequalizers should all else fail. Actually, I could make a railgun out of just my affinity for motion easily if I used the Inequalizers. It wasn't like it was particularly mana intensive to make a basic railgun on my own though.

If I wanted to just use space affinity I could make a railgun in function if not principle. I could use warp in the same way I did to make my shockwaves. Pull back the coin through space, let loose, and watch it fly. That's hard to aim and inefficient though. I could also move the position of the space the projectile occupies, moving the object at the same time. I could move the space super fast and the projectile goes flying.

"Fine," Pyrrha sighed, "I'll figure it out during our next fight." I smiled in response. I wonder how long she's waited for our next big fight?

We could wait a few days this time though, unlike our time in Mistral. We had been apart almost four years. Three or four more days weren't a big deal. Besides, we could fight anytime. We could only gain entry to Beacon now.

[|||| =+= ||||]

"…"

"…"

" _Hey Pyrrha?"_

" _Hm?"_

" _Do you still have a crush on my brother?"_

"… _Yes."_

" _Oh. Okay."_

" _Why do you ask?"_

" _I can't go to sleep and I'm curious. I'd have thought you got over that and… I dunno… became rivals or something."_

" _Why would we do that?"_

" _It just seems like it would be more… I don't think my brother likes you that way, Pyrrha. Sorry."_

" _I know."_

" _Huh? But… shouldn't you try to show him how you feel or… I dunno, something other than sit there and be friendly? I'm pretty sure Abyss doesn't even know you like him that way."_

" _I could. I just… your brother is everything you said he is. He draws people into his life. I don't know if I should get involved in that. I like having my own life. Before it was just shyness. I was thirteen and we were splitting up. Now I've been around a lot. I like having my own life. Doing things I like. Going where I want. Dating Abyss feels… it feels like a commitment. Something that'll be a lot more permanent than just teenage dates. Not that that's bad, but I have that feeling and if I'm still going where I want then maybe Abyss is where I want my final destination to be? I could just be nervous but I don't know."_

" _Yeah… Abyss hasn't exactly been inactive with dates and stuff, you know?"_

" _Really?"_

" _Well sort of. He likes to experiment with dust and… stuff. It's like a hobby but more serious. He and his lab assistant, Vera, did some adult stuff. Still do adult stuff but they don't date. He mentioned another girl he met this summer that he did adult stuff with too."_

" _I wouldn't just want to do adult stuff. I'd want to date."_

" _Then you might want to listen to those feelings you have. Dating Abyss isn't permanent but being close to him is."_

" _Goodnight Ruby. Thank you for talking with me."_

" _Oh. Okay. Goodnight."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Is that your armor?" Pyrrha asked curiously. I clicked the strap of my body armor shut and nodded.

"It hasn't changed much," Pyrrha observed.

"Not really," I admitted. I held up the two Inequalizers on my hands. "I got my weapons though. I had the prototypes at the tournament years ago but I only finalized them last year around January. It took a lot of work."

"What do they do?" she asked. I just looked at her. She glanced away. "Right. Secrets and…" She looked back up to me, right into my eyes. "We need to fight."

I cracked a small smile. It was nice to have her back. We do need to do something other than just think about fighting though. I kept adjusting the various straps holding the armor to my body. "And how much has your armor changed? Besides the metal sand." Pyrrha fumbled with the utility belt she had, dropping it and hitting the metal buckle against the locker.

"Um, I, uh, how do you know about that?!" she rushed out. I snickered.

"Remember that I can sense through space? I sensed the grains of iron."

"An alloy of aluminum and manganese," she muttered a little sullenly.

"Right," I continued. "So I sensed them but I'd bet that your skill with your semblance has advanced a lot more than your equipment." Pyrrha nodded in confirmation. Her eyes went misty as she imagined something and she got back to putting on her outfit with more energy.

I was almost done getting suited in my armor, not really rushing, when I heard something horrifying.

"Hey there… Snow goddess."

Oh… oh no.

I couldn't help but slow down a little and pretend to check

"Who are… you know what? Nevermind."

"So you heard about this partner business?"

"It was in the pamphlet."

"I-yeah. Yeah. Right. The pamphlet."

"Ugh."

"So anyways, what are you thinking?"

"No."

"You'll warm up to me."

I turned my attention away from Weiss getting more and more irritated and walked away towards the launching pads we were supposed to meet up at. I briefly heard something crash behind me but decided I was better off knowing what happened. I should probably say hi to Weiss and Blake soon but it's no pressing matter. I'll get to it in my own time.

Pyrrha was after me in just a moment. I don't think she heard the crash. It was probably my faunus hearing that let me hear so well.

"What do you think about initiation?" Pyrrha said absently. I think she said that just to fill the silence we had between us, though it wasn't an uncomfortable one before. Well, not uncomfortable to me anyways.

I almost said 'Ozpin is going to try some stunt to annoy me and further his plans' but I rethought that. I trust Pyrrha, but I don't want to complain to her about things I haven't even broken the ice on with her yet.

"He has a lot of premium students this year," I said thoughtfully. "You, me, Ruby, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao-Long, Blake Belladonna, Jaune Arc, and I believe there are others. All of them and ourselves are stronger than average by a considerable margin. Didn't he get the last champion of the Mistral tournaments too?" I recall hearing something about that.

"He almost did. Arslan something. There was a large news story over it and some scandal of Arslan playing both sides in exchange for favors. It was a bad show all in all." Pyrrha looked briefly up to the sky, likely considering what her life would have been like if she had been the champion.

"Ah. Nevermind. Well there's a lot of prominent students anyways. Initiation will likely be harder than usual." Pyrrha seemed a little concerned.

"What about the more normal students?"

"He'll have thought of something," I dismissed easily. Ozpin wasn't stupid. Just a bit heavy handed and short sighted sometimes, as well as a moralist.

"Hopefully." Pyrrha still seemed a little concerned. I wonder if she'll try to help other students. I kind of hope not. I've always liked smaller classes of students. Larger crowds get rowdier and less inclined to learn, preferring to talk with their friends. It was that way at Signal.

I looked over the students as we approached the launch pads, marked by small squares of metal engraved with Vale's symbol laid on the ground as well as little paper labels that had everyone's names on them. Presumably they indicate where we are supposed to stand. If it wasn't for observe I'd have thought that they were just markers to stand on rather than launch devices.

The people on the pads were numerous. Seventy two to be precise. Most weren't there yet but a few people were already standing in place, most of which were checking their weapons religiously, talking, or looking over the forest.

A few people I recognized were Cardin's crew and the man himself, Ren and Nora (who looked unchanged from the show), and of course Glynda and Ozpin who were standing near the edge of the cliffs along with a collection of teachers, only some of which I recognized.

I vacantly observed the teachers and just scrolled through their profiles, which didn't take long. Port and Oobleck both knew about Ozpin and Salem, being considered allies of Ozpin's cause. First and foremost, however, they were educators. Especially Oobleck. They were huntsmen, of course, and dedicated to the cause against grimm but their jobs took priority.

Then I observed Glynda Goodwitch. Curiously enough her title had changed. She was 'the real headmaster' now. Heh. I guess that means she's the person who really runs Beacon, huh? But then…

Oh. Oh shit.

 **Crimson Arc**

 **Title: Forged in blood**

 **Level – 295**

 **HP – 1684.8**

 **AP – 12,288**

 **MP - Locked**

 **STR - 259 (+480%)= 1243.2**

 **VIT - 351 (+480%)= 1684.8**

 **DEX - 283 (+480%)= 1358.4**

 **INT - 221 (+0%)= 221**

 **WIS - 265 (+0%)= 265**

 **LUK - 46 (+0%)= 46**

 **Semblance: Vampiric soul - Upon contact with your aura or body any concentration of life such as blood or essence is absorbed to restore your aura. This primarily applies to aura, grimm essence, or blood of any species. Souls are not applicable to destruction using this semblance.**

 **Perks:**

 **Arc lineage (female) - As a female of the Arc clan you have no inherent abilities other than a slightly larger aura pool than most. However, should a male soul of direct genetic relation to you be a male they will inherit the full brunt of the power of the Arc clan.**

 **-20% increased aura capacity**

 **Bio: [Blocked]**

Yeah… I might have made some butterfly effects here. Just me guessing here but something tells me she's the new combat instructor. This stinks of Ozpin's meddling.

I hadn't expected this Crimson to be an Arc from her red hair. How interesting. I recall that she's the eldest of the Arc siblings from my use of observe years ago. She'll be interesting to watch.

Although I'm really starting to wonder how the bios keep getting blocked. I'm pretty sure it's an easy trick that Ozpin and Salem can do. Ophis mentioned that my use of Observe was trying to read her origin and fate when I first used it on her. I guess all you have to do is shroud your origin and fate to block the skill.

I ignored the divergence from canon and looked over the city with the others absently. Nobody talked to me, seemingly content to wait the last few minutes until the rest of the students arrived. It shouldn't take long, really.

I was proven right a few minutes later. Ruby and Jaune arrived first. I hadn't really paid much attention to Jaune before but he looked almost like a huntsman.

If you ignored the hoodie under the white and gold plate and chain mail that is.

Dust dammit Jaune…

All in all he looked decent. Over what was honestly just a hoodie and blue jeans he had a layer of chainmail made of a white metal that conducted aura pretty well, though not as well as moribus, called kellis. An interesting metal that I have a stockpile of in my soul space. I never used it since I had better options for forging, though kellis was apparently far more economically viable compared to the better metals.

Over the chainmail was plate mail much like what he wore in the show. This time, however, he had the full set minus a helmet. Greaves, vambraces, pauldrons, and rerebrace. He had on some unorthodox knee and elbow guards more like what you'd see on a skater. An interesting addition to his armor set.

Rather than just Blanc Lumiere (which I felt some happiness that he kept and apparently used) he also had a shotgun at his side that had basic mechashift to fold for maneuverability.

All in all it was an efficient setup. He clearly was going to have to rely on his allies for long range attacks. I couldn't see him fighting nevermores anytime soon. Hopefully he has the ability to tank hits like a brick wall. I might have high expectations but I gave him some serious power. My tattoos weren't for people who would squander them.

With my aura sense I could accurately sense his own massive aura. It was almost as large as mine and twice as potent. Not to mention his bullshit semblance and the 50% decrease to semblance use that his bloodline granted him. I observed him to check in. It had been two years, after all.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Forced hero**

 **Level – 239**

 **HP – 23,512.5**

 **AP – 184,800**

 **MP - Innate**

 **STR - 261 (x2)(+375%)= 2479.5**

 **VIT - 298 (x1.5)(x2)(+390%)= 4380.6**

 **DEX - 186 (x2)(+370%)= 1748.4**

 **INT - 135 = 135**

 **WIS - (x2)231 = 462**

 **LUK - 64 = 64**

 **Semblance: Amplification - Aura, mana, and all targeted supernatural abilities are enhanced by a factor based on your willpower, emotional closeness, and the strength of your soul. Abilities enhanced are always increased by minimum of a factor of two. Transfers of aura between you and another are efficient with no loss of aura whatsoever.**

 **Affinities: [LOCKED]**

 **Perks:**

 **Arc lineage (Male)- As a male of the Arc clan you have awoken abilities inherent to you due to your magical lineage through the awakening of your soul. The mana in your bloodline has manifested into a guardian of your soul, as has been true of all Arcs. Should one consume your soul they will gain your powers. Guard thyself well kinsman.**

 **-10x maximum aura capacity and regen**

 **-2x potency of your aura**

 **-x2 WIS**

 **-1.5x effectiveness of vitality (calculated as a x1.5 bonus)**

 **-30% resistance to magical effects of all sorts. Some magical effects may be completely negated**

 **\- Aura based semblance**

 **-50% cheaper semblance to use**

 **-Innate mana**

 **Bodily runic matrix (3 layered) - A master of runes has inscribed upon your body a matrix of three parts. The effects are:**

 **-+40% VIT from enhanced bones and organs**

 **-+25% enhanced STR from enhanced muscles and bones**

 **-+20% DEX from enhanced eyesight and sensory organs**

 **-+1% HP per every 3 seconds**

 **-Within your runic matrix you may store (3,947,274/4,000,000) units of aura**

 **-With a strong mental image and focus you may project an illusion upon yourself changing your appearance and hiding your full tattoo. However, the marking on your right hand may never be under an illusion.**

 **-The runic matrix and stored aura can be shut off by the command of the creator of this mark, Abyss Mavros.**

 **-Empathetic link to the creator of this tattoo, Abyss Mavros, that alerts the creator of extreme danger to the possessor of this tattoo based on the possessor's judgement.**

 **-Acts as a teleport marker for the creator of this tattoo, Abyss Mavros.**

Well… shit. He's about what I remember. Pure distilled hero bullshit. His aura is way bigger than mine now. Easily a hundred times a Signal student's aura, although I recall that Ozpin's aura is equally ridiculous in size.

Warily I watched Jaune move several plates away from me as he chatted with Ruby about combat clothing.

He's caught up with me in a way. My magic utterly trumps him in its versatility and use. The thirty percent magic negation of his won't stop the space around him from freezing, for example. I can beat him but it's more due to skill than overwhelming power - wait.

His two times aura potency boost acts on aura amplification.

Nevermind. He's just plain stupidly powerful. I can beat him or at least hold him back but I think he and I are the two strongest freshmen now. We rival each other now.

The three things I can count on are skill, magic, and checkpoint skills now. I've had more time to advance than Jaune and my parallels are unfairly good. Jaune's advanced tremendously in power, sure, but he's quite possibly lacking in skill with all the physical training he's done. I'm likely more skilled than him by a wide margin although he's definitely faster, stronger, and far more durable than me due to his aura's potency.

Not that I can't just use void to negate that.

That brings me to magic. It's a massive leg up - wait. Jaune can't fly.

I can fly.

So that's an insta-kill right there. Yeah. He can't really win when I'm sort of cheating like that. There's also my ability for large scale attacks that alter the battlefield. Jaune can't do that. I can change the battlefield to my advantage over him. Uneven landscape and icy ground being two examples.

Then finally there's checkpoint skills. The instinctual skill, which I gained at two hundred fifty points in DEX, gives me near precognition, for example, and prediction, the INT checkpoint skill lets me easily read Jaune and avoid him in advance, though that skill is less reflexive to use than instinctual. Still, those two alone would let me avoid Jaune's superior physical statistics pretty easily.

Yeah. I can beat Jaune.

Just on time the last students arrived and Ozpin stepped forwards, raising a hand to silence us, which we all did quickly.

"I hope you all had a restful night's sleep, as you will certainly be needing it today," he began. "Today, as I'm sure you all know, is initiation. This event and it's happenings will determine your future at Beacon, or it's lack thereof."

Ozpin's eyes drew over us all, making eye contact where possible. It was supposed to be intimidating, I think. I noticed that a few of the others did seem slightly unnerved by it.

"I'm sure you have all heard rumors of partners being assigned," Ozpin said. I glanced between him and Glynda. Hadn't she said this portion of the introduction in the show? Hm. Butterflies. "Let me put these concerns to rest. Partners will be assigned. Today."

A slight whimper made my eyes flicker to my right, where Ruby was looking nervous. She was quiet enough that nobody else besides one faunus a few plates next to her noticed.

"These partners will be with you for the entirety of your time at Beacon, as will your teammates, who will be assigned after initiation. The process of acquiring your partner is determined by the first person you make eye contact with once initiation begins." There was some weak protests and cries but in just a moment they were stopped. Ozpin continued. "Now, as for the initiation itself I'm sure you are curious as to what exactly you will be doing."

A very slight twitch of Ozpin's lips had me on edge. Without any nervousness the Arc, Crimson, stepped forwards.

"The initiation will take place in the Emerald Forest, the forest located directly behind us," she began cooly. "Five miles east of here are ruins of an old civilization. A pedestal and a former cliffside structure. Ten miles east are what you will be heading to. An old temple and tomb. Within the tomb are numerous grimm and close quarters combat opportunities. Do not disrupt the ruin's foundations or you may find it collapsing on you."

A temple? How interesting. So the initiation has changed.

Crimson continued on. "Also in the temple are what we have designated as relics. You will know them when you see them. Collect them and return to Beacon's cliffs to finish initiation, where teams will be assigned." Crimson stepped back, allowing Ozpin the front and center of attention.

"You will be launched into the forest now," he said plainly. "Good luck." He glanced in my direction. "Oh, and Mister Mavros." Everybody looked towards me. "I left a specific item for you. You will know what it is when you enter the temple. Enjoy the far more difficult initiation. You are barred, by the way, from acquiring the normal relics."

Some people looked at me with envy or anger, assuming I was the headmaster's favorite or something. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a pain in my ass rather than a fun freebie gift.

At least nobody I knew seemed too annoyed by me getting different treatment. Weiss and Blake seemed surprised to see me. Ruby, Yang, and Pyrrha seemed nonplussed. Well, they all looked excited and a little nervous in Ruby's case but not particularly affected by my treatment.

Jaune seemed curious about me, which was something I did _not_ want to deal with.

I'd prefer that some of the angry and envious looks went away. Since Ozpin got me into this he'll have to deal with the fallout. I'd like a small social life at least. Making another sort of spy network to do all my work for me seems like a pain.

"Ass," I said to Ozpin. He shrugged while people looked at me incredulously. Minus Ruby, Yang, and Pyrrha once more. Had I really just called the headmaster an ass? Yes. Yes I did.

Hopefully that stops people from assuming I got some sort of sweet deal. My assumption of Ozpin's actions being bad towards me will likely make people lean towards assuming the same as they don't really know the specifics of our relationship.

With a sharp twang of the launch pad activating the first person at the end of the row on my left went flying. I watched in some amusement as people tried various strategies for flight. Some people went flying through the air in a superman pose, some in a cannonball pose, and some more flailing randomly.

When the plate got to me I just kept my body tense as I flew through the air. The ground was firmly in my sights all the time. Just to speed some things up I used motion and air affinity to push me along faster than I would normally go. If people question it I can just use an excuse of weakening space. I mean, I can technically fly through space manipulation in the same way I lift objects, just moving the space I occupy.

Or teleport. I could actually just teleport to the temple, which I'm pretty sure I see far in the distance over a clearing with a small semicircular structure in it. But teleporting would ruin my chances of getting a partner.

As I was looking closely at the temple I glanced downwards when I heard a loud crash. There was a large hole in the treeline close to where I was landing.

I didn't get to look any longer as the treeline got closer and closer. I used some nature affinity to part the treetops and slowed myself with motion affinity. I smoothly fell into a run, keeping my momentum.

Wait, is that-

A sharp pain in my forehead and a clang was a clear indicator that I ran into somebody. Who the hell hid their aura that well?! For a moment I recalled the memory of the last few moments and noticed that the person wasn't actually hiding their aura. I was just too focused on not causing a crater and didn't notice their aura, which was suppressed but not completely.

Opening my eyes my vision was mostly clear. Perks of my high vitality.

A deep blue met my own eyes. Suddenly they filled with immense rage.

I know that blue.

He clearly recognized the silvery color of my own eyes as well. I should have realized that my eyes would leave a mark. They were one of the only things he _could_ see last time, after all.

"VILLAAIIIINNN!" Jaune, because of course my partner would be Jaune of all people, unsheathed his sword and charged at me.

Somehow this is Ozpin's fault.


	45. Chapter 45

**AN: Everyone is automatically assuming Jaune is going to be an annoying drama queen over Abyss being his partner. It'll take this chapter and part of the next one to get his issues somewhat dealt with. You think ANYONE would want to draw that drama out?**

 **Yeah… well even if that's not enough for you Beacon is an ARC. Not a whole book. The icy forest was an arc. Summer and Abyss' association was an arc of sorts. This is just another story arc (Is it ark or arc? I think it's arc).**

 **As far as story arcs go Beacon should be a relatively short one. Like six or eight chapters, though you shouldn't count on that estimate being completely exact. Case in point, Beacon isn't going to last forever.**

 **Whether it ends in a timeskip or a new story arc has yet to be seen. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Next chapter you'll be seeing what Poledina's been doing while Abyss' parallel handles his social presence on the team.**

 **Probably for the best, really.**

[||||= **LEVEL 45** = ||||]

It might have said something good about me that my first instinct to Jaune's strike was to fade out of space and hide my aura through my runic matrix. Spatial presence negation got rid of any effect I had on the physical plane, leaving me mostly invulnerable except to direct energy attacks like aura or mana.

I knew that I immediately seemed to be invisible as my body stopped reflecting light and Jaune's sword went straight through me. My aura recoiled away from where his strike landed, leaving a little hole in my aura for a moment, and his strike harmlessly passed through my body.

If anything, though, Jaune seemed to only get more furious. He readied his sword right in front of me, his hands were clenched around Blanc Lumiere and he was so angry that his aura pulsed around him, likely attracting every grimm in the forest. He, kept his eyes and ears open, completely alert and on edge.

I sighed soundlessly and readied wind whisper. "This is going to be a pain," I spoke from around Jaune. He tensed and looked around frantically for a target but he found nothing. Amusing, considering that I was right in front of him. His sword was raised by what looked like reflex and his shield pulled up and close, only his eyes looking over the rim. A classic defensive posture.

"Show yourself," he spat.

'Why?" I asked. Jaune gritted his teeth. Despite being a nice guy he seems really, REALLY angry to the point of irrationality. He has more than enough reason for it I suppose, considering family trauma is a pretty good reason to hate somebody. I'll try not to judge him for it.

"Because we have a score to settle." He calmed himself just enough to be alert, but rage still shined in his eyes.

"In case you didn't realize," I spoke with a dry tone through my wind whisper, "we're partners now. This was so blatantly artificial, though I don't know how Ozpin pulled this off, that I knew any attempts to change partners would likely be denied. I could, of course, just leave Beacon, but I'd prefer to not do that. Being at least cordial with Ozpin is preferable to having his eyes on me like some sort of babysitter. Not that he'd be able to, though that would only make him more paranoid if I know him even a little bit. Well, that's inconsequential to the overall point of things. "Just realize that we're stuck with each other and the only way to not piss Ozpin off is to work together."

Jaune was silent, his mind likely racing. I saw his teeth clench so hard that his aura had to collect to shield his teeth from damage. Not that it harmed his massive and potent aura.

"Your family is aligned with Ozpin, right?" Considering that his sister worked for him I think it's a fair assumption. "If you held your alliance with him over his head to not work with me and I threatened him effectively enough, perhaps throwing Salem's name around, we MAY be able to get out of our potential partnership while still attempting to become huntsmen, though for me it's more of a formality and for you… why are you attempting to become a huntsman? You could be off saving lives and such but instead you're at school. I don't care overly much about saving lives, though I do so by consequence every day. I wonder if that makes me a better person than you?"

Jaune still refused to reply. I lashed out a little at him at the end there hoping to get him to at least respond. Stubborn, isn't he? Fine. Honesty it is then.

"I'm sorry. For my previous actions. I would have done that whole drama very differently given the chance. In a way less jading for you and your family preferably. As it is this whole angry tantrum you're throwing was completely avoidable if I had done my job right, but I'm not perfect. I make mistakes and my actions towards you are one of the biggest ones I've made," I said plainly. Jaune didn't react but his aura reflected surprise although it was clouded by rage.

"You're too angry to think right now. I have no doubt that if I showed myself you'd attempt to skewer me. However, you've attracted every grimm in the forest. Even you might very well die, and I know how strong you are."

It was true. Jaune's massive aura had been completely unleashed in his sudden rage at me. His rage had broken his focus on hiding it. With a quick application of mage sight I could see around for miles. Every grimm in the forest might be a little bit of an intense phrasing but Jaune's flare of aura had gone far from unnoticed.

A quick count from my parallels totalled at several hundred weak grimm like beowolves and a few odd creeps, around a hundred more medium classed grimm like ursa, deathstalkers, and king taijitsu, and some very undesirable grimm. One of the largest was a queen arachne, something Jaune couldn't handle while being stormed by so many other grimm. Massive aura and physical stats or not, Jaune couldn't handle a storm of grimm washing over him while many more pick away at him from a distance.

Not to mention that he woke up one big bad grimm far to the north, though the miles between us should keep it away if he'd calm down. I could handle it if need be, though I'd cause considerable damage to the forest and likely the other initiates in the process. Storm isn't exactly small scale in any way I could use it right now and I'd rather not reveal purity unless something forces my hand.

Space was the only element available to me right now as far as the initiation goes. It's my fake semblance so any questions are easily dismissed. It's also conveniently the best-suited affinity for escaping the storm of grimm incoming.

Jaune still refused to answer me though.

I sighed sadly, though I myself was getting frustrated with him. I quickly squashed that feeling down. Jaune being hesitant to trust me was hardly surprising. The moment we met eyes this was going to be difficult to the point of hair pulling.

"If you want I could knock you out and carry you through this initiation. However, our continued partnership would suffer."

Jaune finally gave me an actual response, if not real communication.

He hissed through his teeth and frustration showed clearly on his face.

Is this the Jaune from… no. Of course not. He's been raised to be a warrior. I still believe he's the same good person at heart. His talking with Ruby showed that well enough. Right now, though, he's being an obstinate ass.

Actually, he was kind of like that in the show sometimes. He was prideful and stupid with Cardin at first. I guess he hasn't changed.

Taking a moment to take one more look at Jaune I flicked my hand, though it was needless, and summoned a small floating flame between the direction of Jaune and the temple, which was miles away. Jaune instantly noticed it and leveled his sword at it while his shield was pulled closer.

"Follow the flame to go towards the temple. I'm walking to get that relic. Ozpin never said we had to stick together." I ignored Jaune and began walking. I kept the flame where it was, though.

I had walked for about seven seconds before I thought to say one last thing.

"Better get moving before the grimm close in closer," I called.

"Screw off!" Jaune yelled with such a huge amount of anger that I almost winced. I couldn't even hear with my ears at the time, considering I didn't have physical ears. I could hear through the air, though, and I still flinched.

A moment after his yell Jaune strode angrily towards my wispy fire. I began moving it towards the temple with him following it. I didn't actually walk but rather flew since I couldn't touch the ground. Still, though, I felt like doing some stomping myself. Ozpin clearly set this up. I don't know how but he wasn't even subtle about it.

To get rid of a little of my anger I killed off any grimm that approached us a little more brutally than usual. It didn't help my irritation. Small fry were barely a fight for me. It was easier than taking candy from a baby. Literally. Just using the bare affinities and the Inequalizers makes me more powerful than most huntsmen by a large margin. Beowolves were trash.

Jaune was silent as we walked. He seemed to be brooding, which only brought more grimm, not that he could see them. I took care of them before they got to him. Still, though, he was a ball of confusion, hate, and anger right now. His potent and huge aura wasn't helping things at all either.

He was like a damn signal fire for grimm. If he doesn't calm down his emotions the real grimm will start getting here quick.

Just a momentary check of his aura told me quite clearly that he wasn't going to calm down if I told him to, not that people ever do calm down when told to. Maybe if Ruby said it or his sister he might at least listen to them but I'd bet that he would only yell at me or get pissy about it judging by how he's acted so far.

I can do one thing though.

"If we don't hurry up the hordes of grimm will be on us," I said out loud, still talking through wind whisper. "We need to hurry. We have seven more miles to go. The plates carried us almost two miles but hiking won't work anymore. Remember that using aura is a bad idea. I don't believe you are in an emotional state to suppress your aura. Keep in mind not to use it actively or we'll attract grimm."

Jaune didn't respond still but he sped up to a fast jog by huntsman standards, about eight miles per hour, while not using aura to enhance himself. Well if that's what he's comfortable at then fine. I sped up to keep just a little ahead of him.

For another half an hour we jogged and flew our way through the forest, crossing most of the distance between us and the temple.

I wanted to use a portal but Jaune isn't stupid. I'm certain he trusts me less than a snake. I could blink us but if he's unwilling his strong aura and innate magical resistance could probably make him resist the effects of the teleport and it would make him trust me even less than what scrap of trust he's given me so far. Even then I doubt whatever he has for me could be called trust. I have no doubt that the moment we get back to Ozpin he's going to ask for any other partner but me.

All in all, I can only be patient for now. In the extremely unlikely event that we CAN change partners, though, I'll be beyond thrilled. I'd nyaa for that (crossover reference for those who skipped it).

Finally, we arrived at a cliff of sorts. On our left and right were downwards slopes but I thought Jaune would appreciate a look of his own. We were the first ones there. Any initiates of Beacon were still behind us, though two others were just a mile behind us. I had been keeping track of the partners so far through mage sight as we ran to keep myself busy. It was no big deal.

The temple was large. Quite so. It looked a little like the White House did back on Earth, I thought. It was more squarish than rectangular though, and it was open aired. Jaune still couldn't see inside, however.

Of far more importance was just how saturated the temple was with affinity. It was like the icy forest and the other hotspots of mana. I wonder if the thing causing the affinity fluctuations is my prize? Possible but unlikely. The affinities around the temple were varied, though order affinity seems to be the most prominent.

"Where are the grimm?" Jaune asked, anger still present in his voice.

"I killed them before they disturbed us," I responded. Jaune muttered something under his breath so softly that even I couldn't catch it. Annoying.

"I'll follow you," I said. "You can see the temple clearly now so-" Jaune ignored me and jumped off the cliff. I flew down to meet him and saw him completely fine and already moving towards the temple.

If he keeps this up I might move leaving Beacon from not-quite-last-resort to something more immediate. I'm not dealing with Jaune being an ass for four years, much less a month or, hell, a week even. He'll have to pull a Weiss and work with me or I'll just walk out. Unfortunately, confronting him on this would probably only make him more angry at me.

Most things would make him angry at me I think.

I was still silent as we continued forward. I stopped clearing the grimm for us and let Jaune handle the four beowolf packs we ran into as well as the ursa minor. He wasn't exactly elegant, slashing in broad and strong strokes, but he wasn't exactly trying with fodder grimm like this. He didn't talk about it at all or even acknowledge that I did anything.

And then we found the temple.

The structure was made of marble and granite, a combination that went rather well together with what might once have been murals on the walls. It brought attention to the crumbling statues in the center of the building. Back to back were two long destroyed statues. The only thing I could tell about them was that what was depicted was vaguely circular and close to the ground. Other than that it was too eroded, likely by the elements such as wind and rain.

More important than the decorations was the stairway going down from the two figures. It was solid polished granite stairs with mosses growing on them. Any idiot could tell that they were ancient.

I was far more attentive of the pillar on the back right of the temple. It was the heaviest source of affinity in the whole of this area.

Jaune started walking towards the stairs downwards, not bothering to look around or take a breather. I guess moving forwards all the time is keeping his anger from building up again.

"Wait," I said. Jaune turned around and looked a little annoyed. "The pillar on your left behind you is stuffed with affinity. Give me a moment."

Jaune narrowed his eyes as he turned around to stare at the pillar. I floated over to it. My skills all said it was harmless for now, but mana sensing showed some odd things about the pillar.

For one thing, the pillar does have an order affinity like the rest of the temple, but it also has a static reserve of another affinity. A constant reserve of it. It probably powers the matrix when it's activated.

For a moment, perhaps a minute, I stared at the pillar trying to comprehend its workings without seeing the full picture of the runes. It took a little time but it appeared like… ah, the strange indents around the pillar are runes but not powered ones. These runes have long since broken down.

The broken down runes appeared to have once made up a detection runic matrix. Do something in the place marked and it'll activate a submatrix that completes a process from the reserve, though the reserve is hidden and the submatrix with it. Hmm…

I can fix the runes but I don't know if the detection matrix triggers anything malicious like a trap.

"Are you done?" Jaune asked tersely. I rolled my eyes. Not that he could see. At least he waited for me and asked rather than walking off towards the main passage down. So he's not a dick at heart.

"The markings here are old runes. They're a detection system. Do something right here and it will do something." I manipulated light to make a red X on the spot that the detection matrix detects. "The problem is that I don't know exactly what it does and I've never seen the affinity used to power the matrix before. It does, however, seem powerful. It seems…"

I paused. I'm trying too hard on this. There's a far simpler way of handling things.

"Hold on," I said to Jaune. With a flexing of my will void seeped out of me. It immediately conflicted with the thick affinity in the air. However, some scattering of affinity just lingering around was no match for my far more powerful and, more importantly, concentrated void.

The affinity around the pillar took almost ten seconds to disappear completely, leaving a blank spot of space with no affinity in it. I wanted all the affinity gone just in case the pillar had a defensive runic system.

For just a moment I dropped my spatial negation and focused aura around my right foot. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jaune's eyes widen and his hand leap for his sword. Too late.

My foot swung towards the pillar. In a booming explosion shards of marble shot everywhere, going halfway through the pillar. It wasn't a clean split though. It was messy and I wanted the pillar out of the way.

Another kick and the pillar had a sizable hole through it. I put my foot against the bottom and pushed it away. It went flying away from a now revealed passage downwards.

Unfortunately the broken pillar was a bad thing. Without the support of one of the four pillars holding the roof up this place was going to collapse. Well that's fixable.

I pushed ice affinity and mana into the air and began shaping it to my desires. A moment later and a lattice of ice supported the pillar. It wasn't thick and it wasn't terribly strong. Eventually it would melt and the pillar would collapse

I'd feel bad if that happened. Destroying ruins was… well I already did that but a whole ruin destroyed where people were already coming was a dick move.

Another flexing of mana, metal this time (turns out it does have its uses), and creeping black iron began coating the ice. It took a second but the lattice of ice was coated in iron, leaving a strong support to the pillar while allowing Jaune and I to slip down the secret passage.

I faded out of sight once more as space stopped having an effect on me. I disliked the feeling of touching nothing, from wind to the ground, but it was necessary. I don't trust Jaune to not attack me. Besides, I can see alright through my affinities. Even in the dense affinities of the temple.

Jaune sheathed his sword once more and walked over to the secret passage. To be a little helpful I swept a gust of wind through the dust from my kicks on the marble to let him see and not irritate his eyes.

Looking down the secret passage was an old… ladder.

Well, not really a ladder so much as rectangular grooves cut into solid stone. It was like a ladder carved from the earth. Interesting.

Besides from that there was the runic matrix carved into the sides of the hole leading downwards. There wasn't any defensive structure or anything bad at all. It just opened a secret passage. Whoops. If Ozpin can see me he's probably facepalming right now. It's not like that specific pillar was doing anything so it's probably fine.

"I'll go down first and tell you if I see anything. Nothing can detect me so it's less risky," I said.

"Fine," Jaune said shortly. He's really grumpy. Ah, a step forwards from our absence of communication before. I'd assumed he'd be asking questions by now. Like 'why me you cruel bastard' and so on. We'll probably get to it eventually.

I floated down the ladder. As I went farther downwards I had to start 'seeing' through my shadow affinity rather than my much stronger light affinity. Being immaterial meant no light reached my eyes, after all. The shift in affinities caused a drastic drop in my quality of vision. It irritated me. Even with my stronger affinities like space I had a hard time seeing. Space helped quite a lot though.

As I travelled down it was apparent that the vertical passage was clear of mostly everything. I saw plenty of spiderwebs as I went down but they were easily burnable.

At the bottom of the ladder was a sort of chamber. It was clearly a tomb, being filled with ancient coffins of stone. Torch sconces were on the wall but none of them were lit.

Come to think of it the tomb will be completely dark for the initiates. Suckers.

I floated back up to Jaune at a quicker pace than I had going down. He was inspecting the lattice I made for the pillar curiously.

"It's safe," I said. He jerked his shoulder back and glanced around then relaxed and scowled. "Are you going to stop giving me the silent treatment soon?"

Jaune narrowed his eyes. "When you show yourself."

I thought about it for a moment before deciding to test him a little. A hard light construct of myself called a flash clone appeared a few meters away from Jaune. A spell I fabricated to mimic Neo's semblance's clone effect with a little extra kick.

Of course, his sword instantly leapt from his sword and slammed through the construct. Shards of solid light flew out of the construct as it shattered like it was made of glass.

Then it exploded like a flashbang.

Jaune was blinded and reeled back at the unexpectedness of the flash. To his credit his sword was up instantly and he readied himself for an attack.

I was looking flatly at him with my body. Not that he could see. I should probably rectify that.

"To give you a little perspective I'm disappointed in you. You're not very good at manipulation and I'm not stupid enough to show myself to someone who wants to severely maim me or even kill me."

Jaune gritted his teeth and looked up. His aura welled up with fury. "YOU TRAUMATIZED MY SISTERS!" he roared.

I was silent for a moment. "I know," I said quietly. "And for what little it's worth I regret it. If I could do it all over again I would do it a different way. ANY different way. I can think of ten others off the top of my head, all easier and more beneficial for everybody. But I can't change the past nor do I plan to. Now come on. We have work to do."

I started towards the secret entrance again before I heard Jaune say one more thing.

"What's your name?" He sounded slightly less angry than before. More considering of me. Perhaps he wouldn't try to attack me on sight now.

"It's Abyss. Abyss Mavros." Jaune frowned at something, supposedly thinking. It only took him a second to brush it off and follow behind me towards the passage.

Maybe we can cool off a little and talk things out soon. After initiation perhaps.

As Jaune began his descent the ice and metal closed over the cover.

I wouldn't want anybody coming after me after all.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Pyrrha!"_

" _Oh! Ruby!"_

" _Oh my gosh! We're partners!"_

" _Ah, yes!"_

"… _You were looking for Abyss weren't you."_

" _Well… yes. But I'm not disappointed! We don't have to be partners to talk, after all."_

" _Yup!"_

" _So were you looking for anybody?"_

" _Well I was just using my semblance to rush around as a bunch of rose petals. I was fast enough to find people quickly and I just poked around hoping to find somebody I know. Like Yang, you, Jaune, Abyss, and so on."_

" _I see. Do you want to fly to the temple?"_

" _FLY?!"_

" _I figured out some tricks. I use a sort of flying carpet made from iron sand for passengers but I also have metal plates in my shoes that I can lift. I use them for moving quickly in combat."_

" _Cool! Flying is one of the few things I never quite got a hang of. I can do it with my semblance for a while but wind makes it hard to keep myself together and being a bunch of roses in the wind is… bad. It's also nothing like flying through the air as a person. You can't feel as rose petals, you know?"_

" _I don't know, actually."_

" _Oh! Then I'll show you!"_

" _Wha-wait, I thought-EEP!"_

 _*WHOOSH*_

[|||| =+= ||||]

Jaune slashed down another tombstalker. Basically tiny deathstalkers. I flicked my wrist and a large gout of flame rushed down the corridor, severely burning the horde of the grimm.

Tombstalkers weren't the only grimm around the tomb. There were also mummies, which were aptly named as they did ressemble mummies quite well. Do they even have mummies in remnant? I don't know but they sure look like mummies from back on earth. However, they used their bandage-like appendages to strangle and restrain people. They also often were infested with tombstalkers and other small grimm.

There were a few geists taking control of swords and such, wraiths, which were like free range geists that were immune to attacks without a lot of aura or mana in them, and a few chambers with more common and conventional grimm. Jaune and I found ourselves in two antechambers that were both filled with creeps, beowolves, and one grimm that was like a giant spiked roach and heavily armored called a dust crawler.

In short, nothing in the tomb was particularly harmful to us.

I ended my gout of flame and stretched my senses as far as I could. "Clear," I wind whispered to Jaune. He had lucidly cooled down a bit. It was probably combat causing him to calm down. It gave him something to focus on other than my past actions.

"Any sign of a main chamber?" Jaune asked.

"No. There is some odd rock formations on the wall ahead, however. My senses are too inaccurate to tell what they are but I'm reasonably sure it's nothing dangerous."

"Fine." Jaune glanced over his shoulder for good measure and strided forwards. His aura was the only thing allowing him to see at the moment. It made the grimm smoke from their corpses shift away from him a little. A natural effect when one had a potent aura that they actively expressed.

I had figured out why initiation was considered more challenging this time than in the show. It was the dark. The tomb was completely dark so either you made your aura express itself, and you better have a powerful one, or you stumbled around in the grimm-infested darkness. It should be an easy choice but you had to consider that expressing your aura attracted grimm like honey does flies.

I kind of hoped that Ozpin cleared out some of the other parts of the tombs rather than leave it to the students. What Jaune and I faced was easy-ish for us but a normal student would be doing a lot more running. An exceptional student like Yang would likely come out smelling like roses but a normal one might come out roughed up, if they came out at all.

Well, I assumed he had some sort of plan.

"Oh." Jaune seemed curious of the bumps on the wall.

"Hm?"

"A mural," he said in fascination. "It must be hundreds if not thousands of years old."

I made some moisture with my water affinity in storm and dusted off the mural. Sensing the water droplets gave me a mental image of the mural.

How interesting.

The mural depicted older looking men with staves on the right hand side. From their sticks came a swirly pattern kind of like the wind in the Starry Night painting from my old world.

On the left side were… things. They didn't have any common feature besides being blatantly monstrous. Giant mantises, a sort of toothed worm, what seemed like wolves with absurdly long canines, and a sort of flying serpent.

Perhaps this… is this a mural from when Ozpin was born? Wizards and beasts. Interesting.

I stretched out my senses. "Another up ahead," I declared. "There's also a nest of tomb nesters above you in the stones."

Tomb nesters were, to everyone's terrible luck, highly venomous grimm spiders the size of a small plate. Their venom was primarily necrotic and directly attacked the nervous system almost as an afterthought. Terribly stuff. It's very grisly. At least the grimm were rare and mostly found in tombs like…

Oh the poor initiation students. They better be careful. Seriously, what was Ozpin thinking?

Jaune looked very carefully up at the tomb nesters that skittered above silently. "Could you handle them?" he whispered.

In response I made a massive heat shot and blasted the spiders to high hell. The small hole above us that they had made their nest in was partially reduced to molten stone from the immense heat. Some of the molten material fell to the tomb's floor and began cooling quickly, becoming blackened clumps of stone on the floor.

"Right," Jaune said with a wary glance at the floor, probably wondering what in the world he was thinking trying to fight me. "Let's move on."

It barely took a moment to get to the second mural. I did the same process as before and saw something interesting. A single massive black creature with claws far too long for comfort was on the left side. A mouth with far too many teeth for comfort unhinged to a full one hundred eighty degree angle and from it blew a whirly effect like what I had seen in the previous mural.

On the other side the men with staves fell to the floor or ran away, clearly scattered.

"This one seems… odd." I could nearly hear the frown on Jaune's face. "Maybe the big black creature had such bad breath that the wizards all ran away? Heh…" I could immediately feel Jaune's aura project a sort of sheepishness at his joke.

"The wizards repelled the magical creatures but then something - let's call it a abomination - appeared and defeated ALL of them." I was concerned. This seemed like something Ozpin knew of and wanted me to know. But what was the abomination? Why had it come? Why was it attacking the wizards? Where were he and Salem in this?

I decided to ignore the questions I had for now and moved on. Jaune went too.

The path was mostly clear for a time. We only ran into some mummies and a wraith, all easily defeated. Then we finally came to another main chamber.

The floor was a jarring change from the smooth stone we had encountered before. It was made of loosely packed bricks. In the center of the room there was a large sinkhole that was likely responsible for the looseness. The walls were made of the same smoothed stone as before with no change whatsoever.

The largest thing to strike me was the sheer size of the chamber. You could fit hundreds, if not close to a thousand people in the chamber. I couldn't see any reason to though. The chamber was entirely empty except for the sinkhole.

Perhaps there was something in the center of the chamber that was responsible for the sinkhole that was important enough that hundreds would congregate here.

Jaune was the first to move, walking right up to the edge of the sinkhole. A brick fell down the hole and he took a step back.

One. Two. Three. Four. Fi-

A sharp crack rang out. Was it hundreds of feet that that trick worked with? I can't remember. But if it takes five seconds for a brick to reach the bottom it's a pretty deep hole.

"So where's the relic?" Jaune wondered.

"Well the path has been almost entirely linear so far." I began. "So there's only one real way to go…"

We both looked down the sinkhole.

"Oh… Oh nononono.," Jaune said quickly. He stepped back a few more steps. "That hole is probably filled with grimm and who knows what."

"Let's find out," I said. I walked over to the hole and flicked my wrist. A floating ball of light appeared and floated above the sinkhole. After a moment it shined like a beacon down into the hole.

Jaune and I both looked down. A large pile of rubble greeted our eyes, though it was very far down.

"Oh. It seems so much less scary now," Jaune said gratefully. "Can you tell what's at the bottom?"

I nodded and then remembered Jaune couldn't see me. "Yes." It barely took ten seconds to float down. A look around showed nothing but rubble and a large archway to another chamber. From down at the bottom I could see that the rubble sloped inwards to a line through the middle of the rubble. There was a corridor here but the sinkhole caused it to collapse.

"You can come down," I called to Jaune. "Be careful, though, the rubble slopes a little."

For a moment nothing happened. Then a brilliant light was seen. Then it came closer. When I realized what was happening I flew upwards. Just in time a huge boom resonated through the pit and a brilliant white aura shined off the walls. Jaune stood at the center of it in a crouch. He got up and brushed himself off before walking casually into the new chamber.

I sighed internally and floated over to him. He can't see me so he didn't know I was down here but all that aura would have messed with my spell and the impact wouldn't have been pretty. Hopefully he's more careful when he can see me.

The next chamber… oh.

We were actually in a large balcony of sorts to an extremely large chamber. Like at an opera house except that the chamber was more like a huge cavern. Down below there was a battle taking place.

Just at a glance I could see several people I knew. Ruby, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Weiss, Blake, Cardin, and plenty of others I didn't know. All of them were assaulting a massive beast of a grimm.

The grimm in question was likely the one Jaune and I saw in the murals before. Huge spearlike teeth gave it an almost shark-like mouth while large claws tore at the ground and slashed at the students. One hit from those claws would take a person out no questions asked.

As I watched the abomination's jaws opened wide to almost horrifying degrees. It looked unnatural.

"Breath!" Ruby screamed. People scattered and ran away except for a few, Ruby being one of them. The people who ran hid behind pillars, got out of the room by some entrance below us, or in some crevice of a sort.

With a sound between a hiss and a giant rumbling burp, which would be a little humorous if not for the abomination in front of us.

A cloud of thick dark mist billowed out from the abomination's throat, spreading around the chamber quickly. Ruby took a deep breath and whirled Rose Eclipse, funneling air mana into it at the same time. A strong gust of wind flew out from the whirl, pushing the misty blackness back. Other students around her used semblances or functions of their weapons to blow the mist back as well.

As I watched, the mist flew back into the creature. Various cuts and bruises the students had inflicted on it, including hefty wounds clearly caused by Ruby's railgun at full velocity, began to heal rapidly. In seconds the creature was fully healed. With a roar so powerful that the chamber shook slightly it began an assault of swipes and bites at the newly emerged students.

"We have to help them." Jaune said determinedly. He hesitated for a moment. "Truce?" he offered. I didn't reply for a second and Jaune seemed to get uncomfortable.

"I'm… sorry." He sounded like he was forcing the words out. "For attacking you without you attacking me. Mom always told me to not throw the first punch. I'll at least listen to you later. So truce?"

I dropped my spatial negation and looked directly into Jaune's eyes. He seemed to tense and almost bear his teeth. His left hand curled up a little but he seemed to control himself once more.

I reached out and shook Jaune's hand. "Truce," I agreed. "We'll talk later. As I've said, we have a long four years to go." Jaune looked away quickly from me towards the creature.

"Yeah…"

I turned back to the creature and casted a quick observe on it. Time to see what this thing really is.

 **Dark guardian (Lv. 17, 095) - An ancient beast of grimm. One of the first wave of beasts created to hunt down the heretic wizards upon the final reaping of the deities of light and darkness in response to Salem's plead to the God of Darkness. Designed to recover from any attack, particularly magically based ones, and is much less susceptible to purity based attacks than most grimm, though it is still far more susceptible to purity than it is to other affinities. Absorbs ambient mana and affinities, and to a lesser extent aura, to fuel it's regeneration and special abilities. It can survive damage ranging from being cut in half to a tactical nuke.**

 **Stats**

 **STR: 17,215**

 **VIT: 45,808**

 **DEX: 7,262**

 **INT: 7,699**

 **WIS: 3,337**

 **LUK: 4154**

 **AFF: 173,518**

That's one strong grimm. And one specifically designed to combat wizards by absorbing mana out of the air. That would make runes short out if they're not constructed to contain their mana tightly. And any aura or mana you lose control of goes straight to healing that thing.

That thing just sucks the mana right out of you, doesn't it? And I'll go out on a limb and say that one of those special abilities it has is to attract affinity and mana from a great distance away, making a sort of uninhabitable nest for itself like this temple.

I put a hand on Jaune's shoulder to stop him from jumping down. "It's called a dark guardian," I explained quickly, "it regenerates itself through ambient mana, affinity, and aura. We only have a few ways of killing it. The best way is to collapse this whole temple on its head."

Jaune looked around the temple with a grin. I immediately saw what he was looking at. The whole chamber was braced by large pillars. Collapse those…

"Can you do that?" he asked. I nodded. "I'll rally everyone and distract it." Right before he leapt down once more I grabbed his hand and brought out a vial of my most highly concentrated white sap. I have a few barrels of it in my soul space.

"Purity affinity," I explained. "Use it on your sword. The dark guardian is more resistant to it than most grimm but if you're looking to distract it that'll do it."

I let go of Jaune's shoulder and he leapt down into the throng of people immediately. People looked to him in surprise.

"Jaune!" Ruby exclaimed. "Where'd you…" She looked up and I waved a little. She blinked and looked down at Jaune once more. "You have a plan?"

"It absorbs aura," he explained. "We need to distract it while Abyss does some work." Ruby nodded in understanding. People gathered around him while a few others kept the guardian occupied.

"I have a lot of aura and I'm trained to hold back grimm for others. Stay behind me and keep it occupied. Everyone got it?"

"No. I don't," Someone - oh gods it's Cardin - stepped out and addressed Jaune. "What gives you the right to order us around?"

Jaune flared his aura. The guardian roared and looked directly to Jaune, who shined like a lighthouse. He turned to the guardian and unsheathed Blanc Lumiere, which he smashed the vial of white sap on.

"We're huntsmen," Jaune began. "We're defenders of humanity. Bulwarks against the grimm that claw at our walls." He strode forwards and I found myself captivated by him. In the back of my mind I registered that he was using his semblance to amplify his aura's attractiveness to grimm.

"When humanity fails we're there. We are the heroes. The shields. The strongest, brightest, and bravest humanity has to offer." Aura collected in his sword and the guardian went berserk. It's long claws forced the huntsmen distracting it to back up.

"When people fall it's up to US to bring them up!" Jaune's sword leapt into a strong slash. Aura flew down his sword, leaving a crescent in the air. I was pleasantly surprised to see the purity affinity of the sap burned into the strike of aura. The silvery crescent slashed into the beast, which roared in anger and pain. The chamber shook but Jaune still walked. It was inspiring. His voice rose louder to get to everyone.

"When the odds are against us, when we're surrounded and the world looks hopeless, WE WILL BE THERE!" Another blast of aura exited his sword, taking most of the purity affinity of the sap with it. The beast roared, clearly in pain this time, although it's wounds were healing quickly.

People cheered at Jaune's improvised speech and rushed forwards. I shook my head a little. Jaune wasn't the best orator I've seen but something about him pressed at people. He had a presence. A feeling to him. Not to mention how desperate people were. A shining knight in armor standing against the giant nightmarish beast? Of course he'd rally people.

I, however, have a job to do. I better get to it. People are counting on Jaune but he's counting on me and I'm going to be getting right down to keeping people alive. It feels good to be the good guy sometimes.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _You called?"_

" _You know I did."_

"… _Most humans feel comforted by that greeting. Surveys I took determined that they feel comforted by the presumed control of the conversation by initiating it."_

" _I'm quite atypical as far as being human goes."_

" _I shall update my database on human social customs with you as an exception."_

" _Perhaps a probing protocol for those who are exceptions to social norms?"_

" _What a wonderful idea!"_

" _Anyways, I have a task for you."_

" _You do?! Fantastic! Helping father around the lab is pleasant but it gets rather dull quickly."_

" _How is his project coming along?"_

" _We've had large successes, but given a year and the tools you have allowed us it is mostly expected. I've created algorithms for general revival but for maximum efficiency personalized algorithms are needed for each and every variety of creature. However, we've encountered a few problems holding us back, mainly the issue of affinities and elemental alignment. Additionally we have encountered a slight anomaly. We call her Pit."_

" _I'll address Polendina with the issues. Have you ever wondered about runes?"_

" _Nope!"_

" _You should."_

" _Of course… done!"_

" _Huh?"_

" _I analyzed the runic matrices in my core and ran them through the supercomputer with a program I made. It wasn't too complicated."_

" _Ah… right. Anyways, I want to teach you something I never found a use for but I believe you might find extremely interesting."_

" _Hm?"_

" _What do you know of golemancy?"_

" _It was a supposedly ancient practice that originated in-"_

" _Nevermind. Look, I want to teach you golemancy so I don't have to learn it myself."_

" _Of course! I will most certainly enjoy learning with you Master Abyss!"_

" _I still feel a little weird when you call me master. I don't like the impression that I have you enslaved or anything. Just call me Abyss."_

" _Of course Abyss!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I was nothing but a shadow. Being such it was easy to move around. With something like tunnel vision I darted through the shadows on the wall to the next pillar. In a sort of sinking feeling I became physical again.

The pillar was damaged. It wouldn't need nearly as big a reserve as some of the more sturdy ones. I'd done three others already. This fourth would complete the right side of the room. I used body of worlds to move swiftly between the pillars and quickly scrawled runes on them.

Making runes like this was a rather risky endeavor, however. Since the guardian could absorb ambient mana and affinity I needed to defend the runes against the pull of the guardian. This meant bracing the reserves of mana against outside influences. That wasn't hard. It was just a shielding outer layer but even still that meant precious seconds to spend chiseling the stone.

Not that I was going slowly. I had all of my parallels making conduit patterns between the runes or helping me. The conduits would link all of the runic matrixes I was drawing like the wiring between explosives. The runic matrixes I was making were like the actual explosives. They would be the only things exploding.

Making the weaker reserve on the pillar took twenty seconds. I myself drew the mana container and filled it with mana attuned to heat, motion, and chaos. The heat and motion would make a concussive/exothermic explosion while the chaos would add a little oomph to it. Make it more volatile. It was like the trigger. On it's own chaos wasn't much good as far as affinities go but with other affinities it could do a fair bit of good.

My parallels, while I was making the matrix, were using motion mana to carve a linear conduit on the floor between me and the last pillar, making three layers of shielding against the guardian, building more conduits towards the next pillar, and monitoring the battle. Two of them were meditating since I would need extra mana for what's to come and I'm already losing mana while pouring the attuned mana into the reserves.

I took three seconds to break and look at the battle. Jaune stood at the front of the group shouting orders with frontliners like Yang, Cardin and his troupe, and Blake. Behind him were other huntsmen with guns available. When somebody needed a breather they retreated there and somebody fresh filled in for them as the more worn huntsman shot at the beast in an attempt to push it back or harm it somewhat.

In the back was mainly Ruby and her railgun. She was going full sniper but headshots weren't her goal. She was blowing off limbs or holding them back when the beast was about to hit somebody. The limb would be thrown back and the huntsman in danger would escape. Others shot the beast's bone-armored face trying to hit it's eight eyes when it was attacking in an attempt to make it miss.

Enough rest. I fell into body of worlds once more and went to my next objective. The pedestal at the end of the room. I hadn't had a chance to see it with the creature battling the students before but an array of 'relics' sat on the pedestals.

As no students would be making it to these relics and we're blowing this place I may as well take all of them and distribute them later. I hope nobody minds.

The first thing to take my interest was a book. I glanced briefly at the cover. 'A treatise on enforcers, mage-hunters, and the attunement of void'. Ozpin… I don't know how you knew but I truly don't care. On top of the book was a black king with a small slip of paper taped to it. 'For you and Jaune'.

Of course the book went straight to my soul space in my house. The chess piece was with it. I owe Ozpin a _little_ gratitude for helping me understand one of my greatest weapons. I'll accept his manipulations this time. It's probably better than taking a team of nobodies and Ozpin is clearly pairing me with somebody. Hopefully someone who will balance out Jaune and myself.

The other relics were also chess pieces, of course. All of them went into my soul space. Nobody fighting the beast seemed to notice. Fine by me.

I darted into the shadows and flew to the next pillars.

It took a good ten minutes to set up the other reserves of mana. The pillars were in better condition than the ones on the left side and thus took bigger amounts of mana, shielding, and runes. I also had to make conduits connecting them to the left side, which took time.

With a faint swallow of nervousness, something I don't often feel, I saw Jaune still standing strong but looking weary, his aura reserves dwindling at a little under half of what he had fresh.

Others were looking tired or downright exhausted. Ruby's reserves of mana were a fraction of what they normally were and Pyrrha's aura reserves were around eight percent. Others were almost worse at only a few percent.

This only makes my job more pressing. I furiously scrabbled a detonator and a far larger explosive than normal. People entered this chamber via a giant archway. An archway the creature would escape from. I had to destroy it but it was braced to be extremely strong. Worst of all, though, the keystone was there at the top of the arch. Not just the keystone to the arch but I'm pretty sure with how big the explosion is the whole tomb will collapse on everyone. This place is thousands of years old, after all, and the roars shaking the place sure didn't help.

That means the huntsmen will have to run like hell to get out of the tomb the moment they get out.

I kept determinedly working on the largest explosive of all. A shaped charge at the corners, yes, and a smaller shaped charge inwards at the top. Parallels, get on it! And conduit will have to connect to both ends with the pillars. Luckily it's a closed circuit or runes so it's more efficient.

I waited a moment to check my work and nearly sighed in relief when I saw that it was correct and should work fine. I funneled mana into the reserves quickly, making sure to avoid the detonator portion of the matrix. All I have to do is put some pure mana in there and it activates all the mana around the runes. No delay, unfortunately.

I ran forwards towards the front of the group. I got beside Jaune, ignoring several exclamations around me at my arrival. "Jaune," I said. He glanced towards me. "It's set. Retreat past the archway. I'll detonate it and meet you outside." He nodded.

Jaune took a deep breath. "WE'RE READY TO RETREAT! TAKE GROUND BACK TO THE ARCHWAY!" Collectively people looked backwards to the arch and began walking slowly back towards it, not taking their eyes off the creature.

I myself was rapidly carving runes onto a sphere of ice I made.

It was only out of a parallel that I saw Jaune hold off the beast almost single handedly for a few moments. Then Ruby and Pyrrha advanced next to him together. He gave them just a glance before continuing as the guardian slammed a claw on the ground near Jaune, making him raise his shield and slash quickly at the creature's claws, trying to hack one off apparently.

Ruby dashed forwards, a storm of petals in her wake. Her scythe flashed down and severed a claw of the guardian, making it roar in pain. Once more, though, it's jaw unhinged as it had several times before the fight.

"NOW!" I yelled. "FULL RETREAT! GET TO THE EXIT!" Jaune turned his heads towards me and I jerked my head towards the door and mouthed the words 'now'.

Ruby turned towards the exit and I tossed the runed orb of ice at her. She caught it and looked to me questioningly. I glared at her and gestured towards the exit. She shook her head and disappeared at a sprint out of the chamber.

As everyone, Pyrrha, Ruby, and Jaune included, made a full retreat towards the exit I faced the creature as it slammed its front feet down and let loose the black mist. A quick observe showed it to be gaseous corruption. That's lethal at least.

I raised my right hand and gripped the amulet resting on my neck. Purity filled my body and my eyes, even without the purity affinity they had before, shined a pure silver. I felt the core of purity in the amulet resonate with my own personal core. The focus of purity in the amulet amplified the spell I was casting to an absurd degree.

The thrill of affinity was intoxicating. I felt like I could smite the grimm before me without effort. So I tried.

Purity rushed from my hand with the howl of a storm. It clashed against the dark mist and fought against it. Sparks flew and a roaring sound filled the air from the clash.

Slowly, though, I felt the flood of silvery essence falter and weaken. If I had been attacking the grimm's physical form I could almost certainly purify it but as I am I'm going to lose. The grimm, I believe, creates a store of corruption. What I can make on the fly can't compete with what it has had plenty of minutes to make.

Worse than that, I didn't have the boon of the silver eyes anymore. I had the essence of silver taken from me for the amulet. Not an action I regret due to the massive advantage against grimm but it still pisses me off that I have less mana than before.

I began stepping back slowly as the black mist began to fill the hall. I turned to look at the entrance to see the initiates all standing there looking at me in awe. But my gaze only focused on one person.

"RUBY!" I yelled. She jolter from the sight of silver and looked at me worriedly. "WHEN YOU GET TO THE SURFACE PUT MANA IN THE ICE! MOVE QUICKLY!" She looked down at the icy ball in her hands, looked up with determined expression and nodded. A moment later she was gone and nothing but petals remained. Her aura reserves were severely low. I hope she makes it in time.

I looked to the others. "WELL?! MOVE! I HAVE A PLAN!" Jaune, more likely because he doesn't mind if I die than because he trusts me, yelled something I couldn't hear and everyone set out at a run out of the tomb.

With them finally moving I turned towards the beast alone. The mist just kept coming somehow. Fine.

I had spent almost all my mana trying to push the beast back. I slowly closed the flow of mana towards the amulet and the guardian did the same. Perhaps it was it's experience with wizards in the past that made it confident somehow. Or perhaps its supply of the gaseous corruption was faltering.

Whatever its reasoning the guardian lunged towards me, a clawed hand extended to squish me. I reached out a tendril of mana to the detonator of the matrix and let loose a small pulse of mana.

The world went black.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Pick them up! Quickly!"_

" _We're working on it!"_

" _They're still wounded! This guy's bleeding still!"_

" _Give me him."_

" _What are you-! You still have aura?!"_

" _I have a lot of it. Now move! Abyss said get to the surface and if there's one thing I know about him it's that he's not quite friends with that grimm."_

" _When we get up there we need to find my partner. Ruby Rose."_

" _I know, but she's on her own for now. She moved to the surface as quickly as she could and we're still down-"_

 _ ***BOOOOM***_

" _Shit! Move! Move! Move! There's not time to worry about injuries! If we don't get out of here we're all pancakes!"_

" _Ren I think for the first time I don't like pancakes!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I blinked blurrily and saw concerned silver eyes above me. I heard something in my ears but couldn't make it out.

Hands wrapped around me and I fell on the steel will skill. Clear and logical thought was need right now.

Ruby's here. The experimental teleport marker worked fine, as I knew it would. We were on the surface.

I blinked at the information and looked to my right. Decaying bodies of grimm. Ruby's work. She cleared out the horde on the surface and brought me back. Good.

I still had a little mana in the tank so I pulsed life mana throughout my body. Muscles relaxed, cuts and scrapes from the explosion healed up, and my mind cleared. I had a concussion before but now I was fine.

"I'm alright," I said, my voice still sounding odd. My ears were damaged in the blast. A little more life mana fixed that. Parallels got started on meditating and my mana regeneration rate skyrocketed. I sent a little life mana into Ruby and found her mostly uninjured except for a slight fracture in her right arm. Her aura would have had her fit in an hour, maybe an hour in a half. I fixed it in a second.

"Alright," I groaned. I stood up and looked around further. "The others?"

Almost exactly at that moment a beaten looking group made it to the surface from the main stairs. Jaune was at their head with Pyrrha and Yang, both looking exhausted.

"Hey." I waved at everybody, who looked at me with various stages of disbelief. "I'm a teleporter, remember?" A chorus of groans met me.

"What the hell was that?" Yang asked at the front.

"An experimental attack using artificially made dust by Nature's Bounty," I lied. I actually did have Poledina working on making the white sap into a dust but a commercially viable method has yet to be perfected. I'll have to release it early to reinforce my lie.

"Artificial dust?" a new voice asked and I looked through the throng of people. Weiss, her clothes ripped in several places, looked at me with a blazing curiosity. Ugh. SDC.

"We'll talk later," I said, mostly to hold her off. I may be able to heal myself but I still feel like I detonated an explosion on my back, which I did.

With the message in my mind it's hard not to smile, though.

 ***Ding!* You have killed a Dark Guardian! You gained 1,009,285,198 XP! You leveled up 9x**

A chuckle escaped me but nobody said anything. I sat up with stiff limbs and refocused myself. I reached into my inventory and pulled out the relics, which were neatly stored in a cloth pouch I had picked up somewhere.

Eidetic memory picked it out from my memories. I took it from a game of Scrabble two years ago and forgot to put it back. Well geez, thank you, skill. This is why I need an eidetic memory apparently.

"Here," I tossed the pieces to Jaune, who caught them easily. "The relics. I have one for us and one for Ruby. Distribute them." I pulled out the golden king piece and handed it to Ruby. She slid it into a pocket without looking at it and resumed hugging me.

"Everyone gather around!" Jaune called. "One per partner set. If we're short we'll all have a talk with our gracious headmaster because after that? Everyone here who fought deserves a medal and more."

People gathered around him and picked out pieces. I focused on hugging Ruby for a moment and waited for them to finish. It didn't take too long.

When everyone was finished I waved at everyone. "I'm going to make a portal. Enjoy walking back." People began yelling at me, Yang especially. Something about her hair. I laughed at them and waved my hand for a portal.

"I'm not that much of an ass, you know," I told them. I had a slight grin on my face. A few people gave me the stink eye but a few others seemed amused. Either way, people filed into the portal.

I was the last one in with Jaune and Pyrrha sticking with us, Ruby still clinging onto me. "You said you're partners with Ruby?" I asked Pyrrha. She just nodded, looking too exhausted to talk.

On the other side Ozpin and his teachers stood impassively. "Ah, you are all here," Ozpin said neutrally. "Follow us, please. We have teams to distribute. Oh, and you all are now students of Beacon. The relics were optional, really, although they greatly help with assigning teams."

Some people groaned and fell to the ground. More just laid down on their backs.

"Um, sir?" Jaune said. "We're going to need a minute." He glanced at the headmaster's mug. "And maybe some food."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Ugh."_

" _Yeah. We know."_

" _Just felt like saying it."_

" _I know. We're all beat."_

" _Did you see that guy?"_

" _Which one? Mavros or the other one, Jaune Arc?"_

" _Either, really. Both of them were incredible. Mavros made that giant explosion, right? And Arc fended off that huge grimm. I'll bet he could even do it by himself."_

" _I don't think so. He was really beaten like we were."_

" _Either way…"_

" _Well Arc… yeah. He was incredible. I mean, fighting a grimm of that size you don't really need skill, but his aura. You felt that, yeah?"_

" _Yeah. I'm no aura sensor but damn… you could feel that thing like a strong breeze on your soul."_

" _And Mavros…"_

" _He just.. The whole temple. I didn't see any dust around. Do you think it was his semblance?"_

" _Ah, actually his semblance is space manipulation. Portals, warping space, teleporting, and so on."_

" _Then what the hell was the explosion from?"_

" _I actually went to Signal with the guy. He has a concussive attack that he makes by compressing and releasing space, making the air contract and rapidly expand. That's probably what he did. He must have used a massive amount of aura to make one of that size, though. Maybe… Ooooooh. I see what he did."_

" _What?"_

" _Dust in a pocket dimension. Compress it. Ignite when needed."_

" _Oh shit… yeah that'll cause a boom. And he's rich so…"_

" _Don't fuck with him."_

" _Pretty much."_

" _And that white light?"_

" _I tried white sap once. Felt like that times a hundred."_

" _It got rid of the dark farts."_

" _Heh. Yeah. I dunno… an anti-grimm attack? Arc had one of those."_

" _He slathered white sap on his sword and used some sort of aura technique."_

" _Hmm… who are their teammates?"_

" _Each other."_

" _Shit. Let's not ever fight them."_

" _You said it."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren." Ozpin gestured at the screen, which showed SBVR on it. The four stepped onto the stage in various stages of nervousness.

"Together you will form team SBVR (Silver) led by Weiss Schnee."

I saw Weiss' face light up for just a moment before she pushed her glee back down and stepped off the stage with her team, where she almost began skipping with happiness.

The next team to step up was… not as expected from me.

"Yang Xiao-Long, Sky Lark, Russel Thrush, and Cardin Winchester." The four stepped forwards. All of them just looked tired, though Yang tried to have a smile on her face.

"The four of you will form team YLRW (Yellow), led by Yang Xiao-Long." Cardin's face darkened and he looked at Yang angrily. She looked right back and some sparks arced off of her. I couldn't see her face from my angle but I suspect her eyes were red.

"Guys, come on." Sky, at least I think it was Sky, pulled on Yang, who he was closest to, to get off the stage. Russel was about to do the same to Cardin but he batted his arm away and walked off the stage himself. Glynda stopped them and said something about rooms.

As the four passed I decided that Yang's team would be an utter trainwreck. The hell was Ozpin thinking? A glance at Cardin revealed that to me. Don't pick the lackeys and Cardin's a prick. Right. Yeah Yang's likely not a great leader but she's the best they've got.

A glance at Jaune on my left made me feel like a hypocrite. Them a trainwreck? My team's going to be team STRQ 2.0 with plenty of the bells and whistles…

Did I just imply that Jaune would date Pyrrha and then Ruby? Ugh. Nevermind. Let's just fall into disgrace. If Jaune dates Pyrrha then sure. Arkos for the win. But I feel uncomfortable with him dating my sister. Team STRQ without the romance.

The four of us, Jaune on my left and Pyrrha and Ruby on my right, stepped forwards as Ozpin began calling names.

"Jaune Arc, Abyss Mavros, Pyrrha Nikos, and Ruby Rose." He turned to us.

"The four of you will form team JAPR (Jasper), led by Jaune Arc." The four of us walked off the stage silently. Glynda stopped us at the bottom.

"I'm sending you your room keys." Glynda tapped a little on her scroll and I felt a slight vibration from my pocket. "If you're without your scroll you will have to see one of the faculty to receive another code. Open the file on your scroll and wave it at the scanner next to your room to open it. Or just knock."

"You are assigned to-" Glynda glanced at her scroll for a moment. "Room two thirty two. Second dormitory, thirty second room. We rotate every year between which dormitory is in use. There'a a schedule in your room already. A staff member will bring all your…" Glynda looked at me and frowned.

"A staff member will arrive with Mister Arc's and Miss Nikos' luggage shortly. I recommend you get some sleep. Get to know each other. Lessons begin immediately tomorrow. Remember to store your armor in your lockers or simply abuse Mister Mavros' semblance in your case. Now I have other students to tend to. Goodnight." Glynda walked off and we all just stood still for a moment. We were all exhausted, mentally and physically.

"Screw this," I muttered. A portal opened up to room two thirty two thanks to a parallel. I stepped through into the generic looking room. Four beds were arranged against a wall with a window and a bookshelf in-between them.

"Sleep or unpack?" I mused.

Jaune walked forwards and fell onto the nearest bed. He barely rolled around before he started stripping armor off. "As my first order as leader I command that we sleep and wake up tomorrow at…"

I glanced around and saw a folded piece of paper like a hotel brochure on the bookshelf. Opening it showed a schedule with the four of our names on it. I suppose they make these as soon as the teams are formed. Huh…

"Nine o'clock," I said to everyone. I moved my eyes over the card, memorizing the contents immediately, and tossed it onto the nightstand.

"And it's only eight thirty now," Jaune muttered. He pulled out his scroll from somewhere on his outfit and tapped some things. Probably an alarm. "We'll wake up at five and decorate." I shrugged carelessly. He's leader. Fine by me.

I hopped onto the second bed to the right and started stripping, which is to say, I tapped my clothes and they fell into my soul space. In seconds I was in my underwear.

Pyrrha glanced at me and immediately blushed as I moved under the covers. "Eep!" she squeaked. "Abyss why-um-why are…"

"I sleep in my underwear." I shrugged. "I never saw a point to pajamas. We'll go on overnight missions anyways. It's a needless inconvenience unless it's really cold."

"I do the same," Ruby said casually. She hopped onto her bed and looked a little flatly at me. "You cooould get under the covers first, you know? Jaune and the others aren't looking to see you nearly naked the moment we become a team."

"You seem to imply that I'd ever like to see him naked," Jaune said with a frown. He pulled out a onesie and stepped over to the bathroom on the right side of the room.

"Oh yeah," Ruby seemed to realize something. "It's kind of a hidden huntsman fact that teams often get into sex stuff together." Jaune stopped walking towards the bathroom and looked back at us, particularly Ruby and Pyrrha. He blushed crimson and stepped into the bathroom. Pyrrha was also blushing.

"I'm half tempted to go nude just to get you two out of the awkward nudity stage," I muttered. Pyrrha's and Jaune's squeamishness sort of annoyed me in a weird way.

"We aren't going to be doing that sex stuff, of course," Ruby continued. "Because Abyss and I are brother and sister."

"Did that stop Raven?" I asked. A deep silence passed.

"Oh. Right." Ruby was probably frowning. "Jaune's a lucky guy."

"Can we please stop talking about this?" Jaune yelled from the bathroom.

"Agreed," Pyrrha said quickly.

"We really need to get this out of the way," I argued. "You two are squeamish and tensions in the team are just needless complications. I'd rather make the whole process of getting comfortable with each other seamless." I paused. "Actually, tomorrow Jaune and I need to have a talk. I don't want to deal with his drama more than I can be bothered to."

The door to the bathroom opened and Jaune tossed his clothes into the corner, taking the rightmost bed for himself. He slid under the covers and didn't say anything. Drama queen. Well kin-... nah he's a drama queen. He's being passive aggressive to the extreme. That seems more like a girl thing to me. Then again he has seven sisters and his mother was clearly the head of his family. He really didn't have much testosterone in his house.

Pyrrha seemed a little curious between the tension between us but went into the bathroom without saying anything. We'll break magic to her tomorrow. She'll just have to get with the program on that one. It'll be a shock for sure.

I closed my eyes and let everything fall away. I briefly woke up when Jaune and Pyrrha took their luggage from a custodian but that hardly impeded me.

Ruby, I think, was out before Pyrrha was even done getting into her pajamas.


	46. Chapter 46

**AN: Last time on WG:**

 **-Jaune is an asshole**

 **-Jaune is REALLY an asshole. Seriously.**

 **-Abyss scowls a lot and ignores his problems until they go away (which works somehow)**

 **-Teams are a cluster******

 **This time on WG:**

 **-Jaune is slightly less of an asshole**

 **-Abyss smiles a little bit but not too much**

 **-Pyrrha ignores that magic is real as sanity cries in a corner for her**

 **-Ruby is just trying her hardest**

 **-Ultimate power is obtained**

 **-Mechanics of future crossovers (To be revealed soonish) are revealed**

 **-Abyss gets a daughter (sort of but not really)**

[||||= **LEVEL 46** = ||||]

I trudged back to consciousness. It was never pleasant, waking up.

"Come on! We have Beacon stuff to do!" I immediately sat up and looked around. Ruby was beside my bed poking me, already dressed in a school uniform and probably showered. The clock showed that it was almost four o'clock. Wow, Ruby was up early. Everyone else was still asleep.

As soon as she had finished rousing me Ruby darted over to Pyrrha and started waking her up. I rolled out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. Then, something occurred to me.

"Ruby could you and Jaune give Pyrrha the magic talk?" I called.

"Sure!" Ruby chirped agreeably. I shut the door and started showering.

I was out in about ten minutes mostly ready for the day. I just needed a school uniform. The primer from yesterday had a small note about two school uniforms being provided per person. A little glance with mage sight showed seven outfits in a closet next to the bathroom. I grabbed one of the smaller of the 4 male outfits for myself with blink and put it on quickly.

"There's outfits in the closet," I said to everyone as I walked out of the bathroom. Pyrrha was looking dazed, while Jaune was looking a little out of it himself.

"Two of them for each of us," Ruby added.

Jaune was the first to get up and move to the bathroom. "Should I get started putting space altering runes around the room?" I asked. I was going to do it either way but he was team leader so I gave him the courtesy. He paused.

"Fine." He shrugged, sounding a little cold, before closing the bathroom door. I suppose things aren't fine between us still. And now I'm getting sick of him again.

I sat down on the floor with Pyrrha and looked at her. "So," I started. "What did Ruby and Jaune tell you?"

"That magic is real and that you're a wizard," she said, a little stunned. "Also that Ruby's a maiden - like the fairy tale maidens - and from there Ruby did some magic… things."

"I showed her frostfire," Ruby said cheerfully.

"Fire isn't cold," Pyrrha muttered.

"Good enough for a start," I said with a careless wave. "Magic is a sort of label to the subject. To be specific it's the art of utilizing affinities and mana at it's core along with a variety of branch subjects such as runes, enchanting, and spellwork. At it's whole you could say magic is the art of the manipulation of the soul, however people don't consider aura to be magical for some insane reason like 'magic doesn't exist but aura does so it's not magic' or whatever."

"What does… mana have to do with the soul?" Pyrrha said questioningly. Her eyes cleared up a little and curiosity began to shine through her aura. Ah, good. My teaching skill is getting through to her; clearing her mind and making her more rational.

"Mana is an energy that resides in the soul," I lectured. "It's a naturally occuring fuel source that amplifies affinities or brings more… form to them, which is the basis of spells, and can be used for a few less important uses. Some souls are capable of capturing and utilizing it. We call those souls and people wizards, maidens, and under special circumstances, sorcerers.

"Now, affinities are something like an existential identity. Souls are a phenomenon comprised of minute amounts of every affinity and I've theorized also utilize a fragment of divinity, though exactly what that is is currently unknown, though it's likely a different energy source. To put it simply affinities are an existential footprint, souls are weird exceptions to the rule that are composed of numerous affinities and exotic energies, and the more of one affinity you have the more impact you can have on an element. For example…"

I made a small gesture and the faint shadows in the room advanced, making the room darker. It was small but clearly noticeable. Pyrrha glanced warily at the shadows, like they were going to attack her.

"They're just shadows," I said reassuringly. "However, they're being made without the use of mana. I could do this all day if I felt like it. It wouldn't really accomplish anything but I could. The shadow affinity in general is a somewhat useless one to me except for in a few specific situations. I used it to move around quickly and undetected amongst the grimm in the temple, for example. However, if I were to try the same thing but use mana to amplify the affinity the results are far more impressive."

I flowed mana into the shadow affinity and the shadows in the room lengthened considerable. Where before they were lengthened by a few inches and deepened now the whole room was at least a little shadowed. The corners were practically invisible.

Pyrrha jumped in surprise and I only held the shadows for a moment longer before dropping the affinity entirely. Light took hold of the room once more and you couldn't tell that it had been dark just a moment ago.

"That's the basics of it at least." I stood up and stretched my fingers a little. "Now how about a live demonstration of runes? This room's a little small for four people."

I took a few steps over to the wall and knocked against it. "Plaster." I muttered in irritation. If it had been brick or some sort of concrete it would be easier to draw runes on, plaster is soft and messy to write runes on. It's too fragile for carving, which is my preferred way to make runes.

I could use paint or something I suppose. I can use anything, really, so long as it stays in place. I couldn't use a stain of water, for example, since it would evaporate, but nearly anything permanent worked.

I put my finger against the wall and channeled metal affinity. The plaster turned into iron against my finger. I didn't often use the transmute spell but it's sometimes useful. Turning air to water was cheaper than making water from mana, after all.

I began writing a large space expansion matrix on the spare wall on the right side of the room. There weren't any doors on that side so I had free reign of writing on it. The rest of the walls would be used for an illusory cloak over the runes so we'd have decent looking walls and enough mana to fuel the space expansion. I'd also need to make markers at the room's corners to map it's dimensions for expansion. That'd be a small pain with the corners of the doors. I'd have to expand the walls and not the doorframes. Unless I wanted massively disproportionate doors, which I didn't.

I assigned my parallels their jobs and made tendrils of mana to transmute the walls. I heard a small squeak from Pyrrha and realized that having tendrils of mana extending from my back probably seemed a bit creepy and odd. You get used to the slightly creepy stuff when you do magic. Some of the magical creatures out there are nightmare fuel and I studied them as an occasional hobby.

"They're just tendrils of mana," Ruby said to Pyrrha. "He uses them to cast spells from a range. He's putting a layer of metal over the walls to make space expansion runes so we'll have more space available."

"Oh," Pyrrha said. I didn't look but I'd bet that she was eyeing my tendrils warily.

I busily continued my work, making sure to not make any mistakes, unlike the rapid work with the dark guardian. Along the way I considered that we might have accidents and break the walls, destabilizing the runic matrix. I added a spatial anchor to maintain the space expansion in case the matrix ever breaks.

It was fed off a reserve but it would last a month when I refilled it fully. It wouldn't constantly eat mana either. It would only need to activate when the space expansion matrix breaks or runs out of mana somehow.

I decided then that while I was upgrading things to upgrade the illusory cloak to a hard light illusory cloak. If we _do_ hit the walls I'd rather not repair the runes. It's easier to have them both shielded and cloaked for aesthetics at the same time.

The upgrades were a bit bigger than the less safe counterparts but if I need more mana I can make a conduit of runes to the roof and make collection matrixes there or just make a reserve I need to fill up every month or so. I'd prefer something self-sustaining though. Automation is convenient.

I was reviewing the collection of matrices and how they were linked when Jaune finished his shower. Ruby and Pyrrha just watched me work, though Ruby pointed out what parts of the runes she recognized, which wasn't much.

"Uh, hey, where are the school uniforms?" I heard him yell from the bathroom. Ruby walked over to the closet and pulled out a set of school clothes. I raised my hand and stretched a mana tendril over. The moment the tendril touched the clothes they teleported into the bathroom.

"Thanks," Jaune called. I ignored him and finished my checks. About ten seconds later I deemed the matrices functional and sent a pulse of mana into the mana collection matrices. Around the room the metal that made up the runes became faintly blue as the mana flowed through them. I kept a flow of my own mana going into the matrices just to speed the space expansion up a little.

The expansion took barely a minute. The room ended up almost three times bigger than it was before. Well, three times bigger laterally and still in the same rectangular shape as before. I made sure that the ceiling was kept the same height as before. It was plenty tall already.

Just then Jaune walked out and slowed to a stop. "Whoa," he said, eyebrows raised. "You did this?" He looked at me. I nodded.

"It was no trouble. Just some runes. I didn't want it too big but as it was it was too small. I could make it bigger but we're supposed to be living together as a team and not just four people in a house." I turned to Pyrrha. "So what do you think of magic?"

She was silent for a moment. "How can I learn it?"

"I have no idea," I admitted. "Ozpin knows how to turn a normal person into a mage, but I never figured out how. Well, actually I do know one way but that only works if you have a space affinity, which you would need to cultivate and the only way for you to do that is… well you won't be doing that."

"I'm up for almost anything," Pyrrha said defiantly, like I had somehow insulted her by saying she wouldn't do the training.

"Well you need to repeatedly sleep with somebody with a higher space affinity than you for the method to work," I explained. Pyrrha took a moment to process that before blushing crimson. "Yes, that's why you're better off asking Ozpin, though I'm flattered you're so eager to sleep with me." Pyrrha blushed harder and decided to retreat into the bathroom, barely remembering to grab a school uniform along the way.

A moment of silence passed with nobody saying anything. "There's a way to turn, um, _boinking_ to magical power?" Jaune asked, his face almost as red as Pyrrha's.

For some reason this was hilarious to Ruby, who exploded into high-pitched laughter. Jaune and I both looked at her weirdly but she didn't seem to mind much.

"Well, anyways," I looked at Jaune and ignored Ruby. "It isn't the sex-" Jaune grimaced at my bluntness "-that gives the power. It's the interaction of auras and a sort of secret ingredient that I won't share with you since you might tell Ozpin." Jaune nodded but had an annoyed frown on his face.

Ruby managed to calm down enough to speak somewhat coherently. "How did you manage to think of a way to turn a person to a mage?" She asked.

"If a person has a large soul space I could put a runic matrix in their soul space," I explained. "If they learned the inventory spell they could interact with the matrix and cast some spells. They wouldn't be able to improve but that's fine since the runes would already be extremely efficient. I could also put more spells in the matrix than just one. The only issues is that the amount of spells the person could learn is somewhat limited and they wouldn't be able to take advantage of affinities as well as a natural wizard or maiden. That and their need to constantly increase their space affinity artificially rather than naturally."

"Sounds like a stopgap solution," Jaune stated blandly.

"It is," I said flatly. He sent a light glare towards me and I returned it with a neutral look, not seeming cowed by him at all. His mouth turned downwards and his lips pressed together as his eyes narrowed.

"Well we can ignore all the magic stuff now," Ruby said happily, her cheer only seeming a little forced. "After all… we have time to decorate!" Ignoring both of us, Ruby hopped up to her feet and then stood awkwardly for a moment.

"Um, Abyss? Could you pull my suitcase out?"

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Poledina. There are issues with the project?"_

" _Oh! Uhm, Abyss. Yes there are some issues. Small ones, but certainly issues. Project Jurassic is going mostly fine except for a few wrenches in the works. Primarily aura. Yours in particular."_

" _Oh?"_

" _Yes. Compared to a normal aura, which is just a sort of formless energy, yours has structure. It's a bit like a dense lattice of aura and mana. It's more stable than normal aura, and by that I mean more easily controlled, and on top of that it's certainly more potent. When I said dense I mean DENSE. There's more than three times the energy readings from a sample of your aura compared to that of a normal person's. Your sister is similarly dense in energy but less so than you."_

" _Not unexpected. And the results with Project Jurassic?"_

" _With normal aura we can revive the weak and simple creatures. Bugs, basically. With your aura it's extremely difficult to be precise in measuring out the proper amount of aura to mana ratio. Your aura is too powerful for the small fry so we tried more powerful creatures."_

" _And?"_

" _It worked. Sort of."_

" _Oh no… what happened?"_

" _Affinities… all the creatures were revived but they seem to be… galvanized. Instead of using ice and frost they use electricity and other elements of storms. Well… except for Pit."_

" _I see. I believe I know how to solve your issue. I did not believe that affinity would play a major role in these creatures but if the case is as I believe it to be you need to incorporate distilled affinity with my aura or have my aura attuned before using it, unless you need beasts with affinities to storm that is."_

" _That was the hypothesis, yes. Attempts to use distilled affinity have been erratic but we're perfecting the process. Samples of your attuned aura would likely be more successful, however."_

" _Yes. And you mentioned Pit?"_

" _Yes! Pit! She's one of the stranger creatures we have. She's extremely intelligent but unlike the rest of the Basilisk's we created she's colored black and she absorbs affinity! It's extremely odd."_

" _She… absorbs affinity or destroys it?"_

" _Erm… we're not sure. So far every beast we've created has been biologically perfectly sensible. We believe it follows the Carnelian law, that aura strives towards efficiency and what she called the 'road to perfection'."_

" _I've read her theories on aura, doctor."_

" _Right. Well, you should meet her."_

"… _No."_

" _Ah… okay?"_

" _Keep watch on her. If you can get a sample of her aura or mana do so and test it. Measure her against a consumption sample. Then every other sample. I expect results. Pit is now your second highest priority."_

" _I… right. And my first?"_

" _I want creatures made with my aura distilled to the highest affinity I can make it. Beasts made with a single pure affinity of high concentration. I want souls permanently attuned to a single element to the point that it smothers out all else."_

" _Right. I-I think I can do that. Maybe."_

" _Make it a certainty."_

" _I need time."_

" _You have six months, Poledina. I want this done by August."_

" _Alright…"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The room was sort of… okay?

It was certainly something. Not exactly a good something but something for sure.

On one side of the rectangular room, the side with Pyrrha and I, we had two dressers, both of which were filled with our clothes. Pyrrha mentioned where Leonidas was and I grabbed all her clothes, leaving a note from Pyrrha with an explanation. I also stole a dresser from a furniture store to put them all in. I had my dresser and all my clothes in my soul space anyways so bringing it out was no issue.

On the walls were a few maps, which were Pyrrha's. There was a table of mine with numerous plots and plans in notebooks on it and just beside it in one of the corners was a well lit trio of armchairs and a couch as well as a sort of coffee table. A small trophy case was arranged with some trinkets she had picked up. Several of them were somewhat magical, actually. I'll ask Pyrrha about them later.

Considering how much space we had all of this was put out easily. Space wasn't really an issue. I could make a house if I felt like it. Actually, it's easier to just bring people into my soul space through a physical portal. Not that I would let Jaune in my soul. He might still try to kill me.

Where my and Pyrrha's side of the room was orderly and quite nicely planned Jaune and Ruby had made their space more… chaotic.

Ruby had arranged (begged) a bookshelf from me with novels and such from her room, as well as a collection of gun magazines and even a few books on ballistics.

She had stuffed her projects of guns, modifications to existing guns, and a bulletin board of ideas in the corner, which was so crowded and messy with scrawled notes and a few unfinished projects that she really shouldn't be able to make a pistol, much less a… what was that? A modular laser rifle? There's no way that's energy efficient. Well, unless she used Poledina's consumption engine but I keep most of his projects under lock and key.

Jaune had contributed books of his own into Ruby's bookshelf. Teen adventure novels and a smattering of mystery and a few romance books, though a few of those might be Ruby's. A rack of weapons, mostly swords and shields of various sorts, sat in a corner as well as a small station for weapon upkeep. Where in the world he had gotten that I don't know. I just turned around and saw that he had it placed there. An exercise mat was thrown in between his and Ruby's beds.

Between the four of us we had one orderly and nice side and one chaotic and personal side. I don't need much in the way of possessions anyways and Pyrrha didn't have much to begin with.

"It's a mess." Jaune determined.

"Yup!" Ruy didn't seem to care much. I've seen her room. She thrives in messes.

"Just keep your messes over there please，" Pyrrha asked nervously, eyeing a stain that had mysteriously appeared on Ruby and Jaune's side.

Jaune noticed her eyeing it. "I spilled some orange juice," he explained.

"It's seven forty," I pointed out. "We should get to class somewhat soon."

"Actually," Ruby said questioningly, "Can we talk about why you two don't get along? Before it becomes a problem?"

I scowled. Jaune scowled at me. Nobody spoke for a moment.

"I traumatized his family, putting a magical matrix of runes onto him against his will and holding his family with magic so they didn't interfere," I said shortly. A stifling silence passed for a few more seconds. This may be the most awkward talk I've ever had. Hopefully this ends quickly. I'm feeling less guilty for doing all that now. Jaune seems fine by my standards, which are admittedly low.

"What?" Pyrrha choked out. Magic existing and now this. It's been a rough day for her.

"He took down my entire family, held me down, and did some… _runecraft_ on me." Jaune was nearly gritting his teeth while he glared at me. At least he wasn't trying to assault me. Real progress there. He needs to get over this. Haven't I shown I'm not a terrible person yet?

"Jaune has a fate," I started, already planning a way to spin this to not make me look like a monster. "A strong one. If I hadn't tried to make him strong he would be drawn into the Salem conflict whether he liked it or not. Due to my effort he grew up prepared to be a hero rather than as some wannabe huntsman trying to enter Beacon with no training. Had I not taken action he would have grown up wanting to be a huntsman but believing he had no talent due to his sisters stifling his talent to keep him away from the magical scene."

It wasn't a lie, quite. I'm certain of the existence of fate from not just the affinity existing but the idea of main characters. Pyrrha meeting Ren and Nora was another mark for fate. I'm pretty sure the BS I just spouted is correct, but it's based on a fair few assumptions.

"Bullshit," Jaune said solemnly, clearly not believing a word I said.

"Fate exists?" Pyrrha asked vacantly.

"Yes," I confirmed. "Though it's a bit different than everyone having to do one thing in their lives. I'd imagine it like an ocean current. It's a road you're being pushed down but it's not all-powerful or anything."

"Can we get back to the part where he TRAUMATIZED MY FAMILY?!" Jaune yelled. Ruby and Pyrrha looked embarrassed and then a little ashamed of themselves. I kept myself stoic.

"I did mean it when I said sorry," I said, looking at Jaune. "If I could have brought you to power differently I would have. I made a mistake. What do you expect me to do to make up for it?"

Jaune spluttered for a moment before closing his mouth and adopted a thinking expression.

"I'm already changing Remnant for the better," I continued. "White sap, new energy crops, SDC protocol changes, and I've even had some anti-faunus laws repealed. I'll have you know that I don't change Remnant to be better because I'm some sort of goodie two-shoes trying to help the world but because a strong Remnant is beneficial to me. Even so, the world is better off with me in it than with me out of it."

"Work with Ozpin." Jaune decided.

"Not a chance," I denied.

"Why?!" he exploded.

"Ozpin's manipulative. There's no working with him. Only for him," I explained calmly. "Salem's not that bad, you know? The so-called big bad monster is quite reasonable. She's not kind at all, of course, but neither is Ozpin or your mother and you idolize them already, right?"

Jaune's face said it all. He was NOT liking how open minded I was to what he believed was the incarnation of evil and destruction.

Ugh. This is bad. He's entitled. He feels like I owe him for my actions towards him. Did I somehow create a less moral Jaune when I gave him power? It's certainly possible. Power has a lot of effects on people, plenty of them detrimental. It opens doors of its own and earning it builds character but… well Jaune didn't earn his power. He was born with it.

Did I make Jaune a spoiled kid by giving him power? By giving him treatment different than others like Pyrrha? The others appear fine, more powerful than canon, even, and as moral as before in the ways that count, but Jaune seems like more of an asshole and much more powerful.

"Fine," I growled, feeling frustrated with how Jaune turned out. "Let's just go to class. I'm happy to not be friends with you but I'm trying to give you an olive branch here. I don't nearly care about you enough to deal with Ozpin personally."

Jaune was fuming as he walked through the door. "Room three oh nine for our first class!" I called to him. He ignored me. Back to square one I suppose.

"Abyss," Pyrrha looked intensely at me. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

"To me too," Ruby looked serious. I pulled out my scroll and glanced at it. Five minutes left before class. Whatever. I'll make a hard light illusion and have my parallels put my acting skill to good use. It's not like first day has anything important happening anyways. And leaving Jaune some time to cool off is probably a good idea.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _What do you mean?! He's a monster! He talked with Salem! He said she 'wasn't that bad'! Like she wasn't the woman who sets grimm on the whole continent and murders hundreds upon hundreds every year!"_

" _I'm well aware, Mister Arc, though Abyss Mavros is no monster."_

" _Then why in the world is he at Beacon?! You know what he's done!"_

" _I know more than you, Mister Arc. Spend a week working with him, and if, at the end of that, you desire a different partner I will consider a transfer more thoroughly."_

" _At least… I don't know! Warn him to not…"_

" _Not traumatize any students, Mister Arc? I think you'll find that his actions to you were far and beyond an outlier in his behavior. The times he has acted as he has with you are few in number."_

" _Few in-! Nobody should be subjected to what HE can do!"_

" _Many would say contrary."_

" _What do you-"_

" _Many years ago Mister Mavros was born in Vacuo in the slums. Not slums as you know them but in the ghettos where criminal elements are openly shown and often embraced by the desperate, of which there were many. When he was quite young, perhaps three or four, his parents were murdered in a dispute over a water pump. Mister Mavros awoke his magical talent and killed two people, or perhaps one._

" _He then entered the deserts of Vacuo and somehow survived to emerge a great mage years later. Then he began becoming more and more powerful, snowballing into the vast power that you saw today. He did not have your inborn gifts, Mister Arc. Magical power of his sort was a rarity in my day and considering he is the first to be blessed by the gods in thousands upon thousands of years you can be assured that Mister Mavros is a miracle."_

"… _The Vacuan Massacre."_

" _Yes. I believe Mister Mavros learned of some sort of ritual allowing him to gain power from the deaths of others. Such things are easily made. Souls are malleable things when weak and the gang members Mister Mavros killed were indeed weak people. Upon further investigation I learned that Mister Mavros didn't kill simply any gang members. He spared those with few crimes and killed those with more intense crimes. Not to mention that his presence and dominion over Vale has made it the most crime-free city in Remnant, surpassing even Atlas."_

" _He's a monster."_

" _In the eyes of many people he is a saint. Mister Arc, he has taken Vale and surrounded himself in it. If you were to kill him, though I believe you know how small a chance you have of succeeding in that, Vale would collapse in its entirety. Crime would be without reigns to direct it. The SDC could easily return to being unchecked in their violations of labor laws._

" _If that is not enough to dissuade you recall just how many allies Mister Mavros has gathered. The White Fang, the Branwen clan, his company, and likely Roman Torchwick, crime overlord of Vale, would all desire your head and bypass any law for it. Lawful authority everywhere would seek not prison but a public execution of you if simply to satiate the masses. I would be forced by my public duties to do the same no matter our relationship. And if that's not all Mister Mavros has so many miscellaneous friends. A dagger in the night would be a mercy to you with how many would hunt you. Now good day Mister Arc. Enjoy your classes."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I didn't bother to attend the first wave of classes. My parallels filtered out all the useless pleasantries and took in the raw facts in an almost machine-like manner. For example, the math teacher was named Mister Kelp. Nice guy. Packet and syllabus to begin semester filled out and stored in soul space. No useful information past that. That whole class would have been an hour and a half of sitting there getting to know everyone and little else.

Instead, I checked in on how my employees and friends were doing. Roman was fine and doing little to nothing except the mundane work he did every day. Neo seemed fine as usual, drowning in ice cream.

Raven was happy to see I was fine. We talked a little and she returned to sparring with Vernal, who had asked for extra training.

Cesium was working with Roman and learning quite a lot. He had also arranged to have his own apartment sometime during the summer and was adjusting. He was working with Kerrigan on some private project of theirs. Possibly something magical but I wasn't interested in that.

Ocean was with Bella and Qrow, none of whom I talked to. They had introduced Ocean to Taiyang and were planning wedding preparations again. I left a note saying I was fine and continued on to the main course of my trip into Vale.

Poledina had recently begun something I insisted on calling Pproject Jurassic. When I learned that cloning was not only accomplished in Remnant but that the procedure to accomplish it wasere public information,I was somewhat shocked but didn't see a use for it. The reason Remnant never got into cloning was because the created creatures lacked a soul.

Remnant's populace was, naturally, a bit repulsed that the created faunus and humans didn't have what made them people. It was suggested that cloned animals be used for livestock or a dozen other things but while cloning was easily done in a lab it was too delicate a work to be done in an industrial setting and was resource intensive to boot.

Of course I tried the first thing I could think of. I resurrected extinct magical creatures through Polendina.

He had long since processed the genetic information on all the magical creatures (some of them used double stranded RNA or DNA with four strands rather than traditional double stranded DNA) and constructed sketches of what he believes they might look like.

With such a repertoire of often deadly creatures and unique DNA sequences I, and Polendina, had a lot to play with. Poledina was more into the tech side of science but he had delved into magical studies like a madman after I introduced him to it, which was compounded with his specialty in aura before meeting me. He was as knowledgeable as I was in magical fields. Perhaps more so, considering his scientific studies on aura, which I didn't understand as well as he did.

But of course there was the issue of the soul. Easily done, really. My soul was self-sustaining and could function independently of my body. I simply had to sever a part of my aura off and let it grow to a full soul. It was a commonly done tactic with regenerating organisms.

All easier said than done.

Poledina encountered a number of blockades with making another artificial soul. No, more than that. An artificial _magical_ soul. Penny had no magical potential whatsoever. The strands of mana holding her patchwork soul together had long since dispersed, leaving her a true soul of her own. Even so, she held no mana in her.

This was different. Poledina was using my grand soul to make a new magical soul. It was hard, extremely so, apparently, but he did it. Magical creatures had been revived plenty of times. They had an affinity only for storms, true, but they were magical creatures. Not useful ones, though. What use did I have for magical creatures that were so similar to me?

Until now…

Pit, a creature naturally attuned to void.

A _soul_ naturally attuned to void. Given treatment could Pit become an elemental or familiar of sorts? Void is without a doubt my most potent weapon. The ace up my sleeve. If there is anti-magic void is it. But it's still not what it could be. If I were to acquire an elemental for void my magical power concerning void would increase by about thirty percent if the potential void elemental acts by traditional rules concerning how they amplify my affinities.

Whatever the end may be Pit is an opportunity for me. Where most of the creatures reflect my dominant affinity for storm Pit reflects what could be called my secondary affinity for void. Perhaps it's a game of random chance in a way. Storm affinity makes up more than eighty percent of my total affinity points, taking clear priority over affinities of less power. Overshadowing them, to put it simply.

Through what I suspect is random chance, however, Pit has the affinity for void. I can guess that it's like a recessive trait in a way. It's much less common than storm but still possible.

This brings into question whether attuning my aura to an affinity and then making a soul from it would make that soul like Pit's but stronger. My first guess is yes, it would. I could make magical creatures with an affinity for whatever I feel like.

Would a magical creature with an affinity for storm reflect one component over the others if I expressed that component more strongly? Would that particular trait be stronger than the norm or would all the other affinities be weaker?

I'll be leaving Poledina with a lot of samples stored in runes when I leave here.

I opened my portal into the lab and waited a moment before stepping through. Entering suddenly always put people off guard when dealing with me. I prefer to have Poedina ready and prepared for me when I meet with him.

Stepping through gracefully I glanced around. Messy scribbles on sticky notes graced an entire portion of the wall, which was contained by borders marked by tape that overlapped past each other at nearly every turn and were clearly cut with safety scissors or a knife. Functional, obviously thrown together at a moment's notice, and unique. Poledina had settled into this space long ago. Gadgets and equipment were coupled with samples and more notes all across the tables around the room, which were a matte black.

This level of the lab, the third sublevel specifically, was dedicated to the study of magical creatures. The warehouse proved to not be big enough for Poledina's tastes. I had bought the one next to him and made several sublevels with Ruby and Raven's earth affinities. Safety concerns were handled easily with runes and a little hush money on Roman's part. It was easier to bypass the system entirely than to trawl through it.

Poledina was setting down a plastic clipboard as I walked in. "Abyss! Good to see you here! You're here to see Pit?" He rattled off the questions quickly. I got the impression that he had been bored recently. He couldn't do much more from his side of things than he's already done. He was probably reviewing data for the project before I came in.

"Of course," I said smoothly. "And to deliver samples of attuned aura of mine, of course."

"Good to know we're on the same page," Polendina said with a slight gleam in his eyes as he dropped the clipboard. He had already considered using attuned aura, then. Knowing him he probably figured out some equation to determine the probability of acquiring a specific affinity from an aura's affinity concentrations.

I had extended my senses as soon as I entered the lab so I already knew where Pit was. Just below us on the lowest level in the containment rooms.

Poledina chattered on about the effects he had observed with Pit and the magical creatures as we walked. Resistance to changes in the environment and so on. I was only half listening though. Poledina was a genius, of course, but he always failed to understand one simple fact of magic and aura. It was emotional.

I never knew the full facts of magic starting out. If I had it would actually have been a hindrance. Magic was felt. It was embraced. Affinities could be understood through science but comprehension was different than understanding. You couldn't understand things like hunger, happiness, sadness, or love through just science. I do believe that emotions are more than chemicals or a reaction in the soul.

Come to think of it, aura stems from the spark of the divine in everyone, doesn't it? Ophis had said it and it made sense for me. It lent credence to a lot of questions science had about aura and explained a little of the more mystical properties of aura. Perhaps emotions are an output of the divine spark? I'll have to consider this further…

"-But of course we can't dispute the added affinity effectiveness of subject one after implanting a regular dosage of your aura into his supplements." Polendina continued as the elevator doors opened. He was lecturing on the effects of my aura on the subjects. "It mitigated the negative effects of social decay to their affinities, actually."

That caught my attention. "What?" I asked quickly, before he kept on. Poledina blinked at the interruption. Normally he lectured and I absorbed his studies like a sponge.

"Oh, social decay. It's an effect on aura caused by lack of social interaction. After being socially inactive for extended periods of time auras will often weaken in effectiveness. Slightly at first but after roughly three months they are noticeably weaker than the auras of those who have significant social interactions. It's apparent in the creatures as well. However, upon administering your aura the effect is weakened and then alleviated after continued exposure. We aren't sure why yet, although we have a few theories."

"Have you considered whether my aura contains fragments of my consciousness in it?" I questioned. Poledina nodded.

"They don't," he said confidently. "Upon use with human or faunus test subjects, aura or no, they temporarily strengthen the aura while refilling it but don't give any emotional or mental influences."

"Did you attempt it with somebody who has mana?"

Poledina nodded as he swiped his card to the control room for the creatures. "Your sister did. No further response than the norm, though her aura was slightly less affected by the strength boost than most. I attribute it to her large aura pool compared to the smaller ones of the other subjects."

I considered that conclusion for a moment. It was reasonable and probably correct. I'll communicate with the subjects and see if they recognize me. I've never exposed myself to them while here before, though I've observed them through cameras upstairs. I've never had my aura exposed while here either. Leaving my aura out tends to make people stare at me.

I glanced around the control room as I walked inside. Two assistants, identifiable by their youth and their small badges at their chests, glanced at us as we entered then did a double take as they saw me. Whatever. They're not important for now.

The control room was a somewhat smallish thing. Computers lined the left side of the room with footage of the various chambers holding the creatures, of which there were five varieties. The rest of the room was consumed by a table with chairs in the right corner, where the two assistants sat. There were four exits to the room, one of which was for the bathroom, the other for storing feed and taking care of the creatures like a zoo's back rooms, and the last two leading to a circular path around the holding areas, which used one-way glass to view the creatures first-hand like an aquarium's observation glass for a tank. Another door to the habitat was visible a small ways down the observation path.

"We isolated Pit a while ago," Poledina said, walking over to the monitors and pointing out one shape in particular. A large smoky black scaled hide was all I could see. Pit had secluded herself in a corner, hiding her head under her bulk.

To my eyes Pit looked like a smallish bear but instead of fur she had large and somewhat long black scales. A thick tail extended from her behind, wrapped around her body like a cat's tail. I couldn't tell how long it was. Strange. Normally the tails the creatures have are rather short and used mostly for extra balance. Presumably for climbing cliff sides, according to Poledina. Everything other than the tail and bulk was hidden from me for now.

The other variant of the bear-like creatures, attuned for storm, were rather similar. They had scales but they were a somewhat transparent blue that faintly resembled thick smoky glass and, rather than arranged in the normal armor scales were typically arranged in, they seemed to have a jagged pattern to them. Their snouts were short and large, seeming a little blocky. Their teeth were a little jagged, not resembling any normal animal too greatly. They would clearly hurt anything they bit though. Their tails were somewhat short, only about as long as my arm. They were, however, much thicker and stronger than any tail I had ever seen, barring creatures much larger than the kataigida.

These creatures were called kataigida. The old mistraili translation of storm. They were the first creatures Polendina had revived and the first ones used in the experiments. Contrary to their appearance they were pretty docile, kind of like panda bears.

They ate pretty much anything with a storm affinity, even rocks, and had no trouble digesting it, they liked dust too but only the affinities composing storm and storm dust itself, though they rarely got that one since storm dust wasn't naturally occuring. I had to make it myself from affinity. Poledina thought it was a sort of tasty treat rather than a food source due to its rarity.

Poledina had concluded that they subsisted on storm affinity, though they could technically live anywhere. Storm affinity made them stronger and they passively collected it as they got older. It wasn't certain but the odds of that theory being correct were pretty high.

They also had a pack mentality, grouping together and being rather social. They even had a leader of a sort. The one with the greatest storm affinity among them was the centerpiece of the group. He or she was the first to eat and had their choice of females or males, though the kataigida wouldn't produce any offspring. Their food was laced with a drug preventing it.

Well, that's what I had read from the reports at least. I don't doubt their accuracy.

"What is Pit's social status?" I asked Polendina. The kataigida were in their cells right now, most of them sleeping. Four of them were playing with balls or small jungle gyms they had to themselves.

Did I mention how large this complex is? I made it BIG with Raven and Ruby. It wasn't hard, really. It spanned more than a city block underground.

"She's a social outlier. Practically a pariah," Poledina said bluntly. "Not like she's hurt or the other kataigida use dominant behavior over her but she's just sort of avoided. They seem to be wary of her and determinedly avoid physical contact or getting too close. Not surprising, considering she takes their affinity. Whether she would leave the pack is unknown. We don't have the space to properly test that."

"I see," I muttered. I stayed quiet for a moment while I digested all the information before walking towards the observation pathway. Then I paused. "The glass is one-way?"

"Of course," Poledina said. "There's one layer of normal albeit reinforced glass and one more layer of one-way glass." I nodded and kept walking. The door was locked with a keycard. I simply made a small and flat portal under the card in the pocket of Poledina's labcoat, which it fell through, and swiped it before returning it to his lab coat.

"Open the doors to every kataigida in ten seconds," I called to Polendina. He nodded as he got behind a computer. I closed the door to the lab and went invisible. It wasn't like I couldn't teleport out. The hidden runes I put on the walls of this place when I made it protected against physical and magical attacks, basically all I needed to contain a creature. I could still teleport out as easily as always. Teleporting didn't affect the walls, after all.

Inside the habitat was quite simple. A few large rocks lay around, the doors to the individual rooms were closed down, and sunlamps shined down on artificial grass and dirt. The walls were also painted to appear like a horizon, though it was clearly painted and not an actual horizon. Basically, it was a zoo exhibit.

I kept myself invisible as the doors opened by sliding upwards slowly like garage doors, only smoother and with more of a quiet hum to them than commercial garage doors.

The kataigida, clearly curious about the opened doors, poked their heads out and emerged from their individual rooms. I counted nine in total. They were slightly smaller than your average ursa major and quite scary looking with their jagged scales and eyes far more intelligent than just any animal.

As they emerged it was no trouble to identify the one with the largest affinity. Not only could I sense her power through my aura but she was also clearly a social leader. Observe showed her to have seventeen thousand affinity for storm, which was innate. Weak. Well, they're about eight months old each with a little disparity of about a month between the ages.

She strided forwards from her room confidently, casting a glance at the other kataigida, bringing them to emerge fully. When she was in the central habitat she checked one of two troughs of food and snorted at its emptiness.

I sensed a curiosity from her aura at the change and a sense of excitement as well. So she was a risk taker and curious. If food charged with storm is given at the troughs then she would likely be one of the first in. The kataigida were all revived at roughly the same time, after all.

As the others emerged they seemed to have a hidden anxiousness or excitement at the disruption to their schedule. After a few minutes they settled down to lay on rocks or play a little, wrestling and something like tag. It reminded me of a dog park but with large bear-like magical creatures.

They also used their affinity for storm freely, shocking each other for various reasons. After seeing it happen a few times I deduced that light and weak shocks were ways to show affection or friendly greetings. Larger shocks were to show irritation or antagonize one-another, which was mostly used to incite play-wrestling.

Their aura was also used, though not extensively. When they didn't want to be bothered they knew how to hide it. The ones sleeping had their auras pretty well suppressed. Not so well that you couldn't sense them but they were weaker than they could be. When socializing their auras acted like those of elementals, freely expressing emotions and feelings of jubilance or sleepiness.

I saw a few kataigida have practically a conversation through aura. One of them occurred when one kataigida looked at a ball and sent a questioning feeling. The other sent sleepy uncertainty. They concluded with an uncaring feeling from the first kataigida and acknowledgement from the second.

After watching for about five minutes I decided to reveal myself. However, I wanted my interactions with Pit to be organic. An enchantment for hiding aura and mana I had devised from void went over her room. She didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps she didn't care. Maybe she doesn't even sense aura, affinity, or mana like the others. It's possible since she has the affinity to eliminate affinity. More studying is required.

All playing stopped as soon as I revealed myself. My illusory cloak dropped, my aura revealed itself and it's affinity for storm, as well as a stoic feeling of neutrality. The two kataigida nearest to me leaped away and turned hastily to look at me defensively. Everything in the room went immediately silent.

Kataigida, and most ursine creatures, don't exactly express much like humans. Even so, they were clearly making an 'oh shit' expression.

For a few seconds I waited for their reaction. After a moment of stunned silence the eyes turned to their leader, who glanced around almost nervously at everyone. It's surprising how human-like these creatures are. The others shifted around slightly, keeping one eye on me and the other on their leader.

After a moment of indecision the leading kataigida seemed to puff herself up a little. Just the smallest bit. She took several steps forwards towards me and growled defensively. I made direct eye contact.

My aura flared. A challenge to the kataigida. She glanced back at the others and at me. She summoned forth more courage and did the same challenge back at me mixed with a feeling of pridefulness. I didn't know animals could be… ah, right. Cats. Nevermind. Pride is universal.

My aura swelled at the challenge and the wind around the habitat whipped at my command. The small watering pool at one side of the habitat shook, as though in an earthquake. A charge came into the air like the feeling right before a storm.

The opposing kataigida flared her own affinity. I felt an opposition to the elements I controlled. I gripped the elements harshly, not allowing her affinity to change the environment at all. The kataigida paused and tried again. Once more. And a final time. Her aura, shown freely, showed uncertainty. Fear. Shock. She didn't realize people could do this. I was suppressing her power over her element completely and it scared her. Even so, she wasn't afraid for her life. She was afraid of my power. My stoicness must make them believe I wouldn't kill them. Perhaps if I showed anger they would be truly afraid.

I began stepping forwards and the kataigida behind their leader backed up fearfully. The lead kataigida frantically pushed against my affinity to no effect. They poured their emotions into their willpower, making every effort to fight me. It was futile. My own efforts were lazy. I barely tried at all to control the whole room. I could kill cities if I tried. A bear with a little affinity? It wasn't a question.

As I finally came to the kataigida it had given up. She laid down on the ground and kept her eyes firmly below mine. I never really thought about how all species show submission in relatively similar ways. A curiosity of evolution, I suppose.

I lifted the influence I was exerting over the room, leaving it normal once more. Every creature eyed me warily to see how I would act. Would I kill their leader? Accept the sign of submission?

I looked down at the leader and knelt down. Thick concentrations of storm mana and affinity collected. I pressed the mana and affinity together, not using the mana to make the affinity perform better but using it like I would to make a mana construct.

The mana collected and formed a dense lattice. Dense enough that it looked like a solid light blue crystal of mana. Affinity seeped into the structure. A sort of extremely dark blue structure slowly began to creep along the mana, stretching along the gaps and making the magical structure a true object.

The kataigidas seemed to conquer their fear and instead looked curiously at what I was doing, albeit from a fair distance away. As I was finishing they must have smelled the dense affinity in the crystal or something of the sort since their eyes locked onto the crystal intensely. Then they looked between me and the crystal, making a connection. Shock, awe, and some confusion swept through them.

I offered the dust crystal I had just made to the leader kataigida and she looked between me and the crystal with excitement and hesitance. I got the feeling she was asking for permission. I acknowledged her submission through my aura, approving it. I also sent a feeling of confirmation. The kataigida gently took the dust crystal from my hand and placed it between her clawed paws, like a huge scaled dog with a bone. With a crunch half of the crystal was gone. A feeling of bliss slammed through her aura, startling the other kataigida. I realized I hadn't held back making that crystal.

I usually only put some affinity into the dust crystals. Enough to make it a fair bit more powerful than your average electrical dust but not nearly what I could do. It made the crystals easy to mass produce for the lab as well. I had some of my 'super dust' in my inventory for emergencies but quantity took place over quality when it came to my dust system.

The kataigida groaned deeply and almost lazily put the rest of the dust crystal in her mouth. She slowly, savoringly, chewed the rest of the crystal and licked her chops when she finished.

A deep blue hue took over her aura. The same color as the dust crystal. She opened her eyes, which I noted were a dark brownish blue, and sent a very interesting question through her aura.

Her question was so ridiculous and naive that I let out a sudden bout of laughter. The kataigida, though more relaxed now, jumped at the noise but looked at me oddly. I had sharp and intense amusement in my aura and was making that strange sound. I ignored them.

I was NOT going to… _mate_ with the female kataigida. Dust no.

I sent a gentle rejection through my aura and the kataigida seemed baffled, sending a question of why.

I took a moment to compose the proper message and information through my aura, even through the amusement, and pulsed it.

The kataigida received the complex message I made informing her and everyone else that mating was impossible between faunus and animals. She sent understanding but in her aura I also sensed some serious embarrassment. These magical creatures are really on par with humans in intelligence. Or sapience, I mean. Plenty of animals or grimm are intelligent but sapience was different.

With the small pleasantries settled I sent another message through my aura that seemed to surprise the kataigida. I didn't want to lead the pack. The female kataigida seemed surprised and sent a question of why. I returned that I had no desire to lead them since they had no benefit to me when I already had a pack.

With that I sent images of my 'pack'. The bandits fighting, drinking, laughing, and scenes of their respect for me. I also sent images of Ruby and Raven, with heavy emotions of attachment and care to them as well as the familial connection.

Understanding washed through the pack as they absorbed my images of my pack and family. Then came more questions and I realized a small fact. The kataigida were like children. Curious and innocent children. I'm not sure they even know what violence is.

I started answering their questions patiently. I told them about the outside world. Human traditions confused them. The grimm scared them. The vastness of the world excited them. Technology had them in awe and disbelief until I showed them a few mechashift weapons.

As I answered questions I started coming to small realizations. These magical creatures were clearly highly intelligent. Roughly around the level of an unusually mature toddler. Then again, they weren't even fully grown yet according to Poledina. He estimated that they'd be mature in three years. Earlier than the average bear, which they were the closest related to genetically.

We weren't getting a ton of data from them now, anyways. Poledina's Project Wyvern took up most of his time for the moment. The kataigida were unnecessary.

Perhaps there's something else they can do then?

I considered a few things while continuing to answer questions. Could they be security? No. Too public. Clearing out grimm? Why? The grimm weren't a problem for me or Nature's Bounty.

Perhaps dust expeditions? Going into inhospitable lands to find new deposits worth mining? It would be cheaper with them helping and it would get them out of the lab.

No. That would be needlessly dangerous. The kataigida weren't hurting anybody here. But they weren't helping much either. Say wait… I might be onto something there.

Suddenly a thought occurred to me and I interrupted my Q & A session with an idea for them. An offer.

Looking through old magical hotspots was boring anyways.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Hey Abyss."_

" _I'm just a parallel."_

" _Yeah I know. I also know that you're paying attention now that I'm talking to you."_

" _Abyss is busy. He is ignoring my signal as this interaction is not an emergency."_

" _Wha-really? Aww. What's he doing?"_

" _He is-... Abyss has forbidden me from sharing that information to the extent I was about to. He is amassing a team to explore magical hotspots in his stead."_

" _Magical hotspots?"_

" _It's rude to listen in on other people's conversations, Jaune."_

" _And you're a glorified computer program. So what's this about magical hotspots?"_

" _Abyss is gonna scavenge them for stuff. Like old tomes and junk. He gets bored doing it himself and the Managuard is super buried under red tape."_

" _Managuard?"_

" _An international government ag-"_

" _They're super secret government guys who poke magical stuff. Their agency broke down a while ago."_

" _Government… they know about magic?"_

" _Uh, yeah. Of course they do. Why?"_

" _I thought they were incompetent."_

" _Oh they are. Ask Abyss about them. He had some of his agents look into them for years during the Signal days. He keeps an ear to the ground for them. He even sent sent one of his friends into the Council buildings to steal a record of them from the secret vaults of buried documents the Council thinks nobody knows about."_

" _He… why didn't he go himself? He's a wizard."_

" _We had dinner plans the day he learned of the vault. He just didn't want to wait so he dumped the task onto miss Bella and his friends. Now he has a list of like ninety magical hotspots around the world."_

" _One hundred seven."_

" _Shut up, robot."_

" _I am not offended by your hostility. In addition, Abyss wishes to convey his amusement that you are insulting an emotionless robot. He compares it to punching an offensive looking toaster and wishes to inform you of the comparison to enlighten you on the futility in attempting to offend me."_

" _I don't like you."_

" _They're kind of fun! The parallels, I mean."_

" _Miss Rose! Mister Arc! I'm so glad you've volunteered to answer this question!"_

" _Oh cr-! Um, cookies!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I filed the kataigida through the portal. I showed them how to manage a spatial storage box, which worked through an enchantment fuelled by runes, and left them enough food (storm affinity infused to food and in dust) that they'll be perfectly fine in the wilds.

All this was in saddlebags of sorts. Four separate saddlebags, each of which had a box connected to the same pocket dimension and with three emergency teleport stones as well as a normal teleport stones.

The emergency stones used void to clear out any affinity between the target and the destination, which was Poledina's lab, and teleported the kataigida touching the stone. The normal ones teleported them to me. Well, they actually alerted me the kataigida were teleporting to me and teleported them after I sent a response pulse of mana or aura but the point is moot.

Poledina didn't mind that I was kicking the kataigida out. He had more than enough to keep him busy including other magical creatures, who I confirmed were too dumb or too violent to leave the lab.

The last magical creature left was Pit.

I stood in her room invisible, watching over her. She had rolled over, letting me see her face. It was more angular than the other kataigida. Sort of fox-like in a way. She was also longer in tail and body. Sort of like an exceptionally large and fat ferret except instead of fat it's muscle.

Other than those defining traits she had about eleven thousand affinity. No biggie.

…

…

Twelve thousand affinity… the leader kataigida had eighteen thousand but she also had supplements. According to Poledina Pit doesn't eat. She doesn't care about dust, doesn't want foods, and generally doesn't give a damn about anything other than sleep or cleaning her scales, which she does via her tongue like a cat.

Magical creatures are fucking weird.

I didn't watch Pit for very long. I stood by her for about ten seconds before letting my invisibility drop and releasing my own void affinity. Pit jerked a little before raising her head and looking at me for a few seconds. Then her aura sent a pulse.

' _Greetings, creator/father.'_

I blinked at surprise at the clarity of Pit's emotions. The message in her aura was clear. The clearest I've ever felt, actually. From that aural message alone I could tell Pit was analytical, rational, mainly apathetic, and had a large amount of control over her aura, though the amount of aura she had was small.

' _Hello,'_ I sent in response. A faint satisfaction, if not happiness, emanated from Pit's aura. _'You consider yourself my daughter?'_ I was curious at her reasoning on that idea.

' _Bodies are but an avatar of the soul,'_ Pit began. _'Where I share blood with the storm kataigida, as the white coats call them, I share a part of my soul with you. Granted, they do as well, but are they base creatures. They do not understand relations outside of dominance and the pack. You are not related to my blood but you are responsible for my creation in soul and, I suspect, in body."_

A small smile came to my mouth. A slight curving of the lips, really. _'I see. Your reasoning is sound,'_ I acknowledged. _'And how did you come to learn all of these things? The storm kataigida were not as dumb as animals yet you seem to understand far more than they do.'_

' _I looked,'_ Pit said. I sent another pulse of aura showing curiosity and a request for clarification.

Pit closed her eyes and rested her head. Contrary to her sleeping appearance I felt her affinity seem to stretch.

A small change in my own affinity had me look at it in intense scrutiny. My void affinity seemed to be connected through a shallow connection to Pit. Not a connection through conventional space. It took a moment for me to understand what Pit was doing.

She was dropping her soul through dimensions, using the void between dimensions and her own affinity for it to pull her affinity into it. From there she used her body as an anchor and looked at Remnant through the void. She was able to travel freely in the void where she was confined to the single room in the physical world.

And wouldn't you know it, to get back to Remnant she needed a point marked by void to pull herself onto. My soul had a large affinity for void, leaving her able to look through my soul.

Perhaps I should reiterate. Pit travelled dimensions through the void to my soul and merged with me without my knowing of her.

A _lizard_ discovered _dimensional travel_ where I couldn't, used it to spy on me without my knowing, and I'm willing to bet she travelled to other dimensions too.

Thank dust she isn't hostile. She could use her aura through me. I'm immune to attacks via void because I too have the void affinity but Pit could probably use me as a way to attack others around me by reaching her affinity through the void and through me.

I hadn't considered using the void between dimensions as a way to travel. Come to thing of it could I use physical manifestations of my affinities as markers for my spells? Could I use a stormcloud as a marker for a teleport spell? Could I chain this technique? Use the void myself to drop out of Remnant and enter through a concentration of affinity?

Holy shit. I just had to use my affinity for life and look for souls that have life, which is to say everything alive. From there I could shoot void into those souls, killing them.

I probably could kill every living being in Remnant without anybody knowing it was me. I could also use the main affinities of maidens, being fire, air, earth, and ice to find their souls among others in Remnant. Wizards and maidens would be child's play to find due to their high concentrations of affinities. I could kill _any_ maiden _any_ time in _any_ place.

If I just make this technique work that is.

The only thing that's a flaw with her method is that now that I know she can do this I could grab her soul and attack her through the link she makes. That's only if you sustain the link though. For attacking someone you could just connect to them for an instant and pump them full of void before screwing right off.

To reiterate: _holy shit_.

I gently felt the connection Pit made and pushed it back. Pit'a aura and affinity returned to her body and she returned to wakefulness.

' _An interesting technique,'_ I said approvingly. _'You are creative. Smart. Crafty.'_ Pit preened at my praise. Fascinating. She's so smart but when it comes to actual social contact she's susceptible. Powerful but not accustomed to others taking notice of her.

I tried the technique Pit just used and sensed through my void affinity. The world seemed to be made of paper for a moment. I could feel a great presence of void just out of my reach. It was like a paper barrier between myself and something greater.

In that moment I had another idea. What if I used my space affinity?

I could probably tear open dimensions, giving the void a physical presence. In all likelihood I would make a magical black hole like the one I create from void and mana but this one would be connected to the infinite reserves of void in-between dimensions.

So I would suck the affinity out of the world, including every soul but mine and others attuned to void like Pit.

I resolved to test this 'super black hole' theory in an extremely regulated environment. Someplace where I've reinforced space through runes and a massive reserve of mana.

For the moment I took my soul and pushed myself through it. It was kind of like pushing through jello in a way but it only lasted a moment.

In the next moment I saw the void. It was vast. Infinite. Worlds were before me like stars in the sky. A moment of concentration brought me to see all they were.

This one had beings called gods reign over humans from above. They gave humans so-called quests as technology pushed on to modern times. At the moment one named Percy battling a hound of hell was their focus. Tension was in the world. A lightning bolt was the cause of it.

In another one a mighty dragon, seemingly nordic in a fashion, fought great beasts - dragons? But he was a dragon? He was a human but a dragon? Strange. Upon a closer inspection it was actually a great many worlds closely knit to a single reality. In one ghostly warriors revelled in battle and drinks. In another demonic creatures enslaved others and a godly being ruled with an iron fist. In another mana and affinity was as abundant as air and twenty times as thick.

So many others were available to me. Some completely normal and devoid of magic. Some filled with beasts and feats that warped belief.

I had an instinct. An innate understanding that I could probably go to that reality. All I had to do was find a place or person of suitable affinity and reach through the void. With my soul space I could bring my body.

I had to rely on will of steel to bring my mind to order. At once the worlds made sense. The first was from a book. Percy Jackson. The second was what, Skyrim? And there. Is that Avatar the Last Airbender? And more. There are so many I can recognize. And more still I didn't.

The void didn't have space. It was infinite, yes, but travelling it didn't take differing amounts of energy. One world wasn't any farther from my own than another. I could just as easily travel to one as another. Some were linked and some not.

But… wait. It's infinite.

I focused on one world. At random I chose one high fantasy one. A little inspection showed that it was the inheritance series. Eragon and Arya and others. I had read about them on Earth when I was young.

I turned to my affinity to the void and looked for others exactly like that world. I asked the void to sow me to other worlds exactly like it.

A hundred - a thousand - a hundred thousand choices appeared before me. All were of the same world. In one a version of Eragon sat in a large room reading a book by his dragon. In another he screamed in battle as men fell to his blade. In so many more he accomplished feats I could remember from the book, all at different timepoints.

There were an infinite amount of worlds, all filled with differing points of time. So long as I had an image for the void and an affinity for something in that reality I could easily appear there.

I looked back to my own reality and saw the link. I was standing in the room with Pit. The connection was solid.

Wait… me.

I was almost nervous. I turned to my affinity with void and showed myself. _'Show me myself'_ I asked of it.

In that moment I felt myself reach out to other dimensions in the void. Other souls. I saw myself. Souls almost exactly like me, or like I was. Looking through space to them showed me myself. I focused on one in particular that was mostly like mine. It lay in the middle-ground between those not like my world and those exactly the same. I was talking. Air showed me the patterns in the air and translated them for me.

"Qrow is alright with it. Tai loves math," Other me said. Another soul near me - Raven - pulsed lightly in agreement. A moment of nothingness passed.

"Is that your secret long distance girlfriend?" The words came from another soul. Ruby.

"It's Pyrrha, yes," Other me said.

Suddenly the weight of this slammed into me. I remembered this. I remembered this entire conversation. This was right before the Vytal Festival. I had been talking with Pyrrha for three months and was writing a response to a letter from Pyrrha. Next Raven would say-

"Have either of you confessed your undying love yet?"

I was frozen. Other realities. Time travel. I just…

This was impossible. It has to be.

To verify my denial I reached to this other me. I reached into his soul and he jumped, shifting his aura to defend himself. Trying to push me out.

Futile. I'm far stronger than I was then.

I reached through the other me and made an avatar made of hard light. Through this avatar I established my own presence in this other dimension. I sensed through my affinities as the world around me came into view.

Raven's old sword was pointed directly at my throat. Ruby's rose eclipse was aimed at me, the settings off. Other me had all his mana and aura primed to blow me into oblivion. He might be able to push my faint presence out of that world if he tried.

"It's real," I softly said through wind whisper.

"You're… me," Other me said in disbelief. "How?!"

I was silent for a moment, reeling. Time travel. This was MY world. MY timeline. Looking through the void and comparing this new world to my own showed it clear as day that the two were exactly the same. There was no difference. In others there may be discrepancies but in all those the void had brought me the world was the same. The time was simply slightly different. Bypassing that extremely minor discrepancy was easy. My affinity for void let me do so easily.

"Void," I said through my avatar. "Light and shadow. The void between dimensions. Go through it. It's the opposite of affinity. The essence of nothingness. Travelling to other dimensions becomes trivial."

With that small kindness done I left that world to the void once more.

Focus. Pit. Right. She has no idea what she does. She just focuses on my world. She sticks close to home. Perhaps looking ot other worlds is strenuous for her. I felt a faint strain on my void affinity myself. Staying in the void wasn't effortless. However, that was a strain easily alleviated by a small expenditure of mana to strengthen the affinity.

I looked to Pit on my own world and drifted my soul into hers. She immediately merged with me voluntarily. I looked through her eyes at my body, looking dazed but still standing in her room.

Two new notifications were waiting for me and I looked at them, reading quickly before dismissing them.

 ***Ding!*A new skill has been created! - Void sight**

" _ **You haven't seen it. The black. The nothingness as it embraces you like a mother's hug. It's beyond the world and we, the void callers, can talk to it. Whisper to it to show us the secrets of this world and others. It is how we see our targets anywhere, yes, but that is the smallest application of such a mighty tool. We see the future and the past. And only the greatest of us, the most powerful, can touch it. Perhaps one day there will be one other than I who can walk through it."**_

 **-Garrus Kakiel, Archmagus of void**

 ***Ding!*A new skill has been created! - Void walking**

" _ **Greetings, new traveller. Have you idea of what you have just done? Perhaps not. You have found the key to a greater world. You are a man who looked at the sea and found his boat. Few are powerful enough to take the step to another world and you are one of them. Those who use dimensions are like arrows. They travel with only the destination in mind and they do not choose where they go. You are a traveller. You see the destination and all in-between. All destinations are yours to explore. You have proven yourself worthy of my title. You have performed a feat worthy of an archmagus. Should I be passed from this world I request that you take my place on the council, should it still stand. Otherwise, please enjoy what lies in my tower. You are my successor. Thank you."**_

 **-Garrus Kakiel, Archmagus of void**

 ***Ding!*By performing a feat worthy of an archmagus and being acknowledged by one, past or present, a title has been upgraded:**

 **Archmagus of void**

 **-Reduces all mana costs by 25%**

 **-Increase all affinities by 50%.**

 **-+50% INT**

 **-+50% WIS**

 **-Increase void affinity by 100%**

 **-Increase mana and mana regen by 100%**

 **-Void walking and void sight take 50% less effort in any form and a world is 25% more likely to be favorable to you.**

' _You took awhile,'_ Pit said. I sent acknowledgement and tried to refocus myself. I did, however, equip the archmagus of void title and felt the instant increase in affinities. It had replaced the wizard title so unless I wanted a drastic decrease in strength I had to. My mana shot up massively. It wasn't what I had before losing my silver eyes but dust my void affinity was huge now. I resisted looking at my new stats before returning to talking to Pit though.

' _Why not look to other worlds? Other versions of yourself?'_ I asked. Pit sent the equivalent of a shrug.

' _I wanted to meet you,'_ she said. _'Looking in other worlds is hard. I only have the void. Others with the void are normally knowledgeable of the void between worlds and prepared for those that may come through it. I met one that was dangerous once. I stayed safe since then. I needed to be stronger to look properly and safely. I don't want to die. Other versions of myself normally chat with me but after meeting yourself twenty times it gets… boring."_

I understood that. It would be like meeting the same person twenty times.

Investigating this new and powerful application of void could come later. Perhaps I could see the other world Icmant mentioned. Abyss, he had called it. How ironic. I'm not sure I want to travel to someplace where there are people as strong as he was though. There were better ways of using this ability than poking hornet nests.

' _Pit,'_ I asked, _'what do you want to do?'_

She looked at me with her odd serpentine eyes. _'I want to travel. I want to visit the other worlds I can see. To touch them.'_

A sort of grin came across her face. It looked pretty scary but I felt no malice from her. _'To do that I need to get stronger. I've seen your notes. The need for a void familiar. That's what you came here to do, right?'_

I was a little surprised by this stroke of incredibly good fortune but not quite surprised. I sent a pulse of confirmation from my aura.

' _Great!'_ Pit seemed excited. So she's not as stoic as she portrays herself. Then again, even the most stoic of children are excited on Christmas. _'Could you put my body in the space thing for the time being? I don't think I'll leave often though. I mostly want to travel with you and meet new people and I know you like your private times. Could you make me my own body while still being connected to your soul though? It seems like that would be more convenient for both of us. One capable of talking. A faunus form would be just fine.'_

I just stayed silent for a moment. With a sigh I glanced towards the one-way glass, where Poledina was taking notes frantically on the other side. "I hope he won't be too mad I took all these test subjects."


	47. Chapter 47

**AN: This chapter is later than expected. Sorry for that. The blame partially lies on my beta, TheNightShinobi, but he had real life stuff so I wouldn't blame him. Stuff happens and whatnot.**

 **This chapter is longer than usual but that's partially due to the fight scene.**

 **Well, that should be it. Ah, right, a good friend of mine (I think he's a friend at least) flameclawsxx has a fiction, Portals and Pizazz, that's really good, if underdeveloped due to how new it is. I wrote a little omake for it that he posted just today. If you're interested in a cracky, casual adventure try it out.**

[||||= **LEVEL 47** = ||||]

"You're sure you want to do an experiment that may or may not wipe your soul from existence?" I asked skeptically.

"That's what I'm here to do!" Vera said defensively. "It's not like I haven't done worse. At least this time I have some protection. Besides, I've always wanted to see the end of the world and even if you do try it alone you'll have no idea how to do the notes for it."

"True," I muttered grudgingly. Vera smirked triumphantly and continued sketching the runic matrixes I was making onto her clipboard. It was to my shame and pride that she was far better at taking scientific notes than I was. Where I had random details in a bullet list she had coherent notes in an ordered fashion.

How I had done research before meeting Vera was a mystery. When she had first seen my journals she scoffed and rewrote them entirely, taking almost an entire year. Somebody could easily publish them now if I ever wanted to show my research to the public.

"There," I said to myself as I finished the runes. Well, most of them. The runes for spatial reinforcement were solidly in place but they weren't functional since they had no mana in them. The battery of mana that would run through the matrix was kept separate and was mostly filled. I was still waiting to dump another load of mana into it. Over ten million units of mana would be stored in that matrix. It stretched more than two hundred feet in any direction.

This was why my testing areas were underground. I didn't have this much space on the surface. I was amassing quite the collection of underground bunkers with Poledina's lab, my testing grounds, and several other storehouses.

A lot of things couldn't be safely done in pocket spaces, unfortunately, leading me to make my underground bunker rather than just using pocket spaces for everything. If the runes somehow collapsed, either through exposure to void, outside influences, or just a plain accident, everyone inside would suddenly be compressed and have a large amount of air and walls smash down on them, pushing everything to the center of the room At least that's all I've been able to observe from outside.

After being completely crushed to the smallest possible amount of space observably possible the pocket dimension just sorta goes 'blurp' and isn't there anymore. They're a bit of an anomaly but I don't really care. I have bigger things to worry about than why pocket spaces are weird. Using my genius intellect, however, I can conclude that everything in the pocket spaces that collapse are not my problem.

That's why I dislike using them as testing spaces. A testing space is supposed to make performing tests safer. Being inside a pocket space is inherently unsafe. There was only one benefit to being inside a pocket space. They were self-contained and easily scuttled.

This particular test would have to be completed in a pocket dimension to my ire. Should the test go awry Vera and I would evacuate and sever the pocket dimension from the rest of Remnant's dimension.

Even if we did get sucked into the greater void I would be fine and Vera had something like an astronaut's suit that was runed to isolate her and her affinities from the outside conditions. Void specifically. I had tested it and it seemed to work but I'd have to track her down in the void between dimensions and hope the suit holds. The speakers would let her talk to me during the test.

"So you expect a massive magical black hole?" Vera asked conversationally.

"A magical black hole fed by an infinite or nigh-infinite power source," I elaborated. "The void between dimensions, specifically. I'll tear a hole through space and attempt to seal it."

"That's why we're in a pocket dimension?" she asked.

"Yes."

"And you're SURE you'll be fine?" This elicited an eye roll from me.

"I was fine being directly exposed to the void before. If worst comes to worst I can take refuge in another dimension and make my way back into Remnant, which is extremely easy. Void doesn't hurt me. Ever."

Vera looked towards me searchingly for a moment before seemingly believing me. She was such a stickler for little things like 'lab safety'. Really, do I need a lab coat when playing with acids or gunpowder? Of course not. Civilians do. I just wear the labcoat to not get my clothes messy.

My hand absently stroked the fabric and I remembered another reason I wore them in the lab. They were surprisingly warm and comfortable and had a lot of pockets.

"Ready?" Vera asked.

"One more minute," I said. My seven available parallels were all meditating the magical fatigue away but that I still needed a minute or two to regenerate my magical reserves. Normally it took twenty minutes. "You told Raven, Roman, and Cinder about the rescheduled meeting, right?"

"Yup." Vera moved a paper on her clipboard and scanned it. "Um, two pm. About an hour from now. Fifty-four minutes. Do you want Cesium there?"

"He's supposed to be with Torchwick anyways learning the ropes. He'll be there. I just need to take less than an hour and a half with them before I turn my attentions back to Beacon for combat class. It should be the only interesting class for the first day."

"I'll send him a message after we're done here." Vera scribbled a little note on her clipboard. Getting an assistant for the lab was such a relief. I'm superhuman but trying to schedule all my affairs took time. Vera solved that issue for me.

I finished meditating and turned to the runes once more. All my mana flowed into the matrix and from there to the battery. It was filled completely about halfway through.

' _I've never done science before,'_ Pit said in fascination from my soul space.

' _Be quiet now, please. Getting my concentration broken during the test would be bad to say the least.'_ I said back through my aura. Pit wasn't really the person to comment on everything, thank dust, but even if she didn't need to be reminded of it, it was likely a good idea to reinforce her behavior.

"We can start now," I told Vera. She smiled a little and walked to the edge of the lab where an array of instruments were sitting on a long table, right next to the door. That was supposedly the safe space for the lab. "Are the instruments working?"

Vera glanced over the measuring instruments. Poledina had made them through a combination of runes and technology. They measured everything from local affinity composition and density to the room's air pressure. We even had more tools for measurements like humidity, local static electricity, and more. Mostly, though, we were looking at affinities and how well I can control tapping into the greater void.

"Working," Vera said. She took another moment to write down all the control conditions, that is to say, the conditions before testing. Her eyes grew more focused and her attitude more serious as we got down to business. "We're now recording. Begin test number one."

Test number one was supposed to measure the strength of my void affinity using the bare affinity. From there we could determine how effective it was to create a controllable link to the greater void versus just doing the task of sucking affinity out of the air myself.

I raised my hand and moved my void affinity to the forefront of my soul. Void flooded out and filled the space around my hands. Affinity began getting sucked out of the room and I held the void until I felt no more affinity left to destroy. Then I stopped.

"Time?" I asked.

"One point nineteen seconds," Vera said. Her pen scribbled notes on the paper of hers, marking down every statistic. The equipment had recorded the data too but more than a few times we've lost the data through an accidental EMP, lightning bolt, freezing the machines to absolute zero, breaking them, or numerous other ways to destroy the equipment.

"The temperature dropped by ten degrees." Vera said interestedly. "Any theories?"

"Heat affinity." I said. Vera looked at her notes.

"Oh yeah. Heat was one of the main affinities in the air at control conditions. Air was another one but that didn't change in composition or density. Likely because air is physical and heat is an energy. Do you think that it would work with motion?"

"Did the affinities hit zero?" I asked. Vera ignored my change in topic and simply shook her head.

"Near zero. A fraction of a percentage of what they were before. High thousandths of a percentage, specifically. Interestingly enough, the ones with the lowest scores were the ones you have a high affinity for. Air, water, and electricity affinity levels are rock bottom while the others are somewhat higher."

"Hm." I took out a rock from my pocket and glanced at Vera. She nodded at me, already thinking about what I was thinking, and I tossed the rock in the air. At its apex of flight, I pushed all of my void affinity and an atrocious amount of mana into it.

The stone began to fall but it did so very slowly. Like it was moving through molasses. I saw spiderwebs of frost accumulate on the stone very slowly. While I had a moment I took the time to measure what the equipment couldn't.

Sensing the space around the rock showed that it hardly had a presence in space. Relying solely on my space affinity or mage sight to see the rock I could easily look past it. A flake of a pebble had more of a stone affinity than the actual stone did and filled up the space it occupied with its affinity far more.

Space also acted oddly around the stone. Something about it seemed familiar though. I searched my memories and found that I had sensed similar spatial distortions with Poledina's experiments with time affinity. So time was slowed in the void's area of effect most likely.

Heat showed that yes, the void was taking away all heat mana and leaving it with nearly nothing. I personally couldn't sense any heat affinity at all but I trust Poledina's machines. They had a precision I didn't possess, even if they didn't have nearly enough range.

A few more searches with my senses showed only an odd discrepancy between light and shadow. They were perhaps the only physical elements unaffected. Shadow might take the lead on the stone for a moment as light disappeared as soon as it's affinity was negated but as soon as there was more shadow the void would take the affinity for that, letting light flow back in. It was somewhere between an equal split of light and shadow on the stone but the light and shadow moved areas too quickly for physical eyes to catch, giving the stone the illusion of being shrouded in light as it should be.

It took over fifteen seconds for the stone to hit the floor. Vera had finished recording all the data on the slowly falling rock before it hit the ground.

"It had a field of time in the area of effect that moved slower than it should have," I told Vera. Her eyes gleamed and she wrote a quick note. "Also, the void consumed light affinity, making shadow affinity move in. Then it consumed shadow affinity, making light move in."

"Was energy lost or gained when the shadows were eliminated?" Vera asked. "Did light come into existence or did it come in from the area outside of the void's area of effect?"

"I believe the light came into existence as soon as the shadow was erased from existence," I said. "Light and shadow are inverse elements like order and chaos. It's plausible that so long as there is existence there is either light or the lack thereof, being shadow. However, the greater void has no matter, energy, or anything for that matter."

"Maybe void isn't quite as accurate as you believe," Vera pointed out. "The void seems to be a lack of anything. An alternate word for it could be 'empty' from what I've seen. It is the lack of anything. However, the greater void, as we seem to be calling it, doesn't exist inside dimensions. From what you've told me is it plausible that it exists outside reality as well? I'd bet that if you cut yourself off from other dimensions while in the void you'd exist outside of time and we both know time exists alongside space."

"So what you're saying is that so long as we are in a pocket of reality there must be space, time, and other facets of reality," I summarized.

"Pretty much," Vera agreed. "But also, how would you touch the affinity of reality with void?"

"You would need either a higher state of being or an affinity that opens you to the fabric of reality," I told her. "Since I'm not getting rid of every scrap of affinity in an area reality still exists in that area. I'm certain that it would be easier to travel to the void from an area with a weakened sense of reality, or just a less present sense of affinities at any rate. It's also likely that so long as reality exists in its entirety other parts of reality that aren't weakened reinforce the weakened areas. Like how heat will fill in areas where there is less heat from areas with more heat. It's entropy but on the level of existence."

"Then would making a gateway to the greater void be poking a hole in reality?" Vera asked.

"That depends if reality is the same as dimensions," I said. A frown crossed my face. "I'm more concerned with whether the hole I make in this dimension will attempt to expand from the hole I create. Will the hole in dimensions get larger or will it be static, letting only some void through, and if so would that flow of void be constant or variable based on some unknown factors, or will it snuff itself out like the normal magical black holes I make with void and mana? Normally there's a static supply of void that amplifies itself with mana to extinguish as much affinity as possible but the amount of void available as well as the amount of mana in the air limits the void."

"…" Vera seems to have lost her train of thought. Contemplating existence does that. "I have no damn idea, Abyss. Let's just poke reality and see what happens."

I rolled my eyes again. She was doing so well contemplating higher energies and everything. "Equipment check?"

"It's all good."

"You wrote down the control conditions?"

"Yup! The local affinity seems to have stabilized since the first experiment."

"Starting now." I reached for the greater void. I felt its infinity and the worlds it encompassed at my fingertips. But I didn't want to bring myself to the void. I wanted to bring the void to me.

I looked back at Remnant from the void and saw myself. I focused back on my own aura and tried to use the void to enter the dimension.

It didn't come.

As soon as the greater void hit the dimension it slid right off. It was like touching a perfect sphere dunked in grease. As soon as the void ran into the dimension it slid right off the dimension.

I growled in frustration but then again I couldn't do everything first try. I tried making a wedge of void and prying away the strange shield holding the void back from the dimension but saw no progress.

That's when it hit me. I had an in on the dimension. Myself and my own presence in Remnant. Or, well, the pocket dimension in Remnant. 

I created something like a teleport marker in the void. It was immediately consumed by the void. Had I a body I would have face-palmed. Dumbass, affinity can't just be released into the void. And I can't do something like the experimental teleporter I tried in initiation. That used a void enchantment and runes protecting space affinity and mana made into a teleport mark spell. The void didn't have space so that wouldn't work either.

I had to use myself as the insider in the dimension to bring forth the greater void. Ugh. Perhaps I could make a marker of sorts? But the rush of void would destroy it almost immediately, making it less than useless.

I have to use myself to bring forth the greater void. I should have considered this more. I'll be fine. Void doesn't hurt me anyways. Famous last words right there.

I sighed and decided to take the plunge. I connected to the greater void fully. It's energies soaked into me. I spread the energies into my soul and channeled the energies of the greater void.

It flooded me.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Anything?"_

"…"

" _Abyss?"_

"…"

" _Okay then. I'll just… wait here."_

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

 _*BEEP!* *BEEP!* BEEP!*_

" _Holy-! Oh. That's - that's not- oh fuck-!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I felt like a god.

I couldn't feel my affinities other than void, of course. There was simply too much void in me. It was like using my silver eyes but so much _more_.

I could feel everything. The void made me so much more sensitive to the affinity around me. I felt every speck of affinity around me. Wind. Time. Space. Air. Earth. Metal. Aether. Mana. More affinities existed than the stars in the sky.

But I didn't have affinities. As far as I could tell I didn't quite have a soul either. I sort of had one but it was like a speck of dust in the vastness of the void within me.

I wasn't my soul. I was more made of sentient void now than a soul. I was me. I think. I'm Abyss. I'm a seventeenish-year-old faunus in Remnant. I used to be a human on a place called Earth. I was experimenting with the greater void, which is now filling me. Is it influencing my thoughts?

Steel will answered yes. I had distorted priorities and urges but they were subconscious. Long-term exposure was inadvisable without a high-level mental resistance skill and preferably an affinity related to mental magic. Short term exposure is acceptable for my health so long as there is at least a week and a half between doses.

But I'm not really me. I'm more than usual. I am the void as much as I am myself. Power filled my soul to the brim and more. It leaked out of me. I was a portal to the infinite void. A conduit. An avatar. Yes. I'm an avatar of the void. I'm so dense in void affinity I think I rival Ophis' claims of having an infinite amount of void. But more than that was what that power offered me.

I felt everything. I felt Remnant. I felt Salem at her table, her hands clenched so hard that the stone broke to dust. I saw Ozpin, his coffee mug shattered on the floor. I saw Beacon, the students taking an essay my parallel had long since aced. I saw the ocean floor and every grimm and magical abomination in it. I didn't know that creatures that large existed.

But more immediate was the door to the lab. It was closed. I sensed Vera on the other side, her hand on the button that would release the pocket dimension from reality. She hadn't pressed the button yet so the void must be contained in the room.

That means I have a minute here. What are my stats?

 **Abyss Mavros**

 **Title: Archwizard of void; The Storm**

 **Level – 484**

 **HP – 16,456 (41.14/min)**

 **AP – 0/95,220 (4761/min)**

 **MP - 0/2,403,000 (120,150/min)**

 **STR - 252 (+55%)= 390.6**

 **VIT - 246 (+80%)= 442.8**

 **DEX - 309 (+85%)= 571.65**

 **INT - 534 (+350%)= 2,403**

 **WIS - 529 (+350%) = 2,380.5**

 **LUK - 153 (+0%)=**

 **POINTS - 1700**

 **Affinities:**

 **Void: Infinite**

 **Perks:**

 **Avatar of the void - Intensity: 94,742,954 - You are connected to an infinite reservoir of void. It flows through you. You direct this power to your bidding. While acting as the avatar of this power your capacity of void affinity is infinite and limited only by the depth of your link to this power. The intensity of this condition is the degree to which you are channeling this power and the amount of affinity you can exert per second. Due to the nature of void all aura, mana, and affinities other than void are unusable.**

 **-Grants massively increased sensory abilities**

 **-Grants variable amount of void to use**

 **-Progressive suppression of aura, mana, and affinities as the intensity of the condition increases.**

 **-Perfect conscious control of void affinity**

 **-Minor subconscious desire to use void**

 ***Ding!* Skill created - Mantle of void**

" _ **My right to create a seat for myself at your council? I am Garrus Kakiel. The greatest void user to exist. I am an archwizard of few equals, an adept in the most devastating and rarest magical affinity currently known to be possessed by mortals, and claimed to be the strongest archwizard since the archwizard of soul, rivaled only by Isthia of the solar cycle and Tyteriokus the planeswalker. But my seat? It is mine because I am an avatar of the void. I carry it's mantle as a god does a domain. It is as simple as that."**_

 **-Garrus Kakiel, Archwizard of void**

I was the closest I think I'll ever desire to come to being a god. I was the manifestation of void. That's probably bad.

With some degree of sadness I pushed back the power. I closed the connection I had to void. It felt like I was snuffing out my soul almost. But I shouldn't maintain this connection. It's bad for my mental health, if not my physical one. Besides, I have a meeting to go to.

As the void left me bare I was tempted to bring it back. Infinite power is addictive. Suppressing my aura was fine and losing mana was no big deal but void filled me. It was like shutting the door on a part of myself. Even leaving just the tiniest sliver of a connection was a massive temptation. If I was in danger I could open that connection far quicker than reconnecting to the void.

But no. Will of steel reminded me of the subconscious interference. I didn't need that. It would be bad for me. I also wouldn't use void every time something happens. Void was poor for subjugation and using it on anybody other than the serious heavy hitters of Remnant was like bringing a nuke to a fistfight. And being the void's avatar? I was nearly a god using that.

A god with an influenced mentality and no physical defenses other than aura, sure, but a god nonetheless. I should probably try to make physical manifestations of void to use to defend myself. However inefficient it was was no matter. I had an infinite amount of void at my disposal when I was an avatar, after all.

With a critical eye I measured the batteries of mana holding space together in the small pocket dimension. It was down two point seven million mana points. And that was just from what leaked out of me in my avatar form as I affected space affinity. I wasn't even trying to destabilize space. There was still space affinity in the room before I cut myself off from the void. Perhaps a millionth of a percentage of what there normally was but still a little. I could have wiped out the rest of it if I tried I think.

But I have a more pressing matter at hand. I just had my soul flooded with void affinity not unlike when somebody ingests liquid affinity. It was the same principle of flooding the soul with affinity.

I walked over to the door of the lab and knocked three times. "Vera?" I called. "I'm lucid and alive. But we do have a problem…"

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Oh my. That's not good… Hello, Oobleck? Where is Abyss?"_

" _Ozpin! Ah, why are you calling me-"_

" _Oobleck. Please."_

" _Well Mister Mavros, quite a lovely student, is in class right now!"_

" _Is he an avatar?"_

" _And how should I know exactly? You know I don't understand that business except for the history of it."_

"… _Ask him."_

" _In class? Ozpin, while it is lovely to talk to you I have a class to teach and you're holding me back from them at the moment."_

" _This is important."_

" _Fine. Mister Mavros are you a projection?"_

" _Yes."_

" _He says yes."_

" _I heard. I simply wanted to make sure. Thank you. Would you send him to my office?"_

" _Mister Mavros please head to Ozpin's tower. I'll write you a pass."_

" _Are you sure it can't wait until after class? I'm quite enjoying the lecture."_

" _Do I have to let him go, Ozpin? Students that can pay attention to the lesson are so very rare."_

"… _No. No I suppose not. Tell him to meet me after the school day. At five. Thank you, Oobleck."_

" _Of course! Mister Mavros you can see him at five. Now! Where we? Ah yes! The Great war! Wellyouseethegreatwarwasactuallyavarietyofminorwarsstretchedoutov-"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

After dealing with my problem with Vera I was off to the meeting with Raven and Roman. Getting near godlike power was fine and all but it had its downsides. Undoubtedly the worst was how limited it was. Void was powerful but it couldn't teleport me across the continent. It couldn't defend my body from physical attacks like a bullet. It couldn't bend space or make heat or give me shelter or alter the landscape. It couldn't do ANYTHING but attack people. It was entirely offensive at the moment. Maybe I could learn how to use void with more utility from Ophis or maybe not. At the moment, though, I had some serious downsides.

Worse than that I was weakened while using it. I had no enhancements from aura when I was using void, leaving me at less than a fifth of my normal physical levels. Sure, anyone who got that close would have their souls destroyed but bullets could kill me while I was in my avatar form. It gave me a good reason to have huntsman armor. I would just put my body in my soul space before bringing forth the void but that might not always be an option.

Using that avatar technique would make me a glass cannon. I was all offense with none of the versatility or defense I always have. I didn't have any mundane utility while using it either. What use is godlike power if you're only able to use it to destroy? Not much. Still, though, it seems as though it's a trump card to an extent.

I was far more interested in the potential for exploring other worlds. Could I acquire alternate energy sources like chakra or that spiritual stuff they use in bleach? What about higher forms of technology? Dropping out of space entirely along with my skills for energy suppression makes me nearly perfect at stealth. I'm sure I could drop into a world with space travel and nab a spaceship.

Not to mention that I would be exploring other worlds during school breaks. The first one for Beacon is the winter break, which is almost three months away. Such a pain in my ass. At least this time I can bring along others. Ruby is a certainty, of course. Perhaps we would keep it between us this first time. I already have a world in mind for team JAPR to travel to. I don't think Raven would mind too much if I left her out of the first trip out of Remnant. She seems to have her hands full with Cinder and Roman as is.

"We can't just take out an entire street!" Roman said. He was speaking loudly enough that he bordered yelling but too quietly for anyone to call him out on it.

"It's necessary!" Cinder hissed. "Without at least SOME property damage people will be suspicious. It has to look like an actual incursion of grimm, which would be easiest if you actually had an incursion of grimm!"

"The worse it gets the harder it will be to reign in," Roman shot back. "Letting the grimm take three whole city blocks leaves three whole city blocks to contain, which stretches my men. One is easy and makes no impression. Two is better. Three? There would be casualties."

"So?" Cinder asked.

"So people don't like casualties!" Roman growled. I saw Cesium nod agreeably by the door. He was observing the meeting and acting as a sort of bodyguard with Neo. "A grimm incursion stopped is better than one suppressed. 'Vale criminal overlord holds back a grimm incursion' sounds a damn sight worse than 'Vale criminal overlord stops city-wide disaster'. I practically own the news stations but the huntsmen are going to try to spin whatever I do to the worst possible light however they can. Hell, they've got their own social media accounts that have their own bit of sway. Hacking them is just about impossible, by the way."

"Have Mahogany issue a public statement of thanks for saving company property." I interrupted. Both of them stopped and looked contemplative. "For example, 'We at Nature's Bounty would like to publicly thank Roman Torchwick for saving the lives of seven of our employees out on a business deal. Unfortunately, due to the branding him as a criminal we are unable to properly thank him.' Or something like that. Less explicit. I'm sure you can think something up."

"There would be casualties," Roman pointed out, less hostilely than before.

"Didn't you hear, Roman?" I asked innocently. "There were employees of Nature's Bounty there. They helped briefly hold back the grimm in heroic fashion until the so-called gangsters came by and did Vale's work for them."

"Ah," Roman said with a grin. "And of course Nature's Bounty would be a little pissed over having their employees in danger. More questioning of Vale's huntsman forces would be nothing but good."

"And we can't help but abide the casualties to Vale's populace. A tragedy due to gross oversight by the government," Cinder said sweetly. "The claims of fake bodies littering the wreckage are falsified conspiracies."

"I can do the bodies," I said casually. Life magic would make it trivial with a bit of DNA. "Do people often try to be smuggled discreetly somewhere, Roman? Start new lives? I can make identical bodies to theirs with a sample."

"I'll offer reduced prices on human smuggling services," he said agreeably. "Along with a little threatening they'll keep their mouths shut and we get the perfect cover to make a few bodies appear."

"Perfect," I said approvingly.

"Now for the White Fang problem," Cinder said reluctantly. Roman groaned.

"Those _animals_ are-"

"Roman," I said, my voice ice-cold. The temperature in the room dropped nearly ten degrees as I stared at him. Roman nearly clenched his fingers but I held him with my motion affinity. I let five seconds pass before letting the conditions in the room return to normal.

"R-right," Roman said a bit more meekly. Cinder smirked at him and he sent a weak glare back. Raven stared impassively from the other side of the table, not adding anything significant to the conversation. "The White Wang are incompetent." Roman glanced at me for a moment, knowing he was on thin ice, before continuing.

"They're untrained, undisciplined, and even their best, a guy that calls himself lieutenant and nothing else, is only a passable fighter. Like late signal student level. The others are just gun monkeys. As fighters they're terrible. As labor they're barely passable. I've brought in four clan members courtesy of boss-lady-" he nodded at Raven "-that make them slightly less terrible. Still, though, the White Fang doesn't much like the clan. I get a scattering of complaints. Mostly them complaining about being human and such, which wouldn't be so bad, but they refuse to take orders from the clan. They think they're just extra brutish thugs. Even the smarter ones. With me they get over it since I just pass orders down through the clan but the clan works closely with them. It's a poor situation there."

"Are the Fang poor for labour in general or is the disappointing lack of progress due to tensions?"

"A bit of both, but mostly tensions." I rolled my eyes. Perhaps it's because of racism on Roman's part? No, of course not.

"Stop being a racist to your employees," I said clearly. He grimaced and glanced away briefly. "If there's a delay then fix it. If you need to 'get rid of tensions' then bring in a faunus employee of yours. Or a clan member if any are available. Deal with your own problems. If there are tensions then fix them.

"Anything else?" I looked around the table.

"I'd like training," Cinder said plainly to me. I looked at her silently while everyone else looked at her in interest.

"Raven-" I started.

"From you," Cinder interrupted. Raven nodded at me with flat eyes. A no from both sides of the two. "I am competent in weapon skills. My mother and two of her friends taught me. I need training in dust usage. You are the best in Vale and one of the best in the world." Both of us knew that she in no way, shape, or form meant dust training. She meant magic.

It was obvious what she wanted. Training would be good. Great, even. I had observed Cinder and seen nothing I didn't already know. Her lust for power and plots to get it were equally unsurprising. However, I also knew that Salem would love an 'in' with me. A contact mutual between us. Being a personal associate of Cinder's could be nothing but good for her.

"I trained Raven and I'm already short on free time," I stated. "She's about half as good as me, which is significantly better than you." Cinder's lips turned down somewhat at the sting to her pride. "I have my school classes open besides combat classes. That's eight hours that I'm idle but I have plenty else I can do. Why would I train you when I can do something productive or nothing at all? Training students is annoying."

"I'll put in a good word in with _her_ ," she said, referencing Salem.

"I don't care," I said bluntly.

"I have much to offer," she tried again.

"Name them." I made myself look neutral. Cinder did the same, though I could feel some faint anxiousness from her aura. She hid it fantastically, though. There were no physical tells whatsoever.

"Lien, power, favors, and whatever else I have available," she said plainly.

"I have lien I could ask for, more power than I know what to do with, the favors come with my power, and 'anything else' is vague and unfounded. Strike two," I said.

Cinder paused. "I have promise. You can use that," she said, half resignedly.

"That'll do it," I said with a nod. Cinder seemed to fight between being surprised and not before giving up and nodding. "I'll come to you when I decide to. Since you have so little to offer me you'll train whenever I say so. I dictate the terms at my whims." Cinder frowned but nodded again.

I could just deny Cinder training but she was, in fact, somewhat interesting. There's no possible way she'd match me in combat. Not in the next decade. It might also make Salem a little happy with me. And finally, I get to dictate the terms absolutely. This is all I really wanted. Setting a schedule would set the wrong impression to Cinder. She really doesn't have anything I could care even slightly about that she would freely give. What I want is control over her. Keep your enemies closer is important, after all. I just substitute 'enemies' for potential enemies.

Some days I really am a manipulative bastard. Well, most days actually. The more I think about it the more I get convinced that all natural born wizards are bastards. Ozpin and I are the only pieces of evidence, sure, but there are some serious parallels between us when it comes to this sort of stuff.

"That would be all?" I looked around the table one more time. "Good then." I glanced at a clock and saw that I had seven minutes until the passing period to combat class at Beacon.I may as well switch places with my body double now.

I focused on my link to my hard light clone, which held strong despite the significant distance between us, and blinked at the same time as I dissipated my clone. I suddenly appeared in the classroom, which I identified as dust labs, without difficulty.

I blinked as I realized that I was holding a beaker of fire dust and electricity dust. Ah, right. My parallel was mixing these two variants to make the mixture of fuel we use for bullheads and airships. Everyone in class was doing it. I wasn't really paying attention to what my parallels saw.

"What's wrong, Abyss-bot?" a voice asked. I glanced towards my left to see Jaune there looking curiously at me.

"It's a little jarring to go from being in a meeting of nefarious criminals and underlings to suddenly mixing dust," I explained. Jaune's face drew into understanding as my hands worked on automatic, mixing the dust flawlessly as I talked. "I knew what my hard light avatar was doing, of course, but seeing with the avatar's version of sight and seeing with my own eyes are two entirely different experiences. It took me a moment to get my bearings."

"Oh. You're back." Jaune didn't seem really pleased or angry that I was back. More like slightly annoyed.

"I finished all my business for today," I confirmed. "I checked up on my R&D department's magical zoology and cloning project, tested an exotic magical power, which turned out to be very lucrative, and formed a meeting between myself and some of my employees."

"You mean criminals," Jaune said flatly.

"Mostly terrorists but Roman was also there," I said with a shrug. I grabbed a synthetic rag we had specifically for wiping hands free of dust and swirled the mixture of fire and lightning dust. "Have I been doing the entire dust project by myself?"

"I don't know how dust works," Jaune muttered.

"It's pretty expensive so that's understandable." I acknowledged. I stopped swirling the mixture and put a funnel over an erlenmeyer flask before slowly pouring the dust mixture into it. "That said, don't you know at least a little from maintaining your sword?"

"Only a little," he admitted. "That's more 'put dust here' than mixing variants of it."

I paused. "You don't mix the dust?" I almost glanced at Jaune but discipline demanded that I keep my attention on the moving dust. In case of an accident it's better to know it's happening, though I highly doubt I could mess this up.

"Nope. I just use the store-bought stuff."

I nearly growled at Jaune's ignorance but instead stayed quiet for a moment until the dust was entirely in the erlenmeyer flask. When everything was in the flask I put a stopper on it and set it with three other mixtures of dust that my parallel had made. Dust coolant from ice and air, what's known as suffocation dust from gravity and air, and something like makeshift motion dust that was also made from gravity and air but was mixed differently to provide a different reaction. Tricky stuff for the first day.

Beacon really didn't screw around with this stuff. I thought we wouldn't do anything the first day but they proved me wrong. I should have remembered the show, where Weiss fought a boarbatusk for dust's sake.

"Well what have you been doing while my parallel slaved away?" I asked.

"Watching you mostly," Jaune said. "I also talked a bit with Ruby and Pyrrha. We worked through some stuff."

"Maybe I should have been here," I muttered.

"This was more of a, uh, private conversation." Jaune tried to give me a sheepish smile but it came out looking too hard to be a real smile. But that didn't matter. He had smiled! At me of all people! "What in the world did Pyrrha and Ruby do to you?" I asked in disbelief. "Not that it's a bad thing but I thought you would be glaring at me and giving me the silent treatment when I got back here."

"Pyrrha's scary." Jaune scowled lightly, not looking genuinely angry. "Ruby held a blade to my throat. They yelled at me a little, saying to give you a chance to try and make up. Ruby let out some, uhm, personal stuff."

I paused for a moment. "Dianthus?" I questioned. Jaune nodded and the two of us had a silent moment between us.

"So what's happening in combat class?" I asked, mostly to break the silence.

"Sis called in backup." Jaune grinned a little. "I didn't tell you this but they're throwing you against Pyrrha because they think you'll destroy Beacon if you fight unsupervised."

I winced and said nothing. Jaune paused for a moment before sighing. "You wouldn't."

"Jaune she doesn't just have a railgun. She _is_ the railgun."

"And you have magic."

"All I have are storms and space trickery."

"Just… Just don't destroy the arena."

"If I destroy the arena I'll make it bigger using space trickery."

"Is this the new norm for me?"

"Mass destruction is the least of your worries, really. I'd be more concerned over what Ruby is doing with the earth dust over there."

"The… but we didn't use the brown dust. Did we?"

"We didn't. Say, where's Yang?"

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _I'LL MURDER YOU!"_

" _AAAAAAGHHH! I'M SORRY!"_

" _WHAT SORT OF ARROGANT BASTARD THINKS HE CAN JUST GRAB MY HAIR?!"_

" _I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"_

" _MISS PEACH WE'RE HAVING A TEAM BONDING SESSION!"_

" _Miss Xiao-Long please just leave. And take your team with you. Including the unconscious three."_

" _NO! PLEASE! SAVE ME! … Cardin? CARDIN?! WAKE UP, MAN! RUSSEL! C'MON! I CAN'T DO THIS ALONE! "_

"…"

" _I'll be back with these three for combat class!"_

" _I'll let your teachers know. We expected some… difficulties already so no worries. I'll send your missing work to your room."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Quiet down!" Crimson called to the class. The chatter slowly died down over the course of ten seconds. She looked imperiously over all of us, stamping out the last bits of side-conversation. Off to the side Glynda looked reminiscent.

"You're all here for combat class," Crimson started. "That means we don't talk. We don't solve math problems or debate intricacies. The leaders of your teams are free to discuss tactics and the like on their own time or with groups. Team leaders often attend tactics so they can learn how to manage their team. However, the class is extracurricular. Sign up for it if you want group fights and debates over new strategies. Here, however, we will more often do single fights or doubles with a weekly team battle." A sort of grin crossed Crimson's lips at the end.

"Of course, there is also the tournament." The few people that weren't paying attention to Crimson perked up at that. "Every semester at the team battles I advance the teams through a tournament set. The winners of the tournament, that is to say, the ones who never once lose during the semester, will recieve extra credit and a week where they don't have to attend combat class and instead have an early release." Excited murmurs spread across the room.

"Of course, we have team JAPR this year so holding a tournament is somewhat unnecessary." Chatter died down as people practically wilted in their seats as they looked at us. The four strongest first years on the same team. "So the four teams who only lose to them but still get to second place will get a free day off rather than a week." Cheers erupted and Crimson waited a moment for the cheers to die down.

Everyone in my team just sat awkwardly. "We aren't that intimidating, are we?" Pyrrha asked tentatively.

"The only person Abyss lost to in Signal was my uncle," Ruby said quietly back. "I only lost to my uncle and the older students and I wasn't even using my maiden powers until third year, where I claimed I got dust training from Abyss. Jaune is Jaune and people just assume you're a fantastic fighter by associating with us."

"What do you mean I'm me?" Jaune asked curiously.

"You held off the beast in initiation," Ruby replied. Jaune didn't get a chance to answer that since Crimson started talking again.

"Of course, since we aren't here to talk but fight that is how we will be starting the class. It is expected that you will not be sleeping or otherwise distracted while a fight is happening. Taking notes or a video of the fight is allowed. If you wish to challenge a classmate or teammate you can pull them aside and go to a practice arena with my permission. It is not mandatory but extremely recommended that you practice your fighting skills in your free time, as this class is more for taking notes and checking up on your progress in martial combat than to practice."

Crimson waited a moment to look over the class. "That all said, we will be starting our class off vigorously with two people who know what they're doing, if not how to hold back. Pyrrha Nikos and Abyss Mavros to the arena."

Pyrrha nearly took off at a run towards the lockers on the right side of the room, where the female changing rooms were, before slowing down and looking back towards me. I pointed towards the locker room and the armour and weapons she had appeared on the bench in the lockers. I teleported myself into the other locker room.

It barely took a minute for us to both get outside the lockers and in the arena. We had been waiting for this.

Pyrrha looked beyond excited, though it was less shown than before the fight. It was in her eyes, which tore me apart to see some sort of fighting style apparent in my gear. Her body was in the semi-casual wear she was wearing on the bullhead, the iron sand as prominent as it was before inside her clothes. Her weapons were naked in her hands, Milo and Akouo seeming just a little bit dull and unpolished. I'd guess that it's because she mostly uses the iron sand in her clothes.

All I had was my combat mesh clothes under high quality synthetic armor. I kept my halberd planted beside me for the moment. I'm not sure how Pyrrha fights now and I'd rather be on the defensive slinging spells and waves of lightning than up close on the offensive. I still had the inequalizers on my hands just in case I needed to ramp up my game. Holding back was probably not going to be an option judging by how excited Pyrrha seemed.

"Let's get this over with," I heard Glynda mutter from the side of the arena. Crimson said something in what was probably agreement but was too soft for me to hear.

"Alright then," Crimson said loudly. "Ready… Set…" Pyrrha and I locked eyes for a moment. I turned some of my attentions towards my prediction and instinctual skills just to be sure of my defense. "Begin!"

Pyrrha was right in front of me. I leaned right just out of the path of her javelin's stab at the perfect time. I had already known the attack was coming. I responded with a wide slash pushing her back, which was effortlessly blocked out of the way by Pyrrha's shield.

Already I was seeing discrepancies in this battle. Pyrrha was moving faster than she should be able to. As fast as Ruby was in a sprint if not faster. The answer was pretty obvious. She was using her semblance to accelerate herself to go faster using her clothing's metal mesh. I'd be shocked if she wasn't using the same technique on her weapons to hit harder. It sure felt like it.

I twired my halberd once more to swipe at her legs and felt resistance. Her semblance was slowing me down.

Let's fix that.

Void swept through my halberd and nothing else. Suddenly my haberd was free of Pyrrha's influence and, backed by motion magic, it slammed through her legs, making her fall down.

Or she would have fallen if she hadn't suddenly jerked away from me as if pulled by some giant hand. Her feet wret back under her and I raised my halberd defensively again.

I could already conclude several things, firstly, she can fly using magnetism to lift her clothes. Not exactly innovative and brilliant but it's effective. It's not perfect either. Perhaps her clothes are a little loose fitting and she hasn't learned to compensate. Or maybe she's a little lacking in control.

Secondly, she's far better in melee fights than I am. Not only because of her semblance in manipulating metal but because of her skill in making herself faster and stronger than she would be; and she was already far faster and stronger than most students were. I'd bet she could match Jaune in pure physicality. Even with her physical skills she's likely more skilled than I am. We didn't really get to display skill, though. More a few probing hits.

Pyrrha and I locked eyes, evaluating each other. I glanced at her shield and raised an eyebrow. She glanced at Milo and Akouo and sighed softly.

"You already know, don't you?"sShe said. I nodded. Pyrrha tsked and tossed Akouo out to the edge of the arena. Mutters broke out among the audience. Mistreating your weapons was unorthodox amongst huntsmen to say the least.

"Are we getting serious?" I asked. Pyrrha didn't say anything but flung a hand out at me.

I winced and was forced to take a step back. I glanced downwards and saw a slightly blackened part of my armor. My aura had taken almost all of the blow easily but…

"Huh?" I looked at Pyrrha with some intensity, seeing the proud expression on her face. Then it clicked. "Electromagnetism," I said in realization. I had thought of her being able to make electricity from magnetism but it hadn't seemed like something she would come up with.

Not that being able to use electricity would ever really hurt me. My affinity for storm made air, electricity, and water based attacks sort of useless to me. Given sufficient strength they hurt, but Pyrrha's lightning bolt was lackluster compared to a real one.

"Clever," I said to her. "But unoriginal and weak. Here." I shot a _real_ lightning bolt towards Pyrrha. Her eyes widened as I waved my hand and little grains of the metal sand in her clothing raced out to form a shield in front of her.

It didn't help. My lightning boomed and she flew backwards. Iron sand flew across the arena like a dusty carpet. Pyrrha clumsily caught herself on all fours and stood up, looking a little dazed. Still, though, the iron sand flew towards her and coated her hands like gauntlets. She focused on me and grinned.

"Let's get serious," I said, my own smirk in place.

I teleported in front of her and slashed rapidly with my halberd. Void suffused it, making any use of a semblance on it useless. Pyrrha whirled with Milo, her semblance making her far faster than normal. Most would say she was light on her feet but I could see that she was actually making herself far lighter than normal, while not necessarily flying.

I caught a few glancing blows in our exchange and backed off a little. Pyrrha took the opportunity to toss a hand outwards. None of my skills were fast enough to let me avoid the unknown attack.

A screeching sound filled the air and I found myself thrown backwards. I recovered from my tumble at the other side of the arena and saw a massive tear through the floor not unlike Ruby's railgun at full power, though there was less fire and molten metal. I deduced that it was a large pulse of directed magnetism. The force of it was intense enough that I was thrown backwards. I noticed that a few of the lights in the area flickered. So it doubles as a weak EMP, most likely due to lack of control on Pyrrha's part.

I'm not sure by what process exactly Pyrrha made that bolt of lightning bolt but plenty of people know that electrical currents cause magnetic fields to form around them. Weak ones, sure, but Pyrrha seems to have worked something out.

I countered Pyrrha's attack by pointing a finger at her with my left hand and letting a sparse few bullets rush from my finger. The supersonic rounds left the small portal that spawned and the first few hit Pyrrha but the next few found themselves hitting the wall behind her. So she bastardized my spatial warping for magnetism. A shield impenetrable by bullets most likely.

I pulled out some heavy guns and used my dust system to let loose a wave of fire and air, making fire burning a blazing pale blue rush towards her. Pyrrha's metal dust once more shielded her and she used the cover from the fire to shoot spears made of the metal dust through the fire. I dodged the first and teleported out of the way of the second. Then a wide wave of tiny shards of metal shot towards me at high speeds. I teleported once more towards Pyrrha and received a strike from Milo to the shoulder the moment I appeared.

I gritted my teeth at the blow and clenched my hand briefly. Space and motion affinity hindered Pyrrha's movements and boosted mine, leaving Pyrrha' speed at a far more manageable level then before. I was slightly faster than her, actually. Pyrrha frowned at my trickery and I had to dodge several projectiles trying to skewer me from behind. I refrained from using mana in my affinities binding her, though. That would be a little unfair. As a result of my bindings I fell on my mana to throw my small scale attacks at her like lightning bolts and warps.

With how annoying those metal dust specks were I tried a different tactic than whittling down Pyrrha's aura, which was at about eighty four percent, and tried using ice affinity to freeze the metal dust to solid forms, making them heavier and far more manageable.

In response to my tactic Pyrrha grinned victoriously. A smile began to grow on my face as the ice bubbled and melted. I had thought she might be able to do that. Oscillating magnetic poles make friction and thus heat.

She didn't have to look so cheeky about her power, though.

I stayed on the defensive and attacked using a variety of powers. I shot lightning bolts, impeded her vision using miniature storms, warped space to confuse her and strike from awkward places while defending myself, shot blasts of heat at her, made the ground ice for her to slip on, made illusions of myself from light, changed my fighting styles, and at one point I even made a snowstorm from ice and storm magic.

It wasn't effective. I may be a force of nature but Pyrrha was always a step ahead of me. She made what could only be called lightning rods to block my bolts, somehow sensed me no matter the visual conditions, righted her balance through her semblance, defended the awkward angles with her metal dust acting as a shield, and through what could only be raw fighting experience, even when slowed by my motion affinity and with space itself resisting her every movement, fended off my attacks with halberd or shortsword.

The two of us were in a deadlock. I had a plethora of attacks and travelled the battlefield with ease, the elements parting for me and me only. My reserves were immense and my abilities warned me of any hint of danger. Direct hits were rare.

But Pyrrha was a goliath of skill. She danced past my attacks and always seemed to have some ability to counter my attacks. Her metal dust was too small to actually malform or warp permanently no matter how many of my hits it took. My melee attacks were parried or dodged, always met with a riposte or attack to push me back.

I owned the battlefield. I was nature incarnate. Pyrrha was a survivor, always in just the right place. If I was the storm she was a mountain, enduring whatever I threw at her. Though I could throw a lot more if I was allowed to destroy Beacon. I was held back by the environment as much as I was Pyrrha's skill at handling me.

In the end I had to resort to only a few attacks. Lasers were important. They were unblockable, going too fast to be avoided or otherwise shrugged off. However, they were energy inefficient. Light was versatile but as a beam of raw energy they were lackluster.

Heat was my second choice. It was more efficient than light and pulling heat from the environment made Pyrrha's metals more fragile and easier to break through. Pyrrha's metal dust was counterable if weakened and it was hard to move agilely with my storms pushing and pulling the dust every which way.

Finally, and most importantly, was my skill in manipulating space. I slung distortions of space at Pyrrha left and right after seeing it get to her. Dimensional blades were too lethal so I had to resort to shockwaves that blew her dust to the winds. Warps that made her strikes curve around me. Dropping out of space to avoid her strikes only to strike her myself. I even pushed Pyrrha through a portal once or twice, making her fall from the ceiling to the floor only to be met with whatever traps I could cook up.

There were numerous ways I could cheat the fight. Void was just one way. I could make a portal to one of several volcanoes I knew of or from the bottom of the ocean, where I could manipulate the water to not hinder my movement. I could teleport her to a pocket space and close the entrance only to fill it with whatever I chose, be it fire or water or grenades or anything. I could use void to hold back her semblance and use the gun part of the inequalizers to take her out in seconds. I could empty any of my better explosives into the arena and let the short timer tick down (though those explosives were mostly a tad too powerful for Beacon. Especially the ones with runes augmenting them).

If I REALLY wanted Pyrrha dead I could even push space together around her, squishing her between conflicting fields of space until her aura wears out. Using conflicting fields of force worked quicker, though. I was inspired by the mass effect games for that particular spell. I already had a warp spell but the technique really did tear through shields.

But why would I do any of that? I was having fun. And my myriad of tricks weren't honorable or in the spirit of fighting. They were tricks meant for people I don't like. Pyrrha probably knew this but she also knew my abilities were bullshit and was smart enough to focus on breaking her own limits rather than gape at my seemingly limitless ones. Besides, she hadn't broken out her railgun yet. That might mean that it was too powerful to use in a standard spar. She was holding back too. We could show off after this spar.

Nevertheless the fight eventually ended. My aura reserves were too massive to break through and with my mana backing it up I had an overwhelmingly unfair amount of endurance compared to the average huntsman. Pyrrha didn't even wear me down a hundred thousand points. By the end of the fight, had I not dumped some of the aura and mana out, I would be firmly at a hundred percent. My stats in aura and mana completely eclipsed her.

If I decided to let loose with my affinities I would probably annihilate Beacon. So holding back was not just a whim of competitiveness but a necessity of the environment.

I threw a wide swing of my sword one final time and teleported at the same time in front of Pyrrha. She managed to block my swing but a knife of force slammed into her stomach and her grip weakened. I overpowered her quickly and rested my sword at her throat.

For a moment we just panted in exertion. Weak grins were exchanged and we seperated.

"Abyss Mavros wins the match," a supremely angry, though slightly resigned voice said. We glanced towards our audience to see students hiding behind tables and makeshift barricades. Glynda Goodwitch stood looking pissed with Crimson rubbing her forehead beside her.

A glance around the arena showed exactly what we had done. Pyrrha's waves of magnetism that pushed me back had torn the floor to smithereens. Smithereens that were then charred by my occasional waves of fire and both our heat based attacks. It looked like a category ten earthquake had torn the floor to fissures before somebody roasted it.

The walls were just as bad. Plenty of bullet holes lined the reinforced concrete walls. They were coated with ice, metal, burn marks, what was probably water damage, explosions, and one part of the concrete wall that was somehow on fire. I realized that I had left consumption affinity in the fire, making it burn anything until it ran out of consumption affinity (when had I done _that_?) and pointed at it, snuffing it out.

I glanced at the ceiling for good measure. How in the name of those two asshole sibling gods did we manage to damage the roof?!

Oh. Some of Pyrrha's lightning rods directed lightning bolts upwards rather than into the ground after I put some water on the floor to conduct electricity and shock her. Right. Then there were some winds I made that carried shards of ice. That explains all the ice shards embedded up there. We probably melted most of the ones down here. A few of the supporting metal beams holding the roof up were clearly broken previously and messily fixed. It was probably Glynda's work with her semblance.

"Sorry," I said insincerely. Glynda gritted her teeth.

"You also went twenty minutes over the time limit. It's been thirty minutes of you two… frolicing."

"We weren't-" Pyrrha was cut off by Glynda with a swipe of her riding crop.

"Don't lie to me, Miss Nikos. You two were clearly enjoying yourselves more than you should during a fight, evidenced not only by the showing off you two were doing to each other but you two were smiling like loons the entire time! You seemed to almost be flirting!" I noticed Pyrrha's crimson blush at that. Sure we were showing off to each other but flirting is a bit much. I'd say it's more like two students comparing the scores they got on their tests.

"Next time take your fights more se-…" Glynda stopped and reconsidered her words, calming down a little in the process. "Next time, if there is one, do it outside or at least a mile away from Beacon."

I personally thought one mile was too little. I was so destructive that I found work as a one-man mass terraformer. One mile is weak stuff to me. I never really stretched my limits but I could make a global level hurricane I think. I might need to prepare a little though. And why would I make a global level hurricane? Ugh. I need more small scale affinities. Void is a fantastic start but I need something more like a dust effect I can use in public freely like my lightning. But lightning isn't quite versatile enough.

Perhaps I should tend my motion affinity more and pass it off as a newfound interest in gravity dust? It would synergize well with my fake space manipulation semblance. My spar with Pyrrha was rather eye opening on my weaknesses. I was too wide scale. My power wasn't concentrated enough for a single opponent.

"Next time-" Crimson growled, her hand lowering and her eyes glaring at me furiously. "-Teleport yourselves to a deserted island in the middle of nowhere if you ever want to spar in my class again."

That's more like it.

"… Ah." I glanced at the devastation Pyrrha and I had wrought. The urge to be a smartass was intense but I tried to hold myself back. "I understand. We did dent up the room a little bit." Crimson's lips drew into a silent snarl.

The urge overcame me and I did something stupid.

"I'll try less hard next time."

"Detention!" Glynda yelled.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Little bro really cut loose."_

" _He didn't quite cut loose but yeah he was pretty intense there."_

" _Huh?"_

" _He has explosives in his pocket space."_

" _Of course he does. Of course he does."_

" _Um, Yang? Your brother is really…"_

" _Yeah."_

" _What'd you do to your team to make them so quiet, by the way?"_

" _She-"_

" _Ah ah ah! What did we say about talking?"_

"…"

" _Better. Sorry, Rubes. The knuckleheads need respect since they've got none. I'm working on it. I think I'm really nailing this team leader thing!"_

" _Huh… okie-dokie then."_

" _How do you hold your own in a spar with Abyss?"_

" _Practice. Practice and being fast enough to not get hit."_

" _Ooooooohhhhhhh… so that's why you dodge everything so well!"_

" _Uh-huh!"_

" _Say, how's Jaune compared to him? Big, blond, and muscled looks impressive. Is he as good as some people say he is?"_

" _Um, Jaune's pretty cool. We haven't really got to know each other in a fight yet. We're doing that today."_

" _Sweet! Mind if I join in with the knuckleheads?"_

" _I dunno. Ask Jaune. It'd be cool if you did though! But we kinda need to test some more team-personal stuff. Secret team maneuvers and all."_

" _After that you still have tricks up your sleeves?"_

" _Yup! You heard Miss Goodbitch! Abyss and Pyrrha were just flirting but they both suck at talking to people. Well, Abyss can do business stuff pretty well and he's pretty intimidating when he wants to be but talking with people other than me and Auntie is something he sucks at. Pyrrha's worse. I'm hoping Jaune can help me in hooking them up! Big bro needs cuddles! And it's probably going to happen eventually anyways."_

"… _Miss Good-… Ruby, what did you just say?"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"So what's so important?" I asked as I strolled into Ozpin's office. I left an avatar with Miss Goodwitch for detention. She doesn't seem to want anything to do with me so I'll just let the avatar sit there for a while until she releases 'me'.

"Ah. Mister Mavros." Ozpin sipped his coffee and leaned back a little. "Today a very disturbing magical signature was detected. A very prominent signature. Of course, my attentions turned to you to as you are typically the best informed person in the city.

Translation: What did you do? Tell me now.

"You want to know what happened?" I asked, completely unsurprised at the subtle question. Ozpin didn't respond and simply looked at me neutrally. "I'd also like to know how you managed to pair me with Jaune but then again…"

Ozpin sighed. "Time is surprisingly related to probability. Given sufficient magical power, which is a chore to gather as I am, I am capable of choosing the best possible outcome for an event from a number of timelines. I attempt to use this ability sparingly due to the many preparations for such a magical accomplishment. For the initiation specifically I had twelve thousand eight hundred ninety two timelines available. I do such a magical endeavor every initiation to ensure the team selection goes smoothly."

I almost scowled. That's a damn powerful abili-you know what? I can't talk. I can time travel through the void. I can channel an infinite amount of void affinity. I can travel across dimensions for dust's sake. Ozpin is fine. I'm the BS here.

"I see." I nodded at his explanation calmly. "Well you likely already figured this out but I managed to tap into the void between dimensions. It's surprisingly simple for such a powerful ability. For all its power, though, it's extremely limited."

Ozpin nodded. "In such a godly state a wizard is at their weakest and strongest. An archwizard using the mantle of fire would find themselves utterly overwhelmed by an archmagus using their mantle of water. Luckily such situations are rare as most magic users never manage to tap into a mantle. Those who do find themselves in such a state would be in the highest echelons of magical society. They were often called living gods for their power. Perhaps unluckily, however, they were often assassinated in their sleep. Then again, none of them were master runeworkers."

"I'm in no danger of being assassinated," I said plainly. "With that settled, may I go? Or was there something else you needed?"

Ozpin paused. "I've heard that most users of the mantle gain abilities specific to them. Or a singular ability in a few cases. One man I knew, who held a mantle of nature, was unkillable when cloaked in nature affinity, which he could generate infinitely. Another, the archwizard of fire, claimed he could detonate every volcano on the planet at will. Nobody dared to doubt him. Nobody disbelieved him either."

Instantly I recalled a few of what could be called unique abilities. World travelling. Hiding in the void and raining death from beyond this world. Time travel, if one was to be picky about things.

Ozpin apparently caught something show on my face. "Ah, so you have an inkling of your abilities. They are what separates a wizard from an archwizard. An ocean of power." He sipped from his cup and seemed almost saddened for a moment. "The mantles were requirements for becoming archwizards. Those that reached the ability to claim a mantle were rare to say the least. Those that could command the winds to their every whim were like gods to any user of wind magic, you see. But when one dons a mantle they are more than men. Affinity suffuses their soul. They became more their element than they were themselves. They didn't hold their element any more than it held them."

Ozpin took another small sip. "That is why I failed so many times in defeating Salem. So long as there are grimm she may possess them. You cannot kill her except destroying her soul, you see. If even that. I wonder sometimes if she is killable even then. And if her body is killed she may simply migrate to a grimm. She is the bearer of the mantle of corruption. Her potential for destruction is nigh-limitless."

"The books say nothing of this," I said quietly. It felt too… out there. No books ever mentioned any mantles. They described archwizards as near-godlike and walking elements and plenty of other things but never had they mentioned their mantles.

Ah, right. Salem told me about this when she lectured on the nature of aether. The books I have are edited by Ozpin. That's why I never learned why spells are different than shaped elemental manipulation or why these mantles don't exist in the books.

"No. They don't," Ozpin said plainly. He paused a moment longer. "Mister Mavros, please don't get ahead of yourself with your newfound power. I cannot dissuade you from whatever course you may choose but I can certainly ask that you wield your power responsibly."

"There is no obligation in power. Only privilege," I quoted. Ozpin's eyes darkened.

"I used to believe otherwise." He then ignored me and turned to his papers on his desk. I turned away and walked into a portal, leaving that short conversation behind me.

Of course I'll use it responsibility. It'd be pathetically easy to destroy a world for XP right now. I'm surprised I haven't tried it yet, though maybe I should find a world filled with generally horrible people and kill them all. I guess I just don't have any reason to do it so I just haven't. The idea of using my points is becoming more and more alluring, though. Perhaps it's time I just… stopped raising the stakes and cashed in, for lack of a better euphemism.

After all, mana can only do so much. It's skills and affinities that make the difference in battles, or so I've seen. I wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as I am right now if I didn't have my affinities or skills. You could give me a thousand times my mana capacity but if I had no affinities to use the mana with I'd be beyond screwed.

And with XP so easy to come by it might be for the best that I spend the points. While I still can. I'm not sure if Ozpin's warning of daggers in the night applies but for all I know it does.

[|||| =+= ||||]

"What do you mean you're ready to fight again?" Jaune looked incredulously at me and Pyrrha.

"I have a regenerative factor," I said with a shrug. "And my aura recovers fast."

"Abyss lent me some aura and healed me a little," Pyrrha chimed in happily. She's been acting that way ever since our fight.

"Magic. Of course it's magic. When is it not magic," Jaune muttered. Ruby giggled at his side.

"Is there anything else we need to do today?" I asked. I kind of wanted to go deal with the White Fang's laziness at Mountain Glen.

"Assess our capabilities as a team," Jaune said. "I need to know what everybody is capable of so we can make strategies.

"Cool!" Ruby chirped. "Like talking or fighting?"

"We already know what Pyrrha dn Abyss can do," Jaune started.

"No you don't," I said bluntly. "Neither of us did our most powerful techniques. Pyrrha didn't fly properly or use railguns. I'm fairly sure she can use the magnetic pulses she has to a more intense degree. I have several tricks up my sleeve."

"Oh. Great," Jaune griped.

"Want to use a pocket dimension so we don't destroy anything important?" I offered.

"Fine."

I didn't actually make a pocket dimension at first. I wanted to try something new. I stretched my aura into the greater void and used my affinity to search for an uninhabited dimension that's livable. I placed a teleport marker there and tried teleporting myself there.

I felt the spell work but raised an eyebrow at the feel of it. Normally the teleport mark spell leaves the markers at the edge of my consciousness. Feeling a marker was like focusing on a specific finger rather than the others. But the new teleport marker was more like feeling for a lightswitch in the dark. I knew it was there but it took a moment. I had a feeling it would take more mana to teleport there too.

Oh well. I have mana in spades anyways.

I focused on the marker and poked Pyrrha. In a blink she was suddenly gone. I checked the uninhabited dimension and saw her aura on the planet. She seemed shocked but fine. With that done I poked Jaune and then Ruby to teleport them too and finally myself.

The new world was a lovely place. The grass was green, the air refreshing and clean, and the sky was clear. I surveyed the world through mage sight and saw nothing too interesting. There were some trees that were clearly not native to Remnant and a small number of deer-like creatures a ways away, but other than that there was nothing.

I scared the deer creatures off with some fire near them and turned my attention to my team.

"This is better than your usual work!" Ruby said happily. She looked around the place I had found us in, a large plain near a forest. It looked remarkably like the place I had shown up in when I travelled to the DxD-verse.

"This is actually a different pre-existing dimension," I admitted. "I figured out how to traverse the dimensional gap today. Poledina was sitting on the answer and didn't know it."

"Different dimensions," Pyrrha muttered. "Sure. Why not. Magic is real and Abyss travels dimensions."

"There are plenty of inhabited dimensions," I continued. "A lot of them are quite interesting. I thought we could visit one during winter break as a team." Jaune looked like he was hesitant but considering the idea. Ruby and Pyrrha looked interested enough.

"Is this one inhabited?" Ruby asked.

"Only by some animals." I said with an uncaring shrug. "There's no grimm or anything. Just trees, grasses, and animals. No people. We can cause as much damage as we want and leave it without consequence."

Everyone was frozen. "No grimm," Jaune said slowly. I suddenly realized that nobody in Remnant had ever quite considered that there could ever be a world with no grimm.

"Most dimensions have no grimm," I said casually, hoping to play it off as no big deal. "There's actually an infinite amount of dimensions existing at any point in time. It's quite fascinating. I've held myself off from exploring the new dimensions since I had to meet with Ozpin. I'm more interested in the new people I can meet rather than all that other stuff."

"You could make a base in another dimension," Jaune said in a dazed tone. "Neither Salem or Ozpin would be able to touch you."

"Neither Salem or Ozpin could touch me before anyways," I said, trying to change the subject. "I have an air and light based spell that lets me survive in space. If I wanted to leave Salem or Ozpin I just had to make a base on the moon or another planet. With space magic being based on relativity it makes no difference either way." I ignored that making a base in another dimension was a hundred times easier and probably safer anyways.

"I… right," Jaune said dumbly. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused his thoughts before opening them again. "Right. Well, team exercises. Let's see what you can do."

I shrugged and pulled on my inequalizers from my soul space. I amplified my storm affinity as much as I could, reaching almost twenty million affinity. I reached to the sky, stirring it into a violent storm.

"Here. My most powerful affinity." The storm was there in seconds. The sunshine that had been there just a moment before was blackened behind the clouds. Far away I saw the animals go into a frenzy at the unnatural weather.

"… Where's the rain?" Jaune asked.

"Raindrops take about two minutes to hit the ground from the sky," I explained. "I can make them fall faster by pulling on them but that would weaken the overall strength of the storm. Oh, and don't worry about getting wet. I've made all the rain avoid this area in particular. Just watch."

I focused on my mana and slowly poured the mana into my affinity. The storm became a roaring hurricane and I slowly poured more mana into it. As soon as I hit the rate I was regenerating mana I stopped.

As it was, I was pouring almost two hundred fifty thousand points of mana into the storm per minute with no loss and using around twenty million affinity. In Remnant I had never been able to push myself like this. Hell, I WASN'T pushing myself! I could easily do this all day. There just wasn't any strain to it.

And it was wonderful. My storm affinity churned and roiled inside me, finally freed to unleash itself onto the world. I never used my powers. I always held back to not kill anyone. Never show magic to the world. Always holding back. Perhaps the best part was that I could feel all of it. I could see through the storm, feel it stretch across the land. Through the raindrops I could get a vision of the land. My affinity suffused the storm and everything it loomed over was sensed by me.

It wasn't a small storm either. I had made what could easily be called a hurricane by intensity and size. I had no way to measure its size but… perhaps I can see it from space?

I bent light like a periscope and stretched it out to almost like a mirror. It was simple, really. I was just reflecting light to show an image. I made a mirror-like construct of light in front of me that showed the image clearly for everyone.

"Abyss is that… your storm?" Pyrrha asked hesitantly. I smiled just a little bit at the image.

"Yes. Yes it is."

Almost a fifth of the planet was covered by a dark grey storm. There wasn't an eye, oddly enough, but it was a magical storm I made within a minute so some strangeness is to be expected.

All over the planet was green covered land. I saw six continents in all and a number of islands. There was something that looked remarkably like Florida and the gulf of Mexico just south of me and the team. The Caribbean looked more like a slanted Japan southwest of it, however. Well, it's a different planet. Who cares?

Suddenly, like a hammer falling, a wave of water crashed down on the ground around us, leaving a neat little bubble of dryness for us. The clouds had been indicative, of course, but the sudden sound of water against the ground was startling for almost everybody. I had felt it coming down so I was completely unaffected.

"So yes," I stated. "That's the range. I can vaguely sense everything in this range and freely teleport anywhere the rain falls. I can't really do this in Remnant though. It's too… much. I can probably hijack control of a storm and use it for my own ends though."

Everyone, even Ruby, just stared at me. I looked impassively at them while collecting the lightning from the storm. Around the world, roughly a hundred strikes of lightning happen per second. I remember reading that in an article some Remnant scientists cooked up.

For the moment I had more than three hundred fifty per second in my hurricane. That's what a massive affinity and huge reserves of mana will get you. I held all that electricity back and collected it to a huge core of electricity and plasma within it.

Pyrrha seemed to catch herself first. I eyed her curiously as she nervously looked to the sky. She shifted hesitantly in place. Ruby and Jaune brought themselves out of their stupor at her odd behaviour.

"What's wrong?" Her partner asked. Pyrrha bit her lip.

"Something's happening. I don't… lightning. There's a lot of lightning," Pyrrha said nervously. Neither Jaune or Ruby seemed to get what she was saying, but I did. She was sensing the large amounts of lightning collecting above us. To me it was like a siren going off since I could sense the lightning but to Ruby she didn't have the affinity I did. She barely had two thousand and I was doing work thousands of feet above us. She probably felt a tingle. Pyrrha likely felt some sort of magnetic fluctuations from the huge amount of electricity above us.

"Abyss, um, do you know what's going on? This is you, right?" Ruby asked a little nervously. I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," I stated. "I'm making one of the largest blasts I can."

There was silence for a moment.

"That seems like a bad idea," Jaune said casually. He seemed a little more pale than usual as he glanced at the mirror I made to view the storm from space.

"I've never tested this before," I said with a smile. "Want to know what I'm doing?"

"Of course, but I don't want to feel it!" Ruby said, keeping both eyes above us.

"I've stopped every lightning strike," I said, looking at the sky. I could sense the huge amount of electricity piling up. Deciding to just throw more energy to the pot I was making I channeled my light affinity to the sky and drew light into the electrical stockpile. At this point it was getting hard to keep together. I had to either dissipate part of my storm, which was what was what was collecting the electricity in the first place, or find another solution.

I decided to channel my unity affinity through the inequalizers. It wasn't multiplied by thirty five like most of the affinities I used but with the general amplification of twenty five times rather than thirty seven point five times I had about one hundred sixty five thousand unity affinity. I used it to hold the massive ball of energy together for a little longer. The larger it got, after all, the harder it was to control and the more powerful it would be.

Speaking of power and control maybe I should add some chaos affinity to the power? Ah, perhaps not. I want results I can replicate. Perhaps later.

"Right at this moment the hundreds upon hundreds of lightning strikes that would strike the earth are being collected in a large deposit of energy right there." I pointed to the collection of energy. Ruby squinted for a moment and gasped, paling rapidly.

"Holy cookies..." she whimpered. "That's a lot of power."

"I'm also refracting light and trapping it there," I added. "I'm using my unity affinity to hold all the energy together. When I'm done I just have to point it down and release my control. It'd be more concentrated if I had a marker."

"Like metal?" Ruby suggested.

"No, actually," I said. "Metal makes lightning happen more often. Lightning is attracted to places with a large positive charge." I pointed up to the sky. "Up there is a large negative charge. A huge collection of electrons. Well, that and other things but that's all due to magic and my unity affinity makes that all moot. The other stuff will follow the lightning, and that means it'll go to the largest positive charge it can find."

"A collection of protons?" Pyrrha guessed.

"Exactly," I agreed. "That or positively charged ions. Salt water often attracts lightning strikes because of the salts in the water being positively charged, for example."

"Positive charge," Pyrrha mused. I saw her glance outside of our dry space. Her aura acted on her semblance and I raised an eyebrow quizzically. She glanced at me and smiled.

"I tried to make an area of polarity," she explained. "The way I make lightning is by moving the electrons quickly enough to be displaced. I make a positive charge in the direction I want the bolt to go and release it. More often than not the bolt travels to where I want it to go. I got the hang of it last year. I did it by accident trying to improve my railgun. Dad figured out the science of it." She looked sheepish for a moment. "I accidentally fried a squirrel that first time."

A faint smile went over Jaune and Ruby's face until they looked up again. A moment of silence passed.

"So how long is this going to take?" Ruby asked. "I mean, yeah, it's ominous and all knowing that you're making a death ray up there but just sitting here is sort of… I dunno. Boring?"

"I kind of like watching the rain fall," Jaune said. A particularly strong gust of wind passed through the trees at that moment, snapping branches off and throwing the thick waves rain through the forest. "It's not often that you can stand in the middle of this stuff and watch it."

"For most people," I added. Ruby snickered while Jaune and Pyrrha rolled their eyes in unison.

"I could dump a bunch of dust into the energy stockpile," I offered. "I'd rather not waste the dust though. I could also drain all my mana into my storm affinity to push this ahead of schedule. I'm only using mana as fast as I can make it myself. I could keep this up all day if I wouldn't lose control of the stockpile."

"So how long until you hit your limit?" Jaune asked.

"Maybe another minute or two," I said. "I can last longer if I shrink my storm. I'd use less affinity, that way I can focus more on the stockpile. So maybe eight minutes. And perhaps a little more if I drained my mana reserves."

"I think we've seen about enough," Jaune decided. Then he frowned. "We won't be blinded, right?"

"I'll be fine," I said dismissively. "Thanks for your concern." My eyes adjusted much more rapidly than normal human or faunus eyes anyways. I wouldn't suffer any cornea damage either because of my life affinity helping me out health-wise.

"Thanks for your concern, he says," Jaune said sullenly. I scoffed and handed three pairs of sunglasses to him. He passed the other two to Ruby and Pyrrha, who put the glasses on, looking only a little bit silly.

With the others getting a little impatient I funneled my mana into my affinities faster than I could produce it, growing the stockpile quickly. It was getting a little ridiculous at this point though, I had to admit.

"Aiming it," I said. I drew just a little strand of lightning from the greater stockpile and aimed it down to earth. I felt it aiming itself towards Pyrrha's marker, which was a bit too near us for comfort.

"I'm making a portal a few miles away at a hillside. It's not safe here. Pyrrha's marker works but it's too close." I waved my hand and a portal appeared. Everyone filed in and I looked over the plains we were just in. "Aiming now. Hold onto something." Jaune and Ruby sat down. Pyrrha quickly followed their example. Ruby flexed her earth affinity and a little bunker of earth was made around us. She reinforced it to about a meter thick, draining her mana in the process, and kept an eye out with the others.

First I led down a thin strand of electricity from the stockpile. I imagined it like a road. A path the greater source of energy would follow. It touched down and I heard exclamations from my team. Glancing at what I considered site zero I saw a line of electricity flickering as it danced on the ground. It was a little pretty but more foreboding considering what's to come.

Secondly I focused on the rest of my storm. I pulled it in and used the spell I had used on the dorm room, transmute. Instead of transmuting the the water to another element I transmuted it into raw electricity and energy. From around the planet I drew in the water vapour forming clouds and transmuted it with mana. So long as I had the affinity of the object I'm transmuting or the object I want to transmute the object to the spell worked fine, and my storm affinity made the transmute spell nearly effortless.

The stockpile was almost out of my control. It was a blazing star of energy and I fought to control it every step of the way. I may have a huge affinity in electricity and light keeping it together, and unity helped immensely in keeping everything together, but there was only so much I could do.

Finally, though, when I had my entire affinity focused on simply controlling the mass of energy, I stopped holding it back while putting all my affinities and remaining mana towards making sure our little bunker was safe.

And I shook the earth.

It wasn't a slow rumble. It wasn't like an explosion, of which I've been in many during my toyings with dust. It wasn't something like a boom and everything went black. It was more like a god striking the earth.

There wasn't a delay in before and after. The world flashed and the ground shook. It might as well have been a nuke but it was more instantaneous than that. Before there had been a violent storm in a once peaceful field. A moment later there was a ruinous calamity.

I felt it all happen. The energy slammed into the earth. A typical lightning strike would leave a blackened mark. This was several hundred thousands of lightning strikes at least from all the collected energy and a smattering of light coalesced into a somewhat strong laser. The earth didn't stand a chance.

I could feel from the metals shifting underneath our feet. I realized with a start that I had caused a minor earthquake from the concussive force. I could have amplified it with nature affinity but I left it as is.

The earth charred and split around the impact site, creating fissures with the assistance of the earthquake. It lit trees on fire for miles. It made a concussive blast so strong that there weren't going to be plains any more when I look outside again.

Perhaps the most destructive part was the heat. It lasted only a moment but my beam of energy was composed of so many strikes of energy that struck with five times the force of the sun. I easily eclipsed that completely, sterilizing the ground for miles upon miles and evaporating any water.

I waited thirty seconds for the effects to stop. The others were laid on the floor. My ears were bleeding, but a little life affinity fixed that. I had put up stilled air to make the impact silent but I guess that the sound was loud enough to break through my efforts. At least I suppressed it. I healed any damage the others had received. Mostly temporary blinding and ruptured eardrums as well as some internal issues due to the concussive blast. Nothing too bad. I doubt they felt it from the shock of the blast.

I was the first one to look outside. It was a wasteland. The earth was clean of any life whatsoever. All there was was blackened ashes. Literal ashes. I disintegrated the ground. I made the smallest, least harmful storm I could and spread it over the land. It was much easier than making a hurricane.

The devastation went for miles upon miles. Black ground, black rocks, and ashes. I looked farther and farther until I started seeing some faint life. A bit of charred wood, still on fire, was the first. Then some plants and mosses that survived by hiding in a cave that hadn't collapsed in the earthquake.

It took almost seven hundred miles for the devastation to stop completely. Forests that were mostly untouched, having only their leaves blown off. Life still lived there, being perfectly fine.

But the devastation wasn't completely gone. The area was _soaked_ in storm affinity. I was already sensing storm dust and a little light dust begin to form in the ground naturally. I had seen similar formations before. This place would become like those SDC dust mines I visited. The one with the perpetual storms. Except storm was more powerful than just electricity. I had made an area that would be a perpetual hurricane. A magical hotspot.

A breeding ground for elementals. So long as there was so much ambient affinity there would be elementals spawning by the dozens.

Even now I looked and saw a sparse few elementals be birthed by the affinity in the air. They spread out, milling around and doing nothing. Storm elementals in particular looked like birds made of dark clouds with wings and features like eyes and beaks that arced with lightning. I called one over with my aura and it responded in joy.

" _Creator!"_ It's primitive aura spoke with joy in it's 'voice'. It clearly practically worshipped me just like the elementals I created normally would. _"Creator! Creator! Creator!"_ I ignored the infantile elemental. It was unimportant. It sensed my emotions and ran off to frolic or something. I didn't care. The bird-like elemental flew off.

"Holy shit," Jaune whispered. I glanced back at him and continued surveying the devastation.

"It goes on for about seven hundred miles," I said absently. "A little more or less in some places. It's not perfect, of course. It's not like a circular radius either. But the land is blackened, sterilized, and covered in ashes. The earthquake I caused reshaped the landscape. Not that you'd notice. We're inside the crater right now."

Jaune looked around. "We are?" My other two teammates came out and glanced around. Ruby had Eclipse Rose out just in case.

"It ends about two miles going north and six going south." I said. "Also, the area is going to be uninhabitable now."

"Well, yeah. Obviously," Ruby said, giving me a weird look.

"Open your mana sense," I said to her. She frowned and froze again. Then she just sighed.

"Oh…"

"Remember what happens when there's this much affinity in the air?" I reminded her.

"Elementals," she said sullenly.

"And dust. There's enough affinity that it's collecting into clumps. This crater in particular is going to be a lake that's constantly electrified. It'll be an utterly fascinating ecosystem in a few million years."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"So what can you guys do?" I asked curiously. Ruby facepalmed.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Arthur. Abyss was in the gap."_

"… _Hello Ophis. Please don't suddenly appear behind me and talk again. It's very… well, was there something you needed? "_

" _Abyss. He was in the dimensional gap."_

" _I see. Could he come back to our dimension now on his own power?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Hmph… he owes me a new gaming system."_

" _I want the silence back. It was much stronger this time. He drew on the gap's power."_

" _He drew… he drew the power of the dimensional gap?"_

" _Yes."_

" _What exactly would that entail?"_

" _Abyss would be capable of releasing an infinite amount of negative energy, void, into any dimension whenever he wants. Only some beings would survive. Like me and Great Red. Everyone else would die. He can also travel dimensions without restrictions. Any dimensional anchors on him were severely weakened. He belongs to the void now. Like me. If he felt like it he could wipe out entire dimensions at his whims."_

" _Ah… how lovely."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

We left after a short primer on what we can all do. Pyrrha demonstrated her railgun, not taking nearly as long as I had. It was extremely strong and left a trail of flames in its wake. She could also fly, but melee fighting while flying was out of the question. She had to be standing on her metal dust (which was apparently extremely high grade magnetized steel) or flying by lifting her clothing. Either one was rather difficult, as lifting metal was hard.

Ruby could do smaller scale versions of my elemental powers but was easily the most experienced and versatile weapon user among us as well as the fastest (discounting teleportation). She had motion magic and her semblance, after all. She still used Eclipse Rose to make her go faster too if she disabled the recoil dampening runes. She just didn't do that too often.

Jaune was… well he was a tank. His aura was massive, his stamina near-limitless, and he was good at amplifying his defensive properties to the maximum. I blasted him with my strongest lightning bolt without mana or the inequalizers and he was down about a quarter of a single percentage of his aura when using his semblance.

He could also boost the rate at which he regenerated his aura, which made him a tank that could recover easily too. He could heal others, boost others, and was generally a paladin that took any hit. The only thing he lacked was the speed to cover us. We were all mobile fighters and he was not. If we needed to hunker down he was easily the most experienced and he drew attention with his shiny armor and large aura but more distracting than shiny armor was the person hitting you.

Not that Jaune didn't have some tricks. He could shoot blasts of fire, lightning, or any other dust type from Blanc Lumiere for a sort of slashing ranged attack. He also had some special boots that I hadn't noticed that used gravity dust to make him stick to the ground. Nobody could move him. Not even me and Ruby working together.

He had a pensive look when I described some esoteric abilities of mine. Elementals seemed to interest him for some reason. I didn't get it. He dismissed us as I teleported everyone back to our dorm.

I barely took a minute to take off to another dimension. I had nefarious plans to begin.


	48. Chapter 48

**AN: This is FILLER. Did you hear that everyone? This chapter is a FILLER CHAPTER (for the most part. You could skip it and be pretty much fine story-wise and get anything important from rather blatant context clues. It's not a critical chapter at any rate).**

 **It's also very long because I got carried away. It's more to showcase what Abyss does in-between Remnant events somewhat. With a whole multiverse to explore would you sit down and play video games? Maybe in DxD where nothing was happening. In HP, though, Abyss gets his own little adventure this chapter.**

 **But back on this being pseudo-filler, it's not immediately important. But I think it's a necessary and nice break from Beacon. Variety is the spice of life, after all, and variety in your pastimes is hardly a new concept. Abyss' pastimes just lean towards screwing with dimensions.**

 **Also, he keeps getting drawn into schools somehow. Weird. I suppose a lot of fictional works take place at schools come to think of it.**

 **Ah, right. This chapter starts off a little quickly. Be prepared.**

[||||= **LEVEL 48=** ||||]

I reached over the glass of soda on the table beside my nice armchair and suddenly stopped.

"Please stop," I said irritably. The pulse of emotion that responded to that was something like protectiveness, indignation, and what could only be described as a pout.

I reached over to my glass again and sipped. Much better.

"Thank you," I said to the castle. The pulse that came next was something like a flat look but transmitted through emotions.

Talking through aura is weird. Speech and structured thought was preferred by me but the castle didn't much like to talk like that.

I tried to return to reading my book but kept getting distracted, normally by my own thoughts or boredom.

' _It was in the year of 1871 that H.S. Fugglesprout discovered the Fugglesprout theorem, which dictates that all magic is intrinsically linked to the soul. This is different from the prior used theorem created by Rowena Ravenclaw due to the addition of an arithmetic proof.'_

"Magic is tied to the soul? No shit," I muttered angrily. A tiny flash of magic and aura attuned to space alerted me to a rather uninvited visitor.

"Hey!" I protested. But the thief was gone. Some smugness and righteousness pulsed through me and I growled angrily.

"Well fine then." I checked on my parallel back in Remnant and saw that I still had about four and a half hours until combat class. Since Crimson has very specifically avoided picking me I'll probably be fine. So six hours…

First period isn't even done yet. I guess reading all week gets boring. Whether it's in a magical castle or not.

"Maybe I should go train Cinder some more," I mused, but a small pulse of sharp sadness and a hint of pleading stopped me from going.

In other words, the castle didn't want me to leave.

"Adorable, really," I muttered. Becoming bored with my current book I tossed it behind me somewhere.

Since last week, where team JAPR and others were formed, I had been poking around the multiverse a little. Beacon was boring beyond belief for most of the classes.

I did plenty with my team after school, of course, although so far we had just been getting to know each other, but that left me with almost nine hours a day to do nothing while a parallel and hard light avatar filled in for me.

So here I was, sitting in Hogwarts tearing through their restricted section. It was the fourth year for Harry Potter, not that it mattered for me.

As a strange twist of fate, I had awoken the castle's aura by accident. The place was absolutely _filled_ with magic when I first arrived and just the smallest speck of my aura was enough to thrive on the magic and partially formed consciousness the castle already had.

Of course, the castle being alive more than before really didn't make a difference. It acted as it did before, twisting hallways and helping out in subtle ways, but she (she had decided she was a she for some reason) was more sapient than sentient, like a human rather than an animal.

She really was a wonderful pers-ah, castle, but nobody but me could hear her. Nobody else had an unlocked aura to sense her with. There was only mana unlocked in their souls. They lacked the element of divinity that gave them aura.

Only the house elves, likely due to their connection to the property, were able to hear her, and even then they heard something more like vague instructions attached with somewhat vague and distorted feelings. To call what Hogwarts and the elves did talking would be inaccurate.

In my own words, spoken right after I realized this, "Whoops. That's probably bad."

Since I had awoken the castle I had been dropping by to rummage around for all sorts of magical tricks and techniques. It wasn't _too_ successful, but I did learn a fair bit. The runes native to this dimension were somewhat useful to incorporate into my own strategies, for example.

The spellwork, however, was lackluster. As it turns out, every wizard in this dimension has a spirit and world affinity.

Their magic was, at its core, just intent and raw mana. Using the world affinity they reflected their intent onto reality. Using the spirit affinity they affected others of their kind.

It was a flexible system of magic, really, and it explained why the HP wizard's never seemed to run out of magic in the books. They could use their raw world affinity to affect things. Mana just made their spells stronger.

The only downsides were lack of mana, lack of ability to affect higher powers like time and such, and of course, it's innate lack of strength.

Their lack of higher power manipulation was solvable with their runes and enchantments, making things like time turners and broomstick, and the weakness was solvable by wands able to amplify the power they lack.

"So what do you suggest I do, then?" I asked the castle. A pulse washed over me. I saw a vision of a classroom and me in front of it.

"No," I said plainly. Another pulse came to me of protest. I felt a confusing and messy ball of reasons why I should teach a class in there somewhere but I didn't try to parse it out.

"Speak clearly," I chided. The castle felt a little shame and awkwardness before laying out an argument, again, as to why I would do something stupid like teach.

I would get permission to go everywhere in the castle, I would get as much of a wage as I could be paid by the castle, she would bring the whip down on the forest to let me run around over there without fear of attack, and she would put her full efforts towards keeping me happy, healthy, and she would generally do whatever I asked of her, including granting access to the genuinely dark books in the restricted section. She put a special effort towards keeping me out of there.

When I asked what she would do if I kicked Dumbledore off his high horse and became headmaster I gained a headache from how utterly thrilled and excited the castle became. She had apologized profusely, feeling quite terrible about hurting me even a little bit.

Hogwarts (she really needs a nicer name) was so kind, honestly. She felt terrible about even so much as a paper cut on one of her attending students. She was so much like a doting mother that it was almost eerie. She gave out unconditional care like a tree gives oxygen.

I'd seen the students at Hogwarts. Most of them were idiots and sheep. The books got that part spot on. Really, anyone with a little presence and a stern glare could practically enslave them.

I think that's part of what made Hogwarts try to recruit me so much. I'm far more willing to be mean and use a stern hand than she is. If a student of mine was being an ass I would deal with him harshly. Hogwarts, if she were in that situation, would have no idea what to do.

"I'm not seeing any good reasons there," I pointed out. "If I wanted to go in the forest I could do so by myself easily. Wealth is no issue. Permission to go to more rooms isn't very appealing. I can get to most places by myself if need be whether you want me there or not. There are only a few ways I'd ever accept a teaching position permanently and those are out of your control."

An image of Ozpin and Salem appeared in my mind.

"Exactly," I agreed. "My family takes priority and so long as Salem and Ozpin are in their spat they're not safe. And permanently dealing with Ozpin would likely throw the kingdoms into chaos. Dealing with Salem is impossible for me. Even now."

A pulse of aura carrying the emotive equivalent of an endearing sigh ran through me. I considered what I had said for a moment and looked at the clock in Remnant again. Six hours…

"I might be up for a temporary class though. Like a guest teacher," I hinted. Hogwarts perked up a little and, like a sun beginning to rise, her mood became ecstatic.

" _Than… You!"_ her wispy voice said, clearly absolutely bursting with happiness.

I rolled my eyes. Teaching a tiny single class is not that big of a deal. She shouldn't be so excited. "I would only do so if there was something in it for me, though."

If a flat look was a feeling Hogwarts was feeling it. Hiding behind that was joy, though.

"Horcruxes, " I said. "I already know most of how they're made - virgin sacrifices and whatnot - but I need to know the specifics."

If a pulse of emotions could yell Hogwarts just did. About five very loud and strong pulses of aura filled with emotion rushed into me.

Reprisal, fear, denial, protectiveness, regret, and a slew of more minor emotions assailed me.

"I'm not going to use it!" I exclaimed. The emotions slowed and stopped. "I want to know how the hell a guy would split his soul in half and keep on living!"

Embarrassment and a little awkwardness emanated from around me. The emotions disappeared for a moment to focus. Ambient aura swirled and I heard a heavy thump on the table beside me.

I glanced over this time and saw a middle-aged house-elf offering me my soda and a large, somewhat dusty book on the side table.

"Thank you," I said as I took the soda. The elf beamed and disappeared with a pop. I glanced at the cover of the book briefly. _Horcruxes and horrible curses and rituals by Salazar Slytherin._

"Oh," I said rather blandly. I could have sworn I heard a giggle - and it couldn't be a ghost. I can sense them.

I was about to open the front page when I stopped. "Actually," I said, "I'll just go teach the dark arts now, if you don't mind. I'm not really in the mood for more books and I know you'll twist yourself around so I appear in a classroom if I try to wander."

An innocent feeling pulse touched me and I groaned. "What time is it?" A short chime from my left showed a large grandfather clock. It was only eight twenty-nine in the morning here in Harry's dimension.

"Do you have a schedule? Whatever year you want so long as it's fourth or higher. I don't want to deal with young kids who don't know a stick from a sword."

A piece of paper, propelled by some unknown and equally impossible breeze, landed at my feet. I picked it up and groaned.

"Fourth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws from nine to eleven, a fifteen-minute break, fourth-year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs at eleven fifteen to one-fifteen, lunch until two, and finally one more two hour class of seventh-year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs… And I just agreed to this."

Hogwarts happily agreed with me.

"This is a seven-hour day."

A little tinkle made me glance to my right to see a little pocket watch. A time-turner.

"Damn you. Two periods. I have things to do other than cater to kids. I'm still doing the entire fourth year class anyways. I'd keep it fair and not cater to any one house. Around lunch I can get everything in order."

I heard the laughter again and a lazy agreement.

Note to self - when I get bored, I get stupid. For example, I forget to negotiate before I make a deal. I could totally have bargained down to a single big one-hour lecture.

I sighed. "I'm not using a time turner for this. Sure, I probably won't die but messing with time without having an affinity for it is just asking for trouble. If I try anything of that sort I'm making at least five safety buffers against getting wiped out of existence."

Hogwarts seemed to pause before agreeing with me. Or, more like shrugging and happily going along with whatever I said because I'm serving her at the moment.

I guess I'm teaching defense against the dark arts today. I mean, I just have to show them how to kill things. Hard light constructs will make fantastic live-action targets and can act as real combatants so the kids learn what real combat is like.

Well that's a good enough lesson plan for me. On I go, then.

" _Dad do you mind if I explore Miss Hogwarts? Teaching sounds boring,"_ Pit asked.

"Sure," I said carelessly. I felt a small pulse of happiness and satisfaction from within me and a shadowy grey aura collected itself within my own. I took hold of it and took out Pit's body from my soul space before merging the two together. Pit woke up and shook herself off.

" _Bye dad,"_ Pit said.

"Don't do anything too dangerous," I said with a nod. Pit nodded in return and turned off, immediately disappearing amongst the library's maze of books. I paused.

"Would you make sure she doesn't?"

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Be quiet."_

" _MMMMRPPHHHH!"_

" _So you're… not the Moody person. Who are you?!"_

" _MMMAAAAHMMMMMMM""_

" _You are certainly gagged, yes. But Moody was gagged… and now you are, and right where Mister Moody was before. What are you trying to do with that gag? Here. Let me help you with that."_

" _MMM-AAAAAGHHHH! OH GOD SOMEBODY HELP ME! THIS BIG FUCKING SNAKE BEAR IS TRYING TO EAT-MMMMMAMMAMMMAMMMM!"_

" _That's quite enough of that… I'll just leave you here. Miss Hogwarts was telling me about this place called the chamber of secrets. Dad went there for a minute but the soul of the big snake was gone. He took some scales though. The anti-magic thing it had wasn't unique but it was pretty potent and somehow preserved it's body, which only a few native species-"_

" _MMAAAAMMMRRAAAA!"_

" _Right. I forget how scary I am to humans sometimes. Dad and the family don't count. Dad's less human than he says with his soul so advanced… why am I talking to you? Nevermind. Have a nice day, Mister. I'll leave you to Miss Hogwarts."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I took about a minute to deal with the instructor to DADA. Mad-eye Moody, I mean. Although technically he's that death eater under polyjuice. I don't particularly care. I just locked him tied up in what Hogwarts said was his room.

After that it was just a matter of going to the DADA room and waiting to begin my cunning plan.

The students started filling in around eight fifty. Of course, some of them stopped dead in their tracks at seeing a giant panther sitting in the chair behind the desk, but I stared at them until they moved or were moved by their classmates that weren't frozen.

And, of course, there was the boy of the year. Or seven years if you wanted to be particular. Harry Potter. He looked… well, average. He was far and above on the skinny side - almost certainly an effect of malnourishment, according to my human anatomy skill, although he seemed to be in the middling stages of recovery.

His glasses were a bit ill-fitting. I could see some tape around his left ear that was probably a quick fix for them from a while back. Contrary to that, though, his robes seemed well cared for. They were stainless, at least, which was more than most, but judging by looks they might even be ironed. His wand was similarly well cared for. I swear, it looks almost polished.

Maybe he separates his so-called muggle life and his wizarding life. Wizard-harry was a talented wizard trying his hardest. Rich, famous, and so-on, while muggle-Harry was a poor kid worked to death by his relatives. I'm not sure if he was beaten, though. I can't see under his robes. Nor do I care to.

Once all the kids were in they talked quietly among themselves for a moment. I sighed deeply and stepped down from the teacher's chair, transforming in the process.

Everyone's eyes were on me, most of them looking interested and a little impressed. Ah, right. Being an animagus was rare, wasn't it? I mean, what I'm doing is more like skinchanging since I become the actual animal, but it's not like anybody here will see a difference. And I was also wearing so-called muggle clothing. A long-sleeved light grey shirt and dark blue pants at the moment. Nothing fancy, though for a shirt and pants they were about as nice as you could get.

"I'm Kerrigan. Kerrigan Mavros," I started. "You'll be calling me professor Mavros for the day. Moody had private issues concerning his former status as an auror. Paperwork or something. I stopped paying attention after he asked me to fill in for him." A few snickers were audible here and there in the classroom.

"Since he didn't leave a lesson plan I'll be teaching you to actually defend yourself against dark creatures or wizards. Theory can be done in your own time. You could know all the theory in the world but it wouldn't be worth a thing in combat if you can't throw a spell." People looked interested at this point. Kids liked practical work, right?

"In this case we'll be going outside. I'll make illusions and you all will attack them. At the ending half hour of class you'll be forming teams and taking down a projection I summon. If you can, great. If not? I truly don't care but Moody sure will. Questions?"

Ronald Weasley of all people raised his hand. And of course the gullible wizards just ate my BS up, no questions asked. "Yes?"

"Is there any particular spell we should use?" he asked. "I mean, we usually get taught one spell or another to use."

"The lethal ones," I said bluntly. People looked at me blankly. I raised an eyebrow. "You _do_ know lethal spells, yes? Or at least dangerous ones?"

"We know a few," One Ravenclaw kid with dark brown hair offered. "Diffindo, incindeo, and a few others. Banishing charms. Things like that. But not, um, dark stuff. Lethal stuff."

"Good enough," I said with a shrug. "Imagine that the giant monsters are candlesticks. Or cut their throats. Or anything, really. Whatever works? Use it. Anything is a weapon if used violently, after all. Transfiguration should give you an edge, both literally and not, in acquiring weapons should you decide to use them. I'll answer a few more questions." A Gryffindor kid raised his hand. I stared at him for a moment.

"Are you-... you still have c-cat ears. And muggle clothing. Um, you-most people have robes, um, professor Mavros," he stuttered. He didn't seem afraid. It's probably natural.

"Yes. I do," I acknowledged. "I like being able to hear better than I can as a human. I see and smell better too. I don't understand why other animagi are so focused on being only human or only animal. Other than social etiquette, of course, but I'm rarely in social situations so it doesn't matter. This is an outlier, substituting at Hogwarts. As for the clothing, this was very much a last minute change in plans for Moody and I was unprepared, as was he."

Of course, people just accepted my word as law once more. "Next, then. I might have one more after this if you have a good question." Nobody raised their hand. "Nothing?" Somewhat hesitantly, Harry Potter raised his hand. "Fine. You then."

"How old are you exactly?" he asked. I was about to respond when he continued on. "Because, it's just, you seem very young to be teaching, or substituting at Hogwarts. You seem barely older than George Weasley. Sorry, I don't mean to offend."

"It's fine," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. Smart kid, though, actually asking me for verification of any sort. Or maybe he's just curious about how incredibly suspicious I seem. "I'm seventeen, though I'll be eighteen pretty soon. And before one of you asks how exactly I came to be teaching this class for today, you'll see soon enough. Now come on. Class begins now."

I sent out a small pulse of aura asking Hogwarts for a clear path to some open space I could use for battle and a bit of space attuned mana to help her out. Within a moment the stones behind me parted, leaving a strange stone doorway. Most people gaped at it while I just walked inside into a small tunnel curving right. The Hogwarts students followed quickly behind me.

"How did you know about this?"

"Where are we going?"

"How did you open this corridor?"

I ignored the questions and continued down the corridor, which sloped slightly downwards after about ten seconds of walking. At the end of the passage was a very old door with a tarnished copper handle. I pulled it back and looked out at what I'm pretty sure was the forbidden forest.

I walked out uncaringly, like I actually knew what I was doing, and glanced around the large meadow I had found myself in. It was rather nice, actually. The sun was shining, the flowers down below our feet were blooming, and it was pleasantly warm.

This was all extremely odd since it was October or something in this dimension. I knew that the champions hadn't been chosen yet. Either way, it should be far colder. Ah, whatever. Magical forests do magical things. Hogwarts was probably being generous to me. I've never demonstrated my magic to her, actually.

"Here we are," I said in a pleased tone. "Spread out a bit. I'll call you one by one up first. Then we'll do doubles and finally as a group I'll make an especially strong enemy for you all to face. It ought to be fun. For me, that is. Now, who's first?!"

I turned to see everyone shuffling awkwardly. I rolled my eyes and pointed at a random kid. "You." I pointed towards the middle of the meadow. "There. Now." The kid seemed a bit hesitant but walked forwards to the meadow before turning back around to face me.

"Draw your wand," I commanded. He did so and assumed what I think is a dueler's stance with his wand facing forwards and his feet spread a little for balance.

"Here," I waved my hand and made a creature from hard light. A beowolf appeared, to the exclamations of the students.

"Wandless," someone said in awe behind me.

"This is a beowolf. It's a hard light projection I made. To be specific it's like a solid illusion I can control to do whatever I want. Imagine what I want you to do against it."

The boy paled a bit. "Can I opt out?" he asked a little weakly.

"Does the beowolf want to kill you?" I asked. He looked towards it and back towards me.

"Um, n-"

The beowolf suddenly roared, or it seemed to and my wind whisper spell performed the actual roaring. The boy raised his wand quickly and pointed it at the beowolf.

"Di-d-Diffind-fff-" Oh come on. Another stuttering kid.

The beowolf projection loped towards the kid, serpentining a little bit, before it's hind legs tensed for a pounce. It was exaggerated since the kid would never recognize it otherwise.

"DIFFINDO!" The kid screamed. He stumbled backwards and I watched a large and chaotic slash of world attuned magic slammed into the beowolf, landing directly on it's right eye. If it were a normal beowolf that probably would have killed it, but instead I had it howl in pain and stagger backwards, a deep cut over the right portion of it's mask, seemingly grievous. The kid's mouth opened and closed once before he almost seemed to be hyperventilating.

"F-f-f-fff-" the beowolf roared angrily and the kid screamed and jumped backwards. The beowolf leapt and the kid screamed louder and seemed to almost throw his wand at it. At the last second a whirl of pure intent, world affinity, and spirit affinity tore it's way from the kid's wand and into the beowolf. I saw as a large amount of force, enough to break bones at the least, hit the beowolf's neck. I projected it flying backwards with a twisted neck, falling limply on the ground.

"Not terrible," I said, not impressed in the slightest. "Terrible spellwork, though that accidental magic at the end was, while clearly a fluke, effective. You need to control your fear too. Screaming would do nothing against something trying to kill you. Against a weak beowolf that diffindo probably would have killed it, but I thought you could give me a bit more so I had it attack a little more. Finally, against an armored part of the body like that bone plate you shouldn't use cutting attacks. Use blunt or, even better, explosive attacks. I believe a confringo should do the trick. If you're inexperienced use a protego. It's better to not be in danger by killing the beowolf before it gets to you and the spell would be broken quickly, but it would have worked to buy a tiny bit of time. Now, who's next?"

I turned to the students, who were looking somewhat horrified and a little excited in some cases. I sighed. "Look, the beowolf doesn't kill. It's not even real. Does every diffindo you cast hurt somebody or do you use it to cut a paper in half? The same goes for my projections. They scare you. Threaten you. You face them and kill them because that's what you're supposed to do to them. That's what they're made to do. So do we have some brave volunteer to go next?"

"I'll go," A quiet voice said. I looked to the source and was sort of surprised to see that Harry Potter had spoken. I held back a small smile.

"Nice of you to stand up for your classmates. Oh, remember what I said about weapons?" Harry didn't seem to understand for a moment but then he drew his wand and casted some transmutation spell at the floor. He reached down and drew a somewhat lopsided sword. It was made of stone and looked heavy.

"Oh come on," I groaned. I drew a basic sword with lightning runes from my inventory and took a few steps towards Harry. "Here. Just use something decent." The Ravenclaw kid looked at the sword with envy. "I'll be summoning three beowolves for you since you've got an advantage." The Ravenclaw kid looked horrified and seemed to almost cry for Harry before holding it in.

"Over there then." I waved at the general middle of the meadow. Harry summoned up some courage and walked over. He looked at me with what seemed like defiance. I rolled my eyes and he suddenly looked embarrassed.

"I could just summon a stronger creature instead of three beowolves if you like." I offered. Harry hesitated for a moment.

"Can I see it first?" I waved my hand and an ursa major appeared alongside three beowolves. Harry blanched. "The… the beowolves." I nodded and let them loose while dissipating the ursa.

The three beowolves wasted no time serpentining like they did before. They loped quickly towards Harry. He had just a moment to swing somewhat wildly with the sword. It clipped one of the beowolves' lower jaws and it made a growling/hissing sort of noise I had heard them do a few times.

The other two began to circle around to Harry's sides and his eyes widening showed that he understood just how bad his situation could get. He looked hesitant, and perhaps a bit scared, but he pressed forwards on the beowolf in front of him.

The beowolf seemed to strike but held back at Harry's strike. Then it snarled and leapt. Instead of dodging Harry lunged forwards, stabbing deep. The beowolf spluttered and struck weakly but Harry was pressed against its chest and it hit nothing. The beast collapsed and Harry's sword was stuck in it's chest.

The other two seemed to almost grin as the advanced quickly on Harry, not quite charging but not going slowly either. Harry fumbled as he tried to draw his wand and the beowolves charged at the same time.

Harry almost yelled something but instead he whipped his wand downwards. "Confringo!" A cloud of dirt blasted upwards in front of the grimm, which yelped and snarled as they broke their charge to not run into the explosion.

Harry seemed to prepare for a moment as he readied some sort of spell. He looked around the space in front of him closely and seemed to spy the beowolf on his left. "Impedimenta!" he called, seeming calmer. I allowed the magic to take hold of the projection rather than try to fight it. I myself was fine.

The affected beowolf saw Harry and I tried to make it lunge for him but it's left foot somehow slipped and it face-planted. "Diffindo!" There was one less beowolf in my arsenal.

The last beowolf I had go into a frenzy. It charged through the dust cloud, snarling and spitting like a mad animal, which it sort of was. It 'saw' Harry and leapt at him with a sort of howling snarl tearing from its throat.

"Protego!" Harry yelled quickly. The beowolf projection slammed into a shield and slammed it's arms frantically on it, trying to break in. Then it seemed to realize that Harry's shield was small and tried to slip around the side, grasping at the edges. Harry looked around wildly for a moment and locked his eyes on the first beowolves' corpse, which I had disintegrating as all grimm did.

Harry leaped towards the sword and tore it loose just as the protego faded due to strain. He whirled around and, by complete luck, managed to slice open the beowolf's unprotected throat. It clawed at it's throat, making it worse, before falling down, curling up, and dying.

For a moment nobody in the clearing spoke, the only sound being Harry's panting.

"Good!" I exclaimed, feeling unusually happy. "You were outnumbered, somewhat outmaneuvered, and your only advantage was getting close, which I believe was the one thing none of you wanted to do." Harry nodded, still panting, seeming a bit shaken. I flicked my fingers and retrieved my sword, quickly putting it back into my soul space.

"Yet, despite those disadvantages you did the one thing that absolutely everybody needs to do in a fight." I paused a moment for dramatic effect. "You used your head."

"Now, of course you barely stopped to think," I continued, "But when your mind raced you weren't indecisive. You chose what you thought was the best option and took it. When you had to stab the beowolf you didn't stop to cower a little or feel fear. You did so because you had to do it. When you had those two tag teaming you you didn't kill one. You stunned them both, which I can honestly say I didn't expect. It was a simple move but it was effective, and effective is all you should ever be in a fight. You, Harry Potter, are a talented fighter. Whether through a need to be or natural talent. Either way, good job."

"Now," I eyed the other students, who looked to Harry with some awe. "Who's next?"

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Merlin's sacks, Harry."_

" _I.. yeah."_

" _You just killed like three demons!"_

" _Yea-... yes."_

" _Ikes could barely take one! How the bugger did you do that?!"_

" _Tactics. Well, that and being reactive."_

" _What do you mean, Mione?"_

" _I mean exactly what professor Mavros said after Harry's fight. Harry made plans. He acted logically. He did what he had to. He acted. Ikes screamed and acted desperately. Harry thought his way through the fight, staying a step ahead and in control."_

" _Is that true, mate?"_

" _I just did what I thought was best."_

" _Huh."_

"… _I thought professor Mavros, even though he's probably not a professor because he doesn't teach professionally, wouldn't be a very good teacher. I mean, he's…"_

" _He looks completely barmy and didn't bother to answer our questions?"_

" _Well… yes."_

" _Mister Weasley, is it? You're next, then."_

" _I-oh. He can hear me. Right. Cat things."_

" _I'm glad to see you using your brain, Mister Weasley, if retroactively. It's certainly improvement from your previous statement of me being 'barmy'. Do enjoy fighting a demonic projection? If you'd like to make another statement I'll happily give you five."_

" _Thank you, mate, but I'm quite happy fighting one."_

" _Smart move."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The rest of the singles were underwhelming. Probably the best fight was from Hermione, of all people. She was nervous but seemed to find some sort of hidden backbone. Or she just pushed back her fear. Considering how terrified she looked as she walked back to the group of people I'd guess it was the second. She also had a wide variety of spells to choose from. She took on two beowolves since I started ramping it up when people began to get more confident of themselves. The only thing that she did wrong was reacting too slowly. She thought too much, basically. It cost her a 'hit' to the side. Other than that she was fine and got both the beowolves.

Hermione and Harry were something of outliers, though. Most people had shaky legs or had second thoughts about doing one thing over another. Some had bad aim or couldn't function under stress or had some sort of flaw that prevented them from becoming the reactive machine you had to be in combat.

There were a few that had promise, like Longbottom, two Ravenclaws, and four Gryffindors, but they were all just people who could work under pressure and could control themselves under fear. They were too reactive. They never pressed the initiative. Were they potential fighters? Yes. But were they promising? No. Harry, I think, was the only person to stand out as prodigious.

"That's everyone," I spoke loudly as the last student finished their two beowolves. "I had hoped we'd have more time but we should probably move on to groups of four now. Pair up. If you're not paired up soon I'll pair you myself."

I watched in fascination as students started grouping up. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were paired, of course, but Neville was joining them. Not entirely surprising. Others were of less importance but I noticed that the students that did more poorly grouped together while the students that did well paired up. Interesting. I don't think anyone kept track of how well people did.

There were five students that didn't get paired. I chose the weakest one to stand on the sidelines and take notes while I pushed the other four together.

"Fine then. Granger. Weasely. Longbottom. Potter. Want to go first again?" the four looked among each other, seemingly silently conversing, as most friends somehow do. Hermione was the one to decide with a small nod. "Fine. Here you are."

With another wave of my hand I made a larger grimm. A deathstalker. The four gaped at the size of the creature and backed up a little unconsciously. I made the deathstalker back itself up to to the other side of the meadow.

"Um, professor are you sure that's safe?" Neville asked nervously.

"So long as you don't get stung then yes it's perfectly safe." I said as plainly as I could. Some people looked at me like I was crazy (again) and I snickered a little. The students relaxed and turned their attention to the deathstalker.

"You have one minute. Plan. Prepare. And do so quickly. I don't think there will be any injuries but if there are then rest assured that I can heal people just fine. Now go." I pretended to look over my deathstalker while the four planned to win.

"It's huge!" Ron hissed.

"It's too heavily armored for any attacks to penetrate." Hermione semi-agreed. "We need to get through it's armour or around it. Do you see any weak points?" The four of them looked over to the deathstalker.

"The eyes?" Neville suggested.

"Can we hit the eyes?" Ron wondered. "They're tiny."

"Explosives," Hermione said plainly. "Then we don't need to aim."

"But the eyes alone won't kill it," Harry pointed out.

A moment of silence overcame the group. "Oh!" Hermione exclaimed. "Harry, the troll!" Harry blinked blankly at her. She sighed a little but she seemed used to this. "Nose, mouth, ears. Do scorpions have ears? And I don't see a mouth."

"They don't have ears," Neville said, surprising everyone a bit. "They have mouths. They're the… the pincher things around it's face. I don't think this one has a mouth." Everyone glanced towards the deathstalker one more time.

"No mouth," Hermione concluded. "Neville, can you think of anything else?" Neville thought for a moment before his face went red.

"Um, the, um, the butt. It's between the plates of chitin around it's tail and it's poison bulb. If we can… something sharp would take out the stinger and we can just go for the gaps them. With diffendo. I think that's the only way."

Everyone stared at Neville. "Neville, how do you know so much about scorpions?" Ron asked.

"They're pests around gardens sometimes," he muttered, still blushing.

"Time's up!" I said a little too happily. Now, then, go get em!" The deathstalker chittered and rushed forwards. The four seemed to panic a bit as a group for a moment.

"Scatter!" Hermione yelled. Everyone did so, running around the field, keeping out of range of the scorpion's stinger and claws. It only took a minute of running around for Hermione to make another plan.

"Petrificus!" She cried, her wand pointed at the scorpion's tail. I looked a little more interestedly at the four as a large amount of magical power went into the spell. I felt my control over the scorpion's tail diminish to almost nothing. I couldn't control it. Then her wand went to the scorpion's right legs. "Petrificus!" A similarly large amount of magic was used on the legs and I lost the ability to move the legs.

"Ron! Distract it! Harry! Cut it! Neville! The eyes!" Harry almost hesitated before running at the semi-petrified scorpion. He climbed on top of it and jumped onto the tail as best he could, trying hard to climb on top of it.

"Hey, ugly!" Ron yelled. "Is it just you or does this place smell? Could you do us all a favor and bugger off? Your mother was a spider but she didn't put in enough effort so you got six legs!" I rolled my eyes at the taunts but decided to throw the four a bone and made the deathstalker hiss angrily. I'd follow Ron when the spells wore off.

"Confringo!" Neville yelled. A small explosion went off on the deathstalker's face, taking out a few eyes but not all of them.

"Diffindo!" Harry yelled. A slash of magical energy went through the delicate cartilage holding the tail's stinger and tail bone and muscle together. It didn't do much. Cartilage is tough stuff.

I felt the spell Hermione casted wear off enough that the deathstalker got its feet under it. "Merlin's balls!" Ron swore. He began running as quickly as he could from the deathstalker, which limped quickly after him.

"Diffindo! Diffindo! Diffindo!" Harry yelled, cutting through the tough tail cartilage. He was making some serious progress He was almost halfway through now.

The deathstalker screeched and flailed it's tail, making Harry cling onto it for dear life. In that process his wand went flying. At least the deathstalker stopped chasing Ron.

"Oh no. Oh nononono!" Hermione muttered in a small panic. I scoffed and decided to throw my own two cents in.

"Hey!" I called. The four turned their attentions to me immediately. "Stop being David! There's no weakness! Be Goliath!" The four had a small lull in the action before the deathstalker screeched again and bucked against Harry, making him hold on tightly again.

"Goliath? Who-right. But power? Do we have power?" Hermione was practically tearing her hair out trying to think of something, Harry was hanging on dearly, and Ron and Neville were standing around uselessly without orders. I rolled my eyes at the scene. Their plan really fell apart quickly.

"Neville!" Hermione yelled. Neville's full attention was instantly on her. "The trees! Cut them!" She yelled while pointing at the deathstalker. Neville looked at Harry with an agape expression. "I'll get him! Go!" Neville took one last glance towards Harry before running to a fairly large tree. He began casting diffindos on it immediately, making good progress on the trunk.

"Ron!" Hermione yelled, "Lead it over there!" She pointed at the tree. Ron looked between the deathstalker and her before nodding. He immediately picked up some rocks from the ground.

"Oi! Evil bugger! Over here!" The deathstalker took some notice of Ron and charged towards him, still bucking somewhat with Harry on it. "Come on! Can you only walk? Bugs suck! Rats are better!"

"Now, Neville!" Hermione yelled.

"Repulso!" Neville cried. A powerful pulse of force shot from his wand, hitting the tree he had cut through. It groaned and began to fall.

"Accio Harry!" Hermione yelled. Harry was torn from his place at the deathstalker's tail and tumbled on the meadow floor in his robes.

Luckily for the group, however, the tree fell on the deathstalker. It screeched in pain as it's tail was crushed. I took the liberty of crushing it's back half too. It flailed a bit as it pretended to be trapped under the tree until I waved my hand and dismissed the creature when the four leveled their wands on it.

"Not as clean as before but you did kill the deathstalker so you performed acceptably if not well," I said. "The first plan you had wasn't bad but you lacked the magical strength to perform a diffindo of adequate power, Potter. You did, however, have the stamina to cast many more diffindos. If you had put much more effort into a single much stronger diffindo you would have made progress much more quickly. Losing your wand was also a mark against you. Either learn a few wandless magics yourself or find a way to not lose your wand. A wandless accio should do fine."

"As for the rest of you, Granger, you are an adequate planner but you yourself were not often as involved in the plan as the others. In addition, you had no backup plan. While this lies partially upon your teammates you took on the duties of a tactician for your team and are more responsible for that failing. Weasely, you are quite good at distracting. Perhaps the only failing I can find with you is your seeming lack of magical variety, though your team's plan accounted for that I believe. Longbottom… you did well. Your surprising knowledge of scorpions was critical for the team and you performed your role as well as can be expected if not slightly better. Perhaps you should remember that this was a giant illusory magical scorpion and not an actual one, however. In other words, it does not have a mouth or opposite end."

"Now, next group. Oh, I'll scale down the difficulty a little. This seemed too hard for you all. Hm. A nevermore, maybe? I'll try an ursa or three."

The rest of the groups were somewhat boring. As a group the wizards and witches clearly performed better than alone. Typically one played distractor, keeping the fake grimm occupied, two more the hitters, as in damage dealers, and one the coordinator to keep them all working in sync.

Some groups did far better than others. Two Gryffindors and two Ravenclaws managed to kill a deathstalker (they asked for one) by half slicing through its tail with overpowered diffindos shot by a girl who climbed a tree before all four of the team accio'd the tail clean off the deathstalker after paralyzing it. Finally, they managed to repeat the process on three of its right legs. It was a cleaner strategy than Harry's group. Then again, they had more time to prepare.

In the end a number of ursa majors, minor deathstalkers, and a few more miscellaneous grimm like Arachne and a nautilus major were killed. Several more teams fell apart either because of bad planning, lack of firepower, miscast spells, or so on. It was a much more poor showing than the first round of fights.

I was thankful when the last team finally blew off the head of the Arachne I made. I was getting bored again. Maybe this teaching thing isn't for me. I'm enjoying toying with my students too much.

"Oh, good. Now you'll ALL be fighting one strong opponent. But I've given you all a choice a few times before so I'll give you all one more right now. You can fight this-"

I summoned a minor grimm dragon, flames trickling out of its maw. It was smaller than the normal grimm dragon, about twice the size of a deathstalker, and its armor was softer. It was pretty common in mountainous regions, especially northern Mistral and Atlas. Caves also occasionally played host to them.

Exclamations were shouted behind me. Generally, people seemed to have a resounding no, as seen from a few vigorous 'Hell no!'s and some 'Merlin have mercy! Don't make them bigger!'.

"-Or you could fight me. Oh, and I won't be using a wand or magical focus of any sort. I also won't construct any creatures." I gave the groups a vicious grin and people seemed hesitant but between the dragon and me they seemed less inclined to fight the dragon. It was big, scary, and fire-breathing. I get it.

"Raise your hand if you want to fight the dragon." Harry's hand went up, along with Neville and Ron's. Some students followed them, though it was more likely that they were just following Harry and the popular kids rather than any desire to fight the dragon.

"And if you'd prefer me?" More people raised their hands. I'd say seventy percent of the class seemed to prefer fighting me than the dragon. "Good, then. Oh, and though most of you will ignore me you should be lethal again. Let's start."

Without waiting for the class to ready themselves I waved my hand lazily and sent a pulse of motion attuned mana through the class. It was low powered so as to not hurt anyone.

The blast of motion mana tore through the class like a fist through wet paper. It blew straight through the middle of the class and threw kids aside easily, knocking people off their feet and spreading chaos throughout the group.

"Oh, come on," I groaned. "Land on your feet at least. Or try to not disrupt your comrades." People scrambled to their feet and began casting a variety of spells at me. Plenty of what I think were prank spells and a few that might, under extenuating circumstances, slightly hurt somebody.

Under the onslaught of spells I scoffed and whipped my sword from my soul space. Void infused it and I cut down every spell that came my way, the magical energy in the spells completely dissipated.

I waved lazily again and sent a huge gust of wind through the group. Some people held their ground this time but just as many fell down from lack of balance. I rolled my eyes, clearly making many in the group angry.

"Surround him!" somebody yelled. People started running around me, wands aimed at me from all angles. Unfortunately for them, I was plenty able to deflect spells from all angles. I used my ability to sense mana along with my prediction skill to tell where the spells were coming from.

"Boring." I quickly swapped my metal sword for a cheap wooden one I used long ago when I first started training Ruby. "I'll start taking some of you out now. Oh, and don't panic. I know what I'm doing."

To me I was moving slowly. I made a warp to the closest student and stepped through it. I casually tapped him on the head and channeled a tiny bit of void. I made sure to only use enough to leave him with ten percent of his mana. He crumpled down to the ground with a ragged gasp and trembled.

"Oh you're fine, you big baby," I chided. I gave him a weak kick to his side, even for a normal human, and he fell to his side. "Let's move on, then."

I started casually warping from one student to another, just choosing my targets at random, though I avoided the more promising students like Neville, Harry, and a few miscellaneous students. I would tap them with my wooden sword or a finger and tore their mana away from them, always making sure I controlled my void perfectly.

I felt Hogwarts make her presence known through a pulse of aura carrying concern. I pulsed back that the student would be fine and that he was just magically exhausted. She wasn't happy with me incapacitating her students but so long as I left no lasting damage she was alright with my exercise.

I methodically tore through the student's ranks, slicing through every spell that came my way. At one point Neville tried using a confringo to blast around my feet, supposedly blinding me, and casting a diffindo at my achilles heel. I just raised my leg for a moment. The look on his face was amusing but the rest of the class tried getting creative.

Since raw spells didn't work on me they tried banishing things at me, fighting back physically (which was plain stupid), casting multiple spells in sync, and one prodigious one even shot a fireball at me.

I easily dealt with the kid that got physical, slashed down all the spells that came at me and dodging those I felt were too inconvenient to slash down, and where none of those lazy methods worked I used my ice affinity to make a shield.

"We give up!" One of the last few kids yelled. I warped up to him and swept his legs out from under him before jabbing his neck with my wooden sword.

"This isn't even a fight. Thus, you can't give up," I said calmly. One girl transfigured a few knives from stones and threw them at me. She apparently had a little training because they flew straight-ish. I caught all three with one hand. She blanched and I snapped all three between my fingers while staring at her in the eyes.

"I-yeah. That's it then," she said, a little dazedly. I took a few steps towards her and was about to poke her forehead when she whipped out another knife and slashed at my finger. I lightly knocked her hand away.

"Cute," I tapped her and she was out. "That was very Slytherin of you. It was futile but also unexpected from a Gryffindor. Good job." The girl whispered something and I walked away towards the next victim.

"You know, I'm at least a little pleased none of you tried to run away. That would just be shameful. Not because it's shameful but because it's stupid and futile. Anybody can see it." I brushed my fingers over another boy's shoulder and dropped him.

Wait, where are all the spells?

I glanced at the remaining students and took stock. There were still six left.

"Now!" somebody yelled. I recognized the voice as Ron's. Somebody shot a bow at me, of all things, and I dodged the arrow - holy shit that's actually lethal. Nice.

Three metal spikes were shot at me at great speed, about half the speed of a bullet, and I made a small shield made of projected mana to block them. "Fascinating," I said in interest. Then the next phase started.

Somebody threw two leather balls around my feet. I frowned but waited a moment. When the balls started to expand I realized what they were and leaped back while looking away. A huge flash shone from one while another exploded with some sort of gas. A little light got in my eyes and I scowled.

I sensed around the clearing only to sense a magical signature behind me. Harry. I whirled and landed a harsh side-kick to his gut. Harry choked and went flying back. I realized for a moment that I might have broken something. That was a weaker kick than I usually use by a large margin but it was still at the level of a very strong human.

"Alright, that was decent." I admitted. I blinked over to Harry and looked over him. Shit. I fractured his spine and ruptured a few organs. "Sorry. This must hurt. Here." I channeled life attuned mana and brought him to the peak of human health. I cured his poor vision, fixed some weak bones, and did a full tune-up of his body. It was my way of apologizing. To get the mass to heal his malnutrition I used a steak from the fridge in my soul space. Harry actually had a little muscle now. He was less of the stick he was before I healed him. Around average for his age. Maybe a little less.

"There," I said, pleased. Harry began to get up, looking around in confusion. "I'm not going to zap you. That was a solid strategy. Using my heightened senses against me. Did you or Granger come up with it?"

Harry was at a loss for words for a moment. "I-um, me." I nodded.

"I figured as much. Good job. Now, up." I grabbed the kid's shoulders and hauled him upwards to his feet. Harry was a little unsteady for a moment and he seemed caught off-guard when he stood up.

"What did you do?!" He said in shock.

"I accidentally fractured your spine and ruptured a few internal organs when I kicked you," I said plainly. Harry gaped at me. "I gave your body a full tune-up in recompense. I fixed your eyesight problem too. My apologies." Harry was shell shocked. I ignored him and turned around to the others. Of course, it was Neville, Hermione, and… two other random people.

"What happened to Weasely?" I asked.

"He's right there, sir," one auburn haired girl said with a pointed finger. I glanced to a prone form on the ground.

"Ah. I thought I avoided him. Whatever." I looked over all the students and stretched out my aura. A red haze stretched through the meadow. Around the students it became a little distorted for a moment as I filled their souls with mana. People got up with disgruntled or extremely uncomfortable looks on their faces.

"There," I said in a pleased tone. "Now what did you all learn today?" the kids were all silent. "Fine. I suppose I'll spoon-feed it to you. Or, more like ram it down your throats considering my methods. People are unpredictable. A wizard, witch, or even muggle can have countless tricks up their sleeves. Whether it's utterly overwhelming power, a spell you don't expect, a skill you can't deal with, or something as simple as a gun. Beasts are easy. People are wild cards. Any other lessons you learned today?"

A black haired girl raised her hand.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Don't screw with professors or wizards of power. Degrees are worthless. Skill is more potent and disrespect or any sort of incitement will likely ruin us." She said devoutly, believing every word she said. Mutters of assent resounded throughout the clearing. Every single person agreed with her. I shrugged. They weren't wrong.

"You have about five minutes until class ends. Let's get back." I walked to where the door was and saw that the spatial warping that was there before had worn off. I sent a large pulse of mana with space affinity infused in it through the door and Hogwarts reconstructed the spatial warping it had before. "Come on. I want my break too, you know? Oh, and Harry. See me after class." Harry blinked but nodded nonetheless.

I walked casually through the hallway Hogwarts made and saw the bricks part again into the DADA classroom. I pulled out the teacher's chair and laid down heavily. "Check on fake Moody, would you?" I murmured lowly. Hogwarts pulsed assent and apparently checked on Moody before a frantic pulse met me. Images of a man I assumed was the death eater guy appeared in my mind. "Fine. I'll check on him." Hogwarts relaxed but was still nervous.

I was silent as I watched the students collect their things and leave a little early. Harry made plans to meet up at Gryffindor tower and walked over to me. He opened his mouth but I held up a finger and pointed at the others still remaining.

"Hurry up, would you?" I called to the other kids. They glanced towards me and sped up drastically. Within a minute they were gone. "There," I said contentedly. "First thing's first, I noticed something odd during my full body tune-up." Harry's eyes widened for a moment before he tried hard to look casual.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Not the malnutrition," I waved off. Harry winced but stayed quiet. "It's none of my business what happens to you outside of this singular class. I'll be gone from Hogwarts tomorrow. I'll just pop back for the triwizard tournament before leaving to do my job. This is more serious than a physical injury. Your soul has a passenger."

Harry didn't seem to understand. "A passenger, sir?"

"A little shard of a soul," I explained. Harry's mouth opened slightly before he looked completely disgusted and a bit afraid. "Yes, you are a horcrux. Sorry to tell you that." Harry nodded, looking pale.

"Then there's one other thing. Here." I pulled a stone from my inventory that was covered in runes. Harry looked closely at it. Probably to distract himself. "It's a bit like a portkey. It sends me a little pulse of magical power and I can teleport to you. You're a resourceful kid. A good fighter too. If you ever decide you need to learn how to fight, and I don't mean duel, then use the stone. Put some magical power into it and I'll know." Harry looked closely at the stone and nodded, slipping it into his pocket.

"If that's all…" He trailed off, seemingly in a hurry. I nodded.

"Have a nice day, Potter. Enjoy yourself."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Uh, hi."_

" _So you're the bastard fucking my daughter?"_

"…"

" _So this is my dad."_

" _I never thought a trapezist would be so buff."_

" _Damn right."_

" _Dad's kind of… "_

" _Overbearing. Overprotective. Bell calls me all sorts of the things. I don't care. What the hell gives you the right to even look in her direction?"_

" _Uh-huh. I think I see where this is going."_

" _The part where my daughter finds someone who isn't a drunk waste or where you walk away?"_

" _The part where I kick your ass from here to Atlas. I'm the same with my nieces. I wouldn't let a kid touch Ruby who didn't have the balls to stand up for her and the decency to treat her like a princess."_

" _Better. You almost seem to show some spine despite how short you are."_

" _I'm not compensating for a tiny toolset with a balding head seven feet up."_

" _Fucker. Show me you can fight worth more than a piss in the wind if you want my daughter's hand."_

" _Is your mother as lovely as this asshole of a dad?"_

" _Mom's barely five feet and whips dad like a slave driver."_

" _Be quiet, Little Bell. I still have to kick your fiance's ass."_

" _Dad, he's a huntsman. He'll hand you your own ass on a platter."_

" _I don't care."_

" _We're doing this outside. We're not breaking any of my future wife's stuff. Then we can share a drink while you lick your wounds."_

" _Dust damned men…"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I dropped by that little town, Hogsmeade, through one of Hogwarts' secret passages. There were like forty permanent passages into the town and I just chose a generic one into an alley.

From there I just wandered around. It was easy to find the presence of Hogwarts' aura and mana from anywhere in the town. These were, of course, secret passages into the castle. If I wanted back in I just had to approach one, send a pulse of aura, and Hogwarts would let me back in.

I put on an illusion of myself wearing some decently stylish wizarding clothes, if just to stop the glares people sent at me. Money was similarly easy to come by. Transmuting gold was beyond trivial for me. Normal wizards couldn't do it but I was practically Midas. I shaped some fake galleons from ice and transmuted them into gold. Easily solved.

My first stop was a potion shop. I was severely disappointed. I found nothing I couldn't do myself. I wanted some of the truth potion but that was apparently regulated by the ministry of magic. I planned to just break in before I left the HP dimension. Easily done.

The rarer potions that might be useful like liquid luck or dragon's blood, which enhanced a wizard's body permanently, were off-limits unless you were Dumbledore or super important in some way. I chalked them onto my shopping list.

Next I just wandered around. The book shop was of no interest to me since I had most of Hogwarts' libraries at my disposal, the wand shop was literally showcasing sticks of magical wood I would never use, enchanted objects were inferior to what I could already do in even the best cases (though some legendary artifacts like Ravenclaw's diadem might be of interest), and so I went to the only place of interest to me. Back to Hogwarts. My trip being a failure in general besides a little sightseeing, I used the remaining twenty minutes to play with runes and a circuit board.

As it turns out, being able to use void to get rid of most of the magic was insanely easy. Cracking the problem only took two, if even two, minutes. I just made a little magically isolated area in a circle of runes and used void to burn off the remaining mana and affinity inside the no-magic zone. I tested out a few electronics in the zone and they worked fine.

Using a little trick I had found using space affinity and my soul space I took a part of my soul space, being my living room, and 'impressed' the space onto reality. It was more like laying the portion of my soul space over normal space, which wasn't terribly unlike slapping some tape on top of reality. It was about as elegant as well but just as efficient.

Point in case I ended up laying on my couch playing civilization revolution on the xbox, to Hogwarts' exasperation. I just moved the teacher's desk off to the side while I played. My huge INT and WIS let me play and often beat the bots easily except for the highest difficulties. It was a surprisingly good way to grind my WIS and INT up. I used it sometimes when I didn't feel like studying.

Students started coming in around ten minutes before class. The first was some Hufflepuff kid named Justin. He stared at me for a moment with two other kids. Ernest and Wayne, Observe informed me.

"That doesn't-electronics don't work in Hogwarts," he pointed out. Them he blinked and stared for a moment longer. "You're the badass cat gir-guy!" he corrected after a glare from me. Where had it gotten out that I was a girl anyways?

"I set up some runes that make this general area a magically isolated environment." I gestured to the rectangle of runes I had drawn on the floor before marching some riflemen into a ship. I had too many land units, not that it mattered too much. I was kicking the asses of the bots. Too much firepower was fine. England is looking a bit too powerful though. "I got rid of the magic inside and everything worked fine."

Jamie - or whatever his name is, I didn't bother to recall it - quietly spluttered for a moment before making something like a violent exhale and sitting down, his friends following his lead.

"Wasn't he supposed to be super scary?" one of Justin's friends whispered - Justin was the name? I was pretty close.

"He's… no?" Justin whispered back, keeping his eyes locked on me. "I mean, yeah he… Wayne he's playing video games. In Hogwarts!"

"So?" the apparently somewhat dumb Wayne said obliviously.

"Magic interferes with electronics!" Justin said excitedly. "Phones and stuff? That doesn't work! Even electric lights fail sometimes! If he can use that runic circle to make electronics viable or, if we're all blessed, miniaturize it, the wizarding world can stop living in the dark ages! Though that telly seems really advanced."

"I like the wizarding world how it is," Ernest sniffed. "But I see what you mean. Do you think… does he realize how monumental that runic circle is?"

"I do," I called out to them. They jumped a little at my butting into their conversation. "I just don't care. Wizarding Britain is boring. Getting famous here would be easy but detrimental and quite annoying. I'm just here for the books you have. Your comprehension of soul magic is quite ingenious in some areas and horribly archaic in others, for example."

At that moment another group of three students came in. The first one I actually vaguely recognized from the movies. Observe showed her as Daphne Greengrass. She was the smartest witch I've seen so far at fifty seven WIS, though her INT was significantly lower at thirty nine. Hermione had forty one INT and forty two WIS when I observed her. Daphne's bio was also slightly interesting due to her respect of muggle technology like automobiles and guns. She was apparently very cunning as well. A good combination, being cunning and wise that is. I like her already.

The moment Miss Greengrass saw my console set up and functioning she seemed to short circuit. A flurry of emotions crossed her face in about three seconds. First shock, then bafflement, intrigue, and finally a gaze that reminded me of Raven when she saw an opening in our spars. She saw an opportunity.

Oh, and her two tagalongs? Their names were Blaise and Pansy. Pansy was something of a coward with some issues with envy and Blaise was rather average and vain. Basically they were her less stupid version of Crab and Goyle. I guess that makes Daphne Draco Malfoy? Nah. She seems actually smart.

My brief analysis was interrupted when an enemy ship suddenly appeared from one of the foggy areas of my civ map and attacked some of my riflemen. Son of a-! Ugh. Serves me right. I should have investigated those parts of the map.

"Excuse me, sir, but would you be Kerrigan Mavros?" Daphne asked in a friendly manner. It only sounded a little bit fake to me.

"That would, in fact, be me," I said, giving her a brief glance, seeing her face showing innocent intrigue. She looked every bit friendly. Too friendly, in fact, to the point where it was a bit suspicious if I hadn't figured out that she planned to befriend me already.

"Really?!" she said, as if excited and surprised. "Everyone in the castle is talking about you! Did you really summon demons to fight the last class?"

"Would you quit the act?" I asked dismissively. Daphne's face flickered between faint surprise and indignation for a moment. "It's quite obvious you want to befriend me. I'll tell you now that I'm not interested in making allies. Friends? Maybe. Allies? I highly doubt I'll need any and the relationship wouldn't be equal either. I don't need political power or wealth or what have you. I'll address this at the start of class so just sit down. We start in seven minutes."

Daphne was silent for a moment. "Do you mind if I copy the runic circle you have?" sShe asked bluntly. I snorted while the other five students looked at her in surprise. She clearly got a good read on my personality.

"No you may not. My work is my own and if I ever feel like publishing it I'd put a patent on it and become fabulously wealthy first. Besides, this circle is so pathetically simple that it should grate on everyone's pride that you haven't figured out how to do it yet. Oh, and the runic circle you see displayed is just nonsense of an illusory cloak over the real circle. I put the cloak standard over all my matrices for aesthetics and to hide my work, though more the first than the second."

Daphne's mouth pursed but she sat down gracefully and was silent with the others. The atmosphere was somewhat awkward as more students began to funnel in. The conversation returned in a low murmur as people stared at me. Eventually, however, my nice few minutes of relaxing and ignoring everyone in the room had to end.

"Of course not! Potter was obviously boasting. A muggleborn teacher for defense against the dark arts? Muggles aren't familiar with magic as much as wizards are. That's why Dumbledore only hires purebloods, after all." The voice laughed somewhat condescendingly and was quickly backed up by two more fake laughs. Somewhere deep in the back of my mind I recognized that voice from the movies. If I hadn't then the blond hair and arrogant demeanor would have tipped me off.

Draco Malfoy came striding confidently into the room. I thought he looked a bit like a peacock. I couldn't quite describe what it was about him that made me want to punch him but his face certainly didn't help. Gleaming white teeth, a smile far more smug and arrogant than necessary, and what were undoubtedly more expensive robes than normal. They looked more silky and deeply colored than the robes the rest of the students wore, if only very slightly.

I was genuinely surprised when observe showed me that he was at slightly higher than normal WIS and INT. How the hell-? He looks like an ass and from my understanding his views are just his father's. It's not an act. His bio describes clear respect and some fair devotion to the death eater cause. Maybe he's just a remarkably competent idiot? Ugh. Whatever. He doesn't matter.

I nonchalantly locked eyes with the bastard, whose grin fell from his face as he saw that everyone was looking between me and him nervously. Then he noticed the console.

"Ah," he said quietly. I smiled viciously before standing up from my couch, pausing my game. I stepped out of the projection of my soul space and lifted the spell. The area faded quickly, leaving a bare patch of ground. A little motion affinity smoothly moved the desk back into place.

"Merlin," Draco whimpered under my stare.

"For your information, I AM muggleborn," I informed him calmly, a violent undertone to my voice, which I shamelessly stole from Salem. "I am also an extremely powerful wizard. I've slain magical creatures mightier than dragons, travelled to lands forgotten, talked with immortals and proven myself their equal, and researched secrets of magic you could only dream of. I've left trails of blood or prosperity depending on my mood and how much I respect the people I pass. I am only seventeen. I have not come to this school, if even for a day, to be insulted with slurs by some goldilocks _child_ who can't fend for himself, using daddy's money for everything from getting into school to wiping his ass. Now _sit_ and _learn_ or I will make you."

Throughout my small speech I slowly raised the volatility of the mana around me, swirling it and making it denser. I also raised the air pressure and pressed down on everyone with motion, making the air oppressive and heavy both physically and magically. I even added a small electrical charge to the air for good measure. My words cracked like a whip due to my skill in acting, leaving Draco and his two cronies pale and everyone else looking fairly fearful. In some cases they looked mostly composed even under my magical might and dramatics.

Draco Malfoy, being under the intensity of my gaze and the subject of my words, was one of the worst affected. He shakily stepped towards a trio of desks and almost stumbled. He waited a moment and began walking almost normally before sitting down a little heavily. His cronies were not long after, though I suspected that it was more out of fear to stand out than the ability to resist me.

I swept my gaze over the class. Nobody quite met my gaze. Even the braver ones only came to my chest, including a few Hufflepuffs and some of the Slytherins. Daphne was one of the calmest and Draco somehow managed to muster up the courage to keep his eyes subserviently at my chest.

"I suppose we're in an understanding," I said in a more satisfied tone. I lifted the magical effects I had in the room and people visibly relaxed. Hogwarts stopped holding her breath. I hadn't realized she was doing so in the first place. "Today we'll be doing live combat exercises. Defending against dark powers requires that you be able to actually defend yourselves. Knowing every spell means nothing if you can't apply them. I will make solid illusions of demons and send waves after you."

One girl from Slytherin named Lily Moon raised her hand. "Yes?"

"I was under the impression that we fought the demons individually," she said quietly.

"That was for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw," I said obviously. "Gryffindor had bravery where Ravenclaw did not. The Gryffindor children needed their overconfidence to be beaten down and the Ravenclaws needed to be inspired to strike out on their own. With your groups you have a horrible lack of house unity in Slytherin and an excess of it in Hufflepuff. You also lack cunning and smarts in Hufflepuff and have an excess of it in Slytherin. Of course, these are generalizations but the stereotype holds true for most of the houses."

The class was silent as they mulled that over for a moment. "Now for introductions," I continued. "I'm Kerrigan Mavros. I'm substituting for Moody since he has personal issues he's dealing with. If the rumor mill hasn't decided I'm everything from a dementor in disguise to Merlin himself I'd be disappointed but that truly isn't my problem. If you want to know more about me do some research in the rumor mill and parse out what truth is still left. I gave the last class three questions. Ask."

To my surprise Draco Malfoy's hand was raised, along with several others. "Interesting. Blondie." Daphne and Draco both opened their mouths at the same time. "No, the Malfoy blondie. I'll get you next." Daphne closed her mouth patiently.

"What do you do for a living?" Draco asked respectfully. He seemed much less assholish now.

"I suppose you could call me a hobbyist," I said, wondering what the appropriate answer to that was. "I would say I do a little of everything. Managing people, teaching some others, and so on. I don't have any need for wealth for various reasons but I'd say I mostly do what I please. Typically that's studying and learning more about magic. Next."

"Does that mean you're hirable?" Draco blurted out. I looked calmly at him and he shrunk back a little again. I waited a moment and nodded thoughtfully.

"In a fashion I would say I am, as I act in my own self interest and owe allegiance only to myself and my friends and family. However, I don't care for gold, power, or fame. All those things can be taken if I choose to take them. I care about magical artifacts and the favors of powerful people. And by powerful I mean people such as the Flamels or the like. I don't care for the favors of people like your father or Dumbledore. Political power means little to me. Now, next. Daphne Greengrass, yes?"

Daphne nodded, looking calm and composed compared to her earlier intimidated demeanor. "What are your opinions and affiliations on the light and dark?" A tension went through the air and I sighed despondently. I thought she was smarter than this.

"The whole light and dark deal is stupid. There is strong and weak, those who are bound by duty and those who eschew it, and a plethora of other dualities but light and dark are just opinions. It's all in perspective of what's good and bad. If society was different then so to would be the vision of what's 'light' and good. Sacrificing citizens would be a horrendous crime today but in older times such as in the societies of the Mayans and Aztecs it was normal and holy. It's a ridiculous matter of social norms.

"The 'dark lord' idea is the same as whoever is the most dangerous criminal of the time as well. As for me? I honestly don't care what labels people put on me. I do what I please within my rather flexible morals. Rape, for example, is one thing I can't tolerate, but killing criminals, so long as they are actually scum and not wrongly accused, is a perfectly acceptable action. I'd even encourage it in some instances. Dark magic is equally absurd. There is magic that pollutes the soul and magic that does not. It's your soul. Do as you please with it."

A somewhat stunned silence rang throughout the room. Whatever these people expected it wasn't that.

"So… dark grey then," Daphne said slowly.

"Sure. Close enough." I rolled my eyes and pointed at the next person who raised their hand. "Go."

"How powerful are you?" The random kid asked.

"Powerful enough to turn a minor city into a crater in ten minutes depending on its size. Not that any of you would believe me on that. It's more accurate to describe my various utilities than my overall power. I specialize in storm magic. Hurricanes, rainfall, lightning, and wind. I can do all this with a thought. I'm also extremely proficient in a sort of anti-magic that negates other magic. Now I'm tired of your questions but at least they're better than the Gryffindor's questions. Let's go."

A hallway revealed itself as I gave Hogwarts space attuned mana. People seemed to collectively take a breath at how easily the 'secret' passage revealed itself but followed somewhat quickly after me, Hufflepuff following first. How trusting of them. The Slytherins made sure to take note of every detail, doing a decent job in general to not show too much fear.

We emerged out the same door as before, stepping into the odd meadow. "Here." I waved my hand and worked my metal affinity and some mana. Almost like it was already there a small fort raised itself out of the ground. Four spires came first in square corners, flat roofs lined with low nubby things. Merlons? I believe I read about them somewhere trying to grind my INT.

The walls came next, also fitted with the merlons. The spires filled out to become proper towers. Inside them ladders formed from the walls up to the tower roofs while the groundwork for stairs going downwards formed as well.

I formed some different features of my walls such as a portcullis with chains and a gridded doorway, a small moat (dug with motion affinity and mana and filled with water), and some few scattered armory racks fitted with mundane swords, axes, bows, and arrows for the bows, though the actually dangerous weapons would be in the keep's armoury.

Finally I began work on the actual keep. I branched out a little and made it out of packed ice with a dulled metal shell. The combination was lighter than complete metal and offered the grimm a small chance to break through the walls without specialty units.

Motion mana did the initial digging as I formed the surface rooms. As I dug deeper I made portals to the borders of the moat and used motion mana to transport the dirt into the portals. I made more underground rooms while also making a small dirt wall at the edge of the moat that I compressed to be a semi-decent wall.

The keep was fitted with an armoury filled with more weapons and ammo stockpiles as well as some brooms, several prison cells, some small amounts of food and water in a pantry, a council chamber instead of a throne room, and a room for resting in, where I put down several soft things for sitting on, including two beanbags, three couches, two armchairs, an exercise ball, and a yoga mat. Wherever I got that last one from. I recognized the others as things I stole at one point or another or grabbed and forgot about at various points where I felt like stealing things.

I remembered taking the yoga stuff from when Yang forced me to go to a gym with her and I changed the room every time she turned around. I took the exercise stuff and never thought about the stuff again. Until now. I wonder what those people at the gym would say if I told them that their equipment was sitting in a castle made of steel and ice in another dimension?

"Go explore," I said loudly to everyone. They all looked wide-eyed at the castle I had made in about three minutes. "In about ten minutes I will be in front of the castle armoury and I will give you all a lesson in safety using weapons that should last about ten minutes. If you don't show up you don't get a weapon, and I highly recommend you do show up. I will sumon real grimm into the area surrounding the castle fifteen minutes after the safety lesson, where you will defend a flag of sorts. Use the ten minutes you have to get familiar with the castle and use the fifteen minutes after the safety lesson to construct a plan. I will heal any injuries or temporary deaths that occur during the lesson, though I will try my best to make sure nobody dies, and that's saying a lot. Now go frolic while you can."

I walked easily towards the fort while the Hogwarts students stood frozen. The first person to break the stupor was, surprising, Draco, who I was re-evaluating my opinion of. "Come on!" he shouted as he rushed forwards, his cronies quickly following him. Everyone blinked the stupor away and began running forwards under his example.

I disappeared around a corner and blinked to the armoury before activating mage sight. The Hogwarts students rushed about the whole castle like ants, investigating every little thing. Their curiosity was amusing. The castle was pretty bare and mundane, though I sensed some mana push out from the students towards the walls. An analysis spell, I believed. That's what the intent of the spell appeared to be.

After a few minutes I looked towards the armoury. Weapons racks lined the walls filled with all sorts of goodies. Not only were there swords and melee weapons fitted with runes of varying complexities, though none of them actively used dust, but instead they had sharpness, lightening, elemental effects, and other weapon based runic matrices.

In ranged weapons I had crossbows of all sorts both made of modern plastics and metals as well as older wooden ones. I kept to the most advanced reloading systems I could, though. I have standards. I didn't use guns because these kids seem rather stupid and I don't trust any of them to shoot a BB gun, much less a real gun.

Finally in the ranged department were the staves. Yes, staves.

Magic here was, fundamentally, using the world affinity, mana, and willpower to accomplish unnatural tasks related to manipulation of the world. More advanced magic wasn't the same in cases like fiendfyre and expecto patronum (which I'm pretty sure was an odd sort of mental manifestation of your aura given temporary animation and possibly sentience) but nobody here would be using those spells.

The staves were heavily runed to amplify every sort of spell that used world affinity. That is to say, all of the ones these wizards used. They were, in a word, generalized magical amplifiers, though they only worked in this dimension because everybody used the world affinity. They had a times three amplifier compared to the wands, which often used a times two or two point five amplifier. Some of the better fitted ones were times three amplifications for world affinity and other affinity specific spells like fire or change (transfiguration affinity basically). Point in case, they were better than most wands. Not that anybody would ever be getting to take a stave of mine home.

"I think we're ready," I mused to myself. I also sensed all but two of the Hogwarts students outside the armoury, though they still had a minute left on my timer.

I walked to the door and moved the steel pole holding the door shut before moving the door and gesturing everyone inside. People gaped once more at my selection before I gave a harsh glare at all of them and they hurried inside.

Once everyone was inside I closed the door though I didn't lock it. I strided to the wall and picked off a crossbow before brandishing it to the kids, who looked at it curiously.

"A crossbow. Simple, useful, silent, and relatively powerful. It's far easier to use than a bow at least. Load the bolt, as so," I loaded a bolt and nocked it back to show everyone. "And aim before firing." I brought the metal sight up to near my cheek and put pressure on the trigger. I landed my shot clearly in the metal wall, the shot sinking up to the flechette in the solid pack ice and metal.

"Of course, every weapon is enhanced by runes. Each one is different, if subtly. Mostly the crossbows have enchantments to shoot straighter, faster, and harder. I have one or two that make their bolt home in on the target. Another makes a concussive blast where it's bolts land given that you feed it a little of your magic. No you may not test the crossbows. Take one and leave it to chance."

I set the crossbow down and picked up a sword, running my eyes over it. It was razor sharp and thinner than the norm since the runes on it enhanced it's durability and made it cut faster with the assistance of liquid motion affinity stored in the hilt.

"A sword," I said simply. "Do I really need to elaborate? You swing it. Stab with it if you must. This one in particular swings itself faster than it normally would." I lazily swung the sword, barely putting any effort into it, more letting it fall with my wrist limp than actually swinging it. The sword swooped down and clearly sped up unnaturally before coming to a rest in the air again. Rather than let it swing itself again I set it back on the rack.

"Some of the other melee weapons channel magic, by the way," I said absently as I picked down a stave.

"These staves channel and amplify almost any magic you put through it," I said simply. "It doesn't have base sentiance like your wands but rather is composed entirely of runes amplifying a core element of almost every wizard or witch's magic. It amplifies the effects of spells by exactly three times. It's not personal like a wand. It's a tool and nothing more. Here." I handed the stave to the kid in the front of the group. He fumbled with it and gasped, shivering.

"… Well?" I asked, an eyebrow raised.

"I… I can feel everything," the kid said in awe. "I can feel my magical core. It's like… the staff wants to take my magic; Make it greater…" the kid stared at the stave in wonder.

"Huh. So yeah, it's a wand but better, if less personal and less portable." I had wondered if the innate world affinity in the staves would do more than amplify spells with world affinities to those with the world affinity. Oh well. Magic with these wizards was a little weird. I suspect that there's some sort of planetary intelligence like Gaia from Fate Stay Night. Perhaps this hypothetical intelligence is the reason that magic in this world works so well. Hogwarts herself is proof of concept that high amounts of magic can make an artificial intelligence. Why not apply that on a planetary scale? It would make sense of a lot of holes in my understanding of this magical world.

"That should be it," I announced. "Pick what you like and get ready for the siege. Remember that you're facing monsters and not intelligent enemies." I teleported out of the armoury immediately and looked at the wall of my little fort. I raised a metal bench and laid against it. It would normally be uncomfortable but with an application of my metal affinity the steel became as soft as a bed. Leaning back became quite comfortable.

Just a few minutes later I heard people arguing vehemently in the main room of the keep. The sort of throne room turned council chamber, that is. I snorted lightly at what chaos must be going on in there. It sounds terrible. If I had to get into that I would silence everybody with magic and speak myself. The perks of power, I suppose.

The chaotic sounds wore off somewhat quickly to a few people. Daphne and Draco, obviously, as well as several other Hufflepuffs. They were running short on time while I and my parallels carved runes into the ground, making sure that no grimm would spread through the meadow, much less the forest, when I transported them to the Harry Potter world.

It was several minutes after I finished that I made the portal to Remnant, which was rooted in the middle of nowhere. I pulled distilled red sap from my inventory and immediately heard roars ring out. I made another smaller portal to the roof of the fort and dumped the bucket. Now the grimm would be drawn to the fort. My job is done.

The first grimm through were simps, a sort of monkey grimm with large growths of bone almost like gauntlets around their forearms that they used for striking things, using their forearms like clubs.

The Hogwarts students were already rushing out of the fort after the roar but after shouts and screams at the simps appearance crossbows were levelled on the fort's walls and bolts shot out towards the group. Their accuracy was… not good. Three in ten bolts hit, roughly. A small barrage of magical spells fell on the group while the crossbow bearers reloaded. Limbs went flying, lacerations appeared on the grimm, and several began to trip constantly or some other odd malady. One simp seemed to go berserk and try to attack it's fellow grimm. It was struck down after taking two of its brethren with it. I wonder how they did that? Grimm don't really think and I'm not sure they feel emotions either. Technically they're just elementals trapped in a physical form.

I zoned out somewhat as I watched the students defend themselves. It was a fair bit quicker than the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw class for me. I just let the grimm pour through the portal and, later on, saved some students from certain death by grimm. Easy peasy.

For almost an hour the students were doing well. The Slytherins were more cunning than they acted when they put their minds to it, devising frankly ingenious plans that varied from conjuring oil, lighting it, and dumping it on the stronger grimm, to some smarter one making a ritual circle that was supposed to ward off evil, though it was only strong enough to make the weaker grimm hesitate before rallying behind a stronger grimm.

The Hufflepuffs were a well oiled machine of cooperation between both themselves and the Slytherins. None of them stood out too much but all together they probably did more work than the Slytherins.

Draco, surprisingly, was a rallying force behind the defenders, calling forth magical barrages of spells and projectiles that held off the grimm. I didn't expect him to do that but he wasn't quite as cunning as the other Slytherins.

Eventually, even a subspecies of a Beringal that breathed fire came through the portal. It leaped into the fortress, nearly flattening a kid before I teleported him to safety, and demolished the walls to let more grimm in. One particularly bright student enlarged his crossbow to be bigger than a ballista and fired it into the thing's back twice before it died. By then, though, the teams fell apart.

The holes in the walls were too big and the defenders couldn't muster themselves fast enough. Everyone fell back into the keep with quite a few 'casualties'. Everyone was tired magically and physically but they still fought, using the keep's one entry as a chokepoint.

Slowly, though, the grimm crept farther into the room. It took about ten more minutes before the kids all retreated farther into the keep, down to the armoury. More kids 'died', including Draco Malfoy, who put himself deep into magical exhaustion, which is to say, he had been down to his affinities for a while and finally pushed his affinities too far, making them stop functioning. I pumped some mana into him and he was fine but he still went out pretty heroically, collapsing a quarter of the keep somehow. Whether he did it because the other kids now owed him and there was no chance of death or because he wanted to save lives is irrelevant. He did it in the end.

Down in the armoury, however, there was just one door to hold back the grimm. A barricaded door, yes, but just a door nonetheless. It wasn't even a big one. I could see where this was going. The kids would hole up and make one final stand or try to find a way to escape and from what I can see of them, which is a lot, their faces look bone tired but resolved.

Come to think of it… do they know their classmates are alive? One kid fell off the walls into the horde of grimm, another was almost flattened before I made a portal under him, and so on so forth. When they get minor injuries like a gash on their leg missing major blood vessels I just leave them. It probably doesn't look pretty. Hm. I'd bet that a fair few of them think I abandoned them to a demonic horde of monsters.

I'll give them all a prize. Ah, house points. They like house points, right? And since I'm a teacher, albeit a substitute, I can definitely assign points… probably. Hogwarts will be fine with me giving points, I'm sure. She can do just about anything inside the castle and I'm certain she values my friendship with her more than that old coot Dumbledore. Yeah. Let's say… two hundred for Slytherin and Hufflepuff each and a hundred for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. It takes no effort from me and the kids will probably be pretty happy. It means I have to attend lunch, though… well I guess I am pretty hungry. And the food at Beacon isn't very good…

I watched the grimm burrow down to the survivors as they prepared… something. The ritual kid from earlier was making something big. Some sort of circle that spanned the entire floor and crept onto the walls in some places. This time though, everyone was pitching in by helping to draw the circle.

As the grimm drew nearer the five kids left finished and Daphne, being the only leader left, made some sort of speech. I didn't listen to it. And then every kid gathered around the edges of the circle, perfectly spaced apart. They raised their hands and all their remaining magic was pushed into the circle.

The circle glowed a pale greenish blue color and mana began to stir throughout the clearing. I suddenly snapped to attention when the grimm all began to howl in pain rather than excitement. What the hell were they doing?!

Ritual kid began chanting something and even the manticore began to scream. I gaped as their innate affinity for corruption began to act strange - oh dear lord the very mana around them seemed to coalesce together with a scattering of affinities in the area. The mana mixture lashed at the grimm, whipping them at their affinity, weakening the strongest and killing the weakest.

Beowolves and creeps and simians and minor taijitsu and all sorts of other grimm died in apparent agony, their flesh wisping away in smoke, leaving only their corpse, which began to quickly fade away. The manticore fell from the sky with a startled shriek, falling onto the keep and collapsing a good portion of it onto it. Other strong grimm, some ursa, a grimm minor dracon (not dragon. Dracon. Tiny dragon without wings but with an acid attack, basically not unlike the minor dragon), and several other strong grimm stumbled and fell, bearing through the mana based attack.

I was startled when the mana mixture began to attack me, of all people. The world mana seemed to get agitated around me and the mana began to writhe and thicken around me, eventually trying to pierce into my aura, likely to tear it apart. I resisted, of course… very easily.

The mana in the area was stronger than usual, likely because we were all in a magical forest, but I was far, far stronger. I collected my aura and mana into a shell around me and used my flawless mana and aura control refined over years to make it perfectly smooth and free of any weak spots. The mana based attack broke itself against my aural shield.

Even if I hadn't resisted the attack I'd bet that my aura and mana were dense enough to shrug off the attack without effort. Not to mention how void would deal with the attack.

With that ritual killing off most of the grimm I checked the clock in my soul space and saw that we only had about fifteen minutes left. Time to end this. The kids did a suitable finale anyways. I quickly killed off the remaining grimm with lightning or some ice spikes through the skull and focused briefly.

I teleported into the armoury with a small smile on my face. Immediately two quarrels of crossbow bolts flew towards my face and gut. I sidestepped them before they hit with a roll of my eyes. Slowpokes. Daphne and a Hufflepuff, who had fired the bolts, seemed stunned for a moment before nearly collapsing in relief, looking dead tired, smelling as sweaty as most exhausted teens do, and having a collection of superficial injuries all over, some of which would leave scars. Say, that gives me an idea…

"Good job," I commended them. "No casualties, by the way. Your classmates cheered quite loudly at you around the end there. You have fifteen minutes left until class ends. You'll be feeling better shortly. Probably." I stepped aside with a portal opening behind me and gestured the kids forwards. They all stumbled through the portal like zombies, Daphne and the generic Slytherin girl straightening themselves up a little before walking through.

Upon exiting the portal they were met by wild cheers from their classmates, which brought small satisfied smiles to their faces. Meanwhile I glanced around the meadow. Trashed would be one way to describe it. Totalled would be another.

The meadow was filled with rubble from the keep's walls being destroyed and a part of the keep collapsing from the manticore's fall. Spellfire made craters and burned parts of the land to ashy spots. A large patch of the ground was also a stretch of flame from the manticore as well from a strafe it did earlier when assaulting the keep.

I felt a little bad about it, honestly. There were some craters before from the Gryffindors or Ravenclaws miscasting a confringo or from an ursa pounding the ground but it was nowhere near ruined. I can do better than just leaving destruction here.

Easily fixed. I used motion mana to flatten out the ground to a more natural look, wiping away any trace of the craters. I used my metal affinity to sink the metal shards from the keep deep into the earth, never to be seen again. Finally, nature and life affinity worked on the land to restore the grasses. I nearly went overboard and regrew too much plant life but cut myself off at just the right time.

With that done I turned to the students, who looked at the newly restored meadow with resigned awe, as though they simply accepted that I could do miracles at my whims. I doubt they'll be forgetting this day anytime soon.

"Alright, let's go back. Clean yourselves up and make sure not to be late to lunch." I paused for a moment. "Oh, yes, right. You're exhausted." I stretched my soul over all of them and filled their souls with mana once more. I saw most of them perk up immediately.

"Seriously, go clean off. You all stink. It's even worse for me than it is for you."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _So what is the real you doing, Abyss robot?"_

" _Teaching."_

" _But… Abyss you're a student."_

" _Yes."_

" _Can you talk to me for real?"_

" _Acceptable… Okay, the parallel is gone. I'm teaching at a magical school across dimensions."_

" _That's so cool! Are they all slinging spells?!"_

" _Not impressive ones, Ruby."_

" _Could we get more details?"_

" _You know that library I've been hiding away in? The one in the castle? She finally got me to teach. She had to offer me a book on dark magic, though."_

" _You said dark magic didn't exist."_

" _It literally has you sacrifice an innocent. Or more specifically, a virgin. You then shred their soul for their divine essence and use it to sustain half your soul, which you split in two."_

" _Fuck."_

" _Exactly. It's a fascinating ritual, though. It's like the avatar spell made permanent. I've actually devised several new magical techniques from it. And the sacrificing innocents thing was stupid. You can just drain a tiny bit of divinity from a huge array of people, harming nobody enough for them to even feel it. The other rituals are just as interesting, actually. Sick and demented, yes, but interesting."_

" _That sounds bad."_

" _Oh, don't worry. I'll fix most of them to not be so horrible and instead be only morally questionable. I found out how to make a vampire, by the way."_

" _I thought they were fictional?!"_

" _I thought so too. Perhaps a fairytale version of cannibals that made itself common in mythology. But no. They actually do exist. They're also extremely strong. Frighteningly so."_

" _Care to explain?"_

" _Take a soul and awaken it's aura and what are you doing?"_

" _Um… breaking it's chains holding it-"_

" _Not even close. You're tricking the divine essence in you to increase its effect on your soul. Before it was dormant, doing nothing more than holding your soul together. When awakened, after being kickstarted by an injection of divine essence, it works at its full capacity, creating an excess of what could be called soul energy, which we call aura. Vampires have their divine essence work harder than it is supposed to, degrading itself in the process. Imagine working a muscle harder than it's supposed to. It tears itself apart but performs better than ever. Vampires are like that but their souls devour other souls for the divine essence needed to continue living."_

" _I… okay. What about fangs and pale skin and stuff?"_

" _I think it may be an effect from the first vampire. With your soul doing so much it may be acting the same way mine does when I use the panther soul I have. Impressing the soul over reality. Most carnivores have sharp teeth and sucking souls is looked down upon in civilized society. Most vampires would have pale skin from living in isolation. Or it could be something else. I'm just theorizing."_

" _How do you learn all of this?"_

" _I have a lot of time to think. And I've gotten somewhat good at it, I like to think."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Ah, you must be that new professor I've heard so much of." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled but he seemed pretty irritated judging from his aura, unawakened as it may be. Perhaps running into him in the hall was planned by him? I don't think so. I was just on my way to lunch.

"Professor would be stretching it," I admitted. I felt disagreement from Hogwarts, saying I was better in every field than any of her professors. Flatterer. "But I'm extremely competent magically. Enough to be considered one, certainly."

"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed, as Hogwarts did the same with much more vigour. "And why, pray tell, are the wards not working on you?"

I knew exactly why. Hogwarts didn't want to monitor me. She did so the first time I was around and I politely asked her to not spy on me. Ever since she had never done it. And due to her not wanting to harm me she wouldn't activate any runes I tripped, of course.

"I do it by habit," I said, pretending to be embarrassed. A grandfatherly smile came onto Dumbledore's face but curiosity and extreme wariness shone clearly through his eyes.

"Of course. And why-"

"I'm here to make a small announcement," I interrupted Dumbledore's interrogation. His smile never faded, nor did his eye-twinkle. "The students deserve a reward for their efforts today and I will be adding points based on their performance, which I will be showing snippets of."

"I see," Dumbledore said with an understanding nod. He was trying to get a read on me, I was pretty sure. "If you would tell me your point amounts I would be happy to accomodate you, given that they're within reason."

"Of course," I agreed, though I didn't like this man at all. With that in mind I decided to switch my mood to throw him off. "But I don't care about your accommodations. I do care about lunch, though."

Dumbledore blinked at my sudden change in tone and attitude and frowned slightly, seemingly more in gentle concern than any sort of irritation. Dust below I really don't like this man at all. Manipulative old men are the worst.

"My boy-" he started. I used wind manipulation to alter the words coming out of his mouth. "It's perfectly fine to ignore me." Dumbledore blinked, seemingly surprised, so he tried speaking again.

"In fact, would you do so more?" He blinked, with no words describing his expression other than befuddlement. I blinked, pretending I was surprised, and shrugged before walking away, leaving Dumbledore supremely confused.

As I looked at the professors seats, though, I frowned. I didn't know which was mine. "Yours is the one in the middle, over there." I looked at Dumbledore standing besides his seat out of the corner of my eye to see him pointing gently towards the right side of the table. I walked over and pulled out my chair before sitting down. I glanced to my right to see two teachers walking into the hall, five minutes early like me and Dumbledore.

"So, my boy," Dumbledore began again, as he sat down in his seat. "I must admit to hearing some fantastical rumors about your skill in magic and combat especially, as well as some somewhat interesting views on how to teach a class."

"From the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors and Ravenclaws?" I asked boredly.

"From dear Minerva, though you may know her as Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore said with a kindly smile at my question. "She, in turn, heard from her Gryffindors."

"Hm," I acknowledged with a small nod. "I made illusory projections made solid and had the students fight them. It was perfectly safe, as I was controlling the illusions and they were all made of light. The students all learned quite a bit about how to act in combat situations and how to use what they already know effectively. It's astonishing how overlooked the confringo spell is."

"And the claims of wandless magic?" Dumbledore prodded. "True users of wandless magic are beyond a rarity in this day and age. Even so, those that do accomplish feats of wandless magic often only accomplish simple spells. The children made you out seem as if you walked out of a storybook."

I waved my hand and made a grimm appear. The two teachers chatting quietly in two adjacent seats instantly had their wands trained on it. Dumbledore's expression turned curious as he leaned forward slightly to observe the fake grimm.

"I can control them," I said as I made the hard light illusion spin in circles and fly into the air. I did that for a few seconds before flying the creature to Dumbledore's goblet and bumping its nose into him. "They're not harmless, of course, unless I'm being careful, which I was. I had the students fight one on one with them at first until they began to get more confident, where I began sending duos and occasional trios of the wolves after them. Then I used larger ones while fighting teams."

"Fascinating," Dumbledore said with a satisfied smile. His eyes, however, didn't twinkle. They nearly burned as he stared at me. He didn't think of me a an enemy, that was clear from his aura, but he was extremely interested in recruiting me, as I was both an animagus and an extremely competent wizard, not to mention that I was a mystery to him. I was enough of a mystery to him that he seemed to temporarily disregard Moody's situation.

Just at that moment the students began to file in in groups of five to ten, all chattering excitedly. Everyone had their eyes on me, seeming extremely curious. They hadn't seen me in action, after all. Only the fourth years had.

Dumbledore didn't try to strike up another conversation with me, though he was clearly keeping an eye on me for a while. I myself waited until every student had come into the hall. Before I rose, though, Dumbledore did, and walked towards the owl podium in front of the high table.

"Welcome, students," he began. The slow chatter that had been swapped amongst the students died at this as everyone gave Dumbledore their attention. "Today our dear friend and teacher Alastor Moody was preoccupied with some urgent business of his. While his sudden disappearance is jarring he luckily arranged a substitute friend of his for the day. Please welcome Kerrigan Mavros."

He waved at me and I stood before walking towards the podium. Dumbledore stepped back and into his seat while I looked over the students. Already I could hear faint mutters about my 'muggle' clothing, though those students were quickly shushed by their fourth year classmates.

"Hello, all. I am, as Dumbledore said, Mister Mavros. Due to my lack of time to prepare I was unable to dress appropriately for today, though it seemed to be of no particular consequence in my classes." I could feel a hole being burned in the back of my head by Professor McGonagall, likely for my clothing. Stickler…

"With that said, Moody will likely return to teach in the next period, I have been informed." A small, polite applause rang out. "Still, in my classes, which were much more vigorous than typical for DADA classes, I saw some impressive talents and have decided to grant these quaint points of Hogwarts' that you all seem to value so much." A rather confused applause rang out once more, with a few students seeming a little insulted by my dismissal of their points system. The prefects seemed especially insulted, most of them refusing to applaud me. Not that I cared.

"However, with the quantity of points being given I felt it necessary to give you all a demonstration of what I have been teaching for these past two periods." I waved my hands and a projection of light appeared, like a screen, behind me. Whispers of 'wandless magic' were tossed around but they stopped as the projection of light began playing. In reality it was just an illusion of light that I was making based on my memories of the classes but it seemed quite intimidating.

I quietly pulsed my aura asking Hogwarts for some food and a house elf immediately appeared with a plate of food on my table. The other professors looked at the plate in surprise while I just picked it up, leaned against the table, and started eating the pork and beans given to me. It was most certainly better than Beacon's lunches.

After I had the illusion finish playing I set the half finished plate down and stepped forwards again. "So yes, while there was no real danger-" Scoffs and sounds of quiet disbelief were clearly heard from the Slytherin and Hufflepuff table, "-the acts performed were certainly worthy of commendation at the very least. So with that in mind I have decided to grant, based on bravery in the face of superior odds and a resolute determination not often seen in those your age, one hundred points to both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor." I saw Hogwarts' aura and mana converge on the numbers around the house cups and the numbers changed accordingly. Cheers from the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students rang out while at the teacher's table people gave the cup confused stares. Do substitute teachers not normally get the ability to assign points? Probably not.

"And," I continued, "Due to stalwart grit in the face of overwhelming odds-"

"Wait a second," I saw Ron Weasley say at the Gryffindor table. Similarly odd looks were given to me from around the room.

"-Companionship and cooperativeness between Hogwarts houses atypical for both houses, coordination between students not always paralleled in even auror units, and truly cunning plans performed against dark forces, and through the generous self-sacrifice of one Draco Malfoy-" Malfoy preened under my praise. Perhaps I shouldn't have done that. "-I grant Slytherin and Hufflepuff each two hundred points." Wild cheers erupted from both houses and absolute silence from the Gryffindor Ravenclaw house clapped a bit, likely seeing that the Slytherin and Hufflepuff classes did do much better on a whole than they did.

"Do enjoy the rest of your lunch, and I hope you have taken away something important from these two classes." I stepped away and into my seat before digging into my meal. People, particularly the teacher's table, stared at me a little before returning to their own meals and muttering things about me, all of which I heard and only a few of which were flattering.

Weirdly enough the only people to really like me were Snape and the old cranky groundskeeper, Finnick or something. McGonagall seemed to dislike me on the bare principle that I assigned the Slytherin house more points but respected that I was an immensely powerful wizard and an animagus at that.

I was out of the dimension with Pit an hour later, my job done and a team practice to go to. I had no idea what was going to happen with Moody but Hogwarts should have her fill of interesting things while I'm doing boring school stuff.

Well, school stuff will be done in a little while. I didn't see Cinder yesterday… Hm…

 **AN: It's super long and not particularly progressive to the plot. It's like a sidequest. To recap the only important things that happened, it was revealed that Abyss spends his school time screwing around the multiverse and he got an interesting book on souls, which may or may not show up in the future.**


	49. Chapter 49

**AN: Whoa… you guys REALLY liked the last chapter. Sure. More little mini-crossovers will occur. I was already considering doing more because they're fun and a little less of a serious tone to this fic wouldn't be too bad.**

 **Many thanks to TheNightShinobi for beta-ing. I needed this chapter quickly because I'll be gone from my computer over the weekend and he got it to me within a day. Props to him.**

[||||= **LEVEL 49=** ||||]

"I don't know if I want infinite power, honestly," I said to the old guy. He nodded along with me, just listening. Something I somewhat needed right now. I heard an explosion a ways away but I ignored it. I had the fifth volume of RWBY playing on a TV but it was just background noise at the moment. It didn't really coincide with my version of Remnant after the third season, although the relic of knowledge was vaguely useful.

"It seems like… I don't know, a burden. A responsibility. And it seems like it would detach me from my family. Ruby already tries so hard just be as powerful as me. Jaune trumps me in melee combat pretty easily because of his insane aura. Pyrrha is the weakest of us in a way, not that that means anything, but I have some odd feeling that there's nowhere she'd rather be than with our team. Jaune doesn't like me at all, I'd rather have a calm life playing with magical power, and Ruby… I don't know about her. Since Beacon it's seemed like for the first time that I don't know her perfectly. I don't spend as much time with her as I used to. Things have been moving so fast the last few months."

"Since you got the mantle?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Ever since I got void. By accident, at that. It's insanely powerful. It's anti-magic, but at the same time it's anti-life. And I'm practically a novice at it. I know that there's a million and one other things I could do with it if I just knew what it was I was supposed to do with it."

"Power always comes at a cost," the old man said wisely.

"Every damn time," I muttered. "It always takes me putting my life in danger or another burden on my shoulders."

"You have examples?" the man asked curiously.

"Just living was the first cost," I said bitterly. "Vacuo was, and is, a shithole. I left the place in flames and in the worst gang war they had seen in decades. I guess I wanted to lash out. To take something from the place that killed my parents. I don't blame gangsters or myself for my parent's deaths. I just blame Vacuo. Then there was Summer. I got her silver eyes, but for what? She was the first person I could call a friend in a long time and she died bleeding out on the floor in front of her children. Icmant nearly killed me when I finally mustered up the spine to sacrifice some arbitrary points for power. And Nature's Bounty needs constant upkeep. It's taken the least amount from me, but I know that it's vulnerable. If Salem wanted it gone it would be a trifle, really. Ozpin, on the other hand, has his hands tied after he pledged himself and his efforts to the huntsmen, who wouldn't ever attack me.I have too much power and public support. It's powerful but equally easy for anybody competent to remove. I don't doubt that a fair few people wouldnn't mind me being weaker, or even dead."

"It be like that," the older man said with a nod. I looked at him weirdly for a moment before I remembered how eccentric he could be.

"Right. I suppose I'm just wondering what the price this time would be. I could easily search through the void for a universe of nothing but horrible men and women but would that come back to bite me? I can only imagine how powerful I'd get from killing a whole universe. But there would be costs. Ruby would be so far behind me in strength that she'd be useless and nothing good can come from that. Cesium and the others would be affected too. I wouldn't need them. Anything they could do I could do twice as fast and ten times as well. They would be gophers at best and that's not something I want."

"There's actually an answer for that," the old man pointed out. "Laziness. I've gotten pretty good at being lazy myself. It can lead to pretty terrible things happening but you know how I feel about that."

"There's a whole multiverse of bad things happening." I sighed. "Believe me, I know. One universe saved is an infinite amount of others remaining as they are."

"It'll all happen." The old man shrugged.

"I guess so. I'm glad I'm no hero though. Sitting in Remnant and waltzing around the multiverse seems like a great retirement, but I don't know if I've hit that point yet."

" _The show must go on_ is for performers. Are you a performer?" The old man looked quizzically at me, as though he was actually asking me rather than giving me advice.

"I'm a wizard," I said flatly.

"That has a lot of meanings." The old man smirked. "You don't seem like the kind to sit in a tower and play with magic. Maybe go into terrible places and play with magic while leaving a trail of destruction."

"That does sound fun," I mused.

"Look," the old man began, "whatever you're thinking you're going to do, it doesn't matter. You're thinking it does but it doesn't. Either you do it or you don't but it really doesn't matter."

I frowned at the old man's words. "In the wide scheme of things we're just some souls being souls. Destroy a city and there's an infinite amount of other cities exactly the same. Destroy quadrillions of realities if you want. There's vigintillions of other realities ready to take their place. Of course, we don't even know how much a vigintillion is. At some point it just escapes comprehension. That's what the multiverse is like. It's too big to matter. It's too big to fail. At some point you have to wonder if there's even a failure to be had. If life isn't around then so what? Life is just life."

I nodded along with what the old guy was saying. I'd looked around the multiverse. It was as infinite as the night sky. Universes always came with an infinite amount of others just like them. I just didn't have the affinity to see them all.

"If you even could exterminate it all, which you can't because of how big infinity is, nothing would really happen other than things not being alive. You're immortal already. Enjoy yourself. But eventually you're going to be just about all-powerful. That's just the way it is for people with talents like yours. You're going to get more powerful somehow so long as you don't die off, which doesn't sound like it's going to happen. So just get powerful or don't. But I can assure you that it's better to just get it over with than to dither about."

"Maybe," I said thoughtfully. "Goodbye, Zelretch. It was nice talking to you."

"Sure, sure." The older version of me stood up and stretched a little. His ears twitched a little and I snickered a tthe sight before realizing that I was snickering at myself. "Make sure to remember to avoid the evil alternates of us. They're assholes. The goody two-shoes ones are almost as bad. They're all about honor and justice and stuff. It's like talking to a potato half the time."

The older me paused. "Actually, scratch that. There was a talking potato that one time…" He glanced towards me. "Stay away from the really weird universes." He warned.

'Why?" I raised an eyebrow.

"They're really weird." He said with a small knowing smile. I was suddenly reminded of why I didn't visit other versions of myself often. I always give that look as though I know more than myself… like other me knows more than I do. It still sounds weird.

Then again, it sounds equally strange to say that I visit myself on occasion to chat.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Who was that?"_

" _A younger version of me. Remember that manga thing? The gamer one?"_

" _Oh yeah!"_

" _He has a system like that based on fate affinity."_

" _How does that work?"_

" _It uses the best possible outcome of his skills based on data collected from a few billion alternates. Then it rewrites his fate as he uses the skills. It's pretty smart, actually. I think it's Althea's work."_

" _Huh. Cool."_

" _It's not as good as your chip."_

" _Yeah but it's a tool of the gods based on a manga! That's pretty cool in my opinion. And he didn't go through the loads of crap you had to to get as powerful as a god."_

" _Good for him. Oh, and you're dead in his world."_

"… _Oh. How'd that happen?"_

" _Cinder took you out on the road for your maidenhood. Qrow started dating a teacher at Signal and had a wedding coming up. Well, I think that's what caused the change. Cinder might have also been more determined than before."_

" _That bitch."_

" _Oh it gets better. She's trying to seduce me."_

" _Pffft! Really?! Bwahahahaha!"_

" _I know. Pyrrha's trying to do the same thing. I'm as dense as usual."_

" _That's just a boy thing! Ah, you guys never get when a girl tries to hit on you. Isn't it weird seeing Pyrrha try to hit on you though? You've never mentioned that happening before."_

" _I've never met an alternate that Pyrrha had a crush on. Friend, sure, but a potential girlfriend is new. I never thought to check. Well, never wanted to check after she hated my guts all those years ago."_

" _She was a bitch, yeah, but you were an ass to her."_

" _Yeah. I was. This new other me seems like less of an asshole than I was. I blame his less crappy upbringing."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

Cinder was blown back, a weak (for my standards) gale of wind throwing her back. A moment later she caught herself by transforming her blade into a glaive and stabbing into the ice-covered ground. She pulled herself back down to a fighting stance and readied herself for another attack.

"Dead," I said blandly. "You're low on aura already. That moment being airborne would get a bullet in your hide. Also, you-"

"Forgot my footing. Believe me, I know," she grumbled, well used to being beaten by me by now. She set the butt of her glaive on the ice and ran a hand through her hair, which was tied into a loose ponytail over what she called her workout clothes. A dark grey tank top and dark red leggings.

"Not well enough apparently," I retorted. I flicked my finger at her and ice surged upwards sharply before an instant stop. Cinder's feet stuck to the ice, making her jerk into place with the sudden stop. I pulled a pistol from my inventory and shot a bullet straight between her eyes.

"Gah!" she yelped. She nearly stumbled backward but caught herself on the edge of my icicle. I transmuted the icicle part she was standing on to light and she fell down onto the ice. This time she didn't stick her feet and ended up halfway into a split before she used her ice affinity to keep solid footing on the ground. LIKE SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE.

"You're shit at using ice," I growled, tossing the gun into my soul space. Cinder seethed but she knew perfectly well that it was true. "And you know perfectly well that becoming disoriented like that was your fault. You should be easily capable of reading the flow of the ice's affinity befo-"

Cinder threw her own hand out and a much larger ice spike than mine jutted out from under me. I went with it and leaped upwards with the motion of the icicle, doing a frontflip to bleed off circular momentum and look flashy. A pillar of ice rose from the ground to let me land on it at the apex of my flight.

Cinder glowered at me but I looked at her mercilessly. "Again, then?" I asked.

"Will training. Please." she nearly spat. I scowled lightly. Cinder was good at this type of training. Great, even. I didn't like doing it, but training wasn't supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be productive, and will training with Cinder was nothing if not productive.

"Fine then." I leapt forwards and fell down right in front of Cinder gracefully. Will training was based on willpower. We both use the same amount of aura and dump emotion into it before trying to see who can bring the other contender's emotions into chaos first while maintaining their own emotions.

Typically I won our exchanges, if barely, but I dominated her with will of steel. Having a completely clear mind and utterly focused effort makes my will as sharp as a dagger to Cinder. But without me consciously using will of steel it's only clear background thoughts. Completely logical, clear, and emotionless background thoughts. I don't know if the skill can activate if I'm mentally compromised. I don't want to find out either.

If I had my way I wouldn't be susceptible to mind manipulation at all… oh well. I have will of steel, which is enough for me. I've begun developing a mind affinity as well to resist the effects of using the mantle of void and enemy mind effects. I'd finally cracked and decided that I needed a mind affinity after poking around the multiverse a bit.

Mind magics like legilimency, any number of telepaths, and plenty of other miscellaneous effects like aura could all manipulate my feelings and thoughts. I had the mental resistance skill, sure, but it wasn't foolproof. It was only level twenty-four after extensive training. The effects of aura techniques on the mind are too weak to properly level the skill.

I still felt extremely averse to manipulating the minds of others, seeing a mind as a private place that's a person's one sanctuary, but I sure as hell didn't want to be defenseless when some idiot with an affinity for mind stuff comes along. Will of steel makes me immune to mental magics, sure, but what about physically changing my brain chemistry? What about the barest surface level thought reading?

Will of steel is described as making me immune to mind magics but I don't trust that. I can be manipulated in any number of ways. Using magic to warp me is just one way out of hundreds.

Psionics are a big one for me, provided that they exist and they're not just magic by a different name, which I'm nearly certain is not the case. They're not magical but clearly mental influencers. And I can think of about ten different scientists off the top of my head that used radio or whatever to mind control people. 

For the love of dust, Plankton from Spongebob of all people mind controlled people by putting a damn bucket and antennae on their head from that kiddie movie the show made. Given that the multiverse is infinite, I'm sure that that actually happened somewhere somehow.

So the mind affinity is necessary. I plan to use the affinity only to augment my willpower in magical exchanges and defend my mind against foreign mind magics if I ever need it to do that, act as a far more intelligent parallel capable of directing the other parallels, and to make magical AIs. Penny doesn't quite count. She's mechanical and magical.

"Ready?" I asked Cinder. She sat down, a chair of ice forming under her, and I did the same, as well as a squarish table for good measure.

"Let's try lust," Cinder said, a gleam in her eye. I nodded resignedly and we began.

Immediately I was assailed with lusty feelings from Cinder's aura. Whether the feelings were fake or not she was good at using her aura to manipulate others. Almost as good as Blake.

She seemed to have prepared herself before attacking my emotions. I grabbed the emotions and tried to center myself in them. I was only partially successful. Thoughts ran unbidden through my head. Cinder's legs under mine. Soft lips on mine. Cloth falling in a rustle. Curvy breasts in my-

I banished the thoughts, feeling a little angry. I hated using pleasurable feelings. Instinctively we all internally wanted pleasure. Sex, good food, and anything else the limbic system deals with were desired on a primitive level. It made the thoughts harder to get rid of since you couldn't give your all against the feelings.

I fought harder against Cinder's manipulations. That trace of anger I had was used to sharpen my efforts and I felt a break in the emotions. Cinder was cracking, losing concentration. So, of course, she tried another tactic.

Thoughts rushed into me. Hundreds of them as fast as Cinder could transmit them into me. She must have been stockpiling thoughts and associated feelings for the past few seconds, collecting them for one big attack on my emotions. Not thoughts fabricated by me but by her.

I imagined _Abyss'_ hands on _my_ breasts. My sister - black/red-tipped hair, silver/gold eyes - playfully hugging me with a - soft smile/joyous smirk - at something I said, _Abyss'_ lips on _mine_. Blood getting under _my_ nails as I stabbed into the fat man's throat. _Abyss'_ member thrusting-

I viciously drove away the flood of thoughts. THAT was just one reason why I hated will training with Cinder. She had more devious tricks but losing myself in her memories was just plain terrible. Not only did she intentionally use very personal female experiences, but she also occasionally overlapped memories, such as leaving it ambiguous whether the 'sister' she imagined was her own or Ruby by leaving no thoughts on the idea of a sister, leaving me to fill in the blanks of the thought, which made it seem more like mine than just Cinder's. It made it harder to identify as a foreign thought.

As it was that trick had been a grievous hit against me. My aura was half consumed with lust and my mind was rife with lusty thoughts, primarily about Cinder, since her memories ensured she was on my mind. This wasn't good. I was doing badly, with Cinder's initial advantage swinging the battle in her favor.

I finally managed to get a foothold to strike back in our battle of wills when I transmitted a memory of my own. A giant spider screeched, landing spittle on my face, as I felt poison rush into my veins, feeling fear for the first time in a long time deep in the tunnels filled with earth affinity.

Spiders, snakes, and all things venemous attracted attention from a person. Cinder's thoughts slowed for just a moment under the memory, both the feeling of terror, a foreign feeling to both of us as we are now, and I pushed hard at having turned the tide of our clash for a moment.

I kicked her under the table.

Cinder's concentration broke fully and I bolstered her aura's scattering of pain and lust and receding terror. She scrambled to regain herself but she lost herself in the three emotions as I rekindled the anger I had at the invasion of my manly pride earlier.

The anger was icing on the cake. I took it and forced it into her emotions. Rather than three emotions warring in her she had four. Feeling particularly malicious I slowed my assault on her emotions and reached my aura to the emotions inside her.

The storm of emotions was scattered. I changed that. Terror, pain, anger, and lust became pain and terror, lust and anger merged together. If I had to guess what Cinder was feeling it was in the mood for angry sex while simultaneously afraid and in pain without knowing why.

"I give," Cinder said through gritted teeth. I separated my aura from hers and cleaned up my own emotions. I still had images of Cinder's in my mind, which I shoved far from my consciousness. I wasn't averse to being a girl - according to Cinder's memories it was a fair bit more comfortable than being a guy, actually - but I didn't want to feel that stuff right now. Being genderbent was fairly disconcerting.

Meanwhile, Cinder's hand came to her head and massaged her temple as she tried to bring herself to order. I just sat and gave her a moment.

"Giant spiders?" she said exasperatedly a minute later.

"It worked," I said with a shrug.

"It came out of the blue. Whatever you were going to do I didn't expect that."

"I know. I considered a flood of pain but it seemed too blunt. The fear had to be your own. Just one foreign emotion is easier to single out." Cinder nodded at this and closed her eyes as she finished cleaning up her emotional state. It only took a second before she opened her eyes again, burning an intense gold as normal. If her aura didn't reflect her reclaimed clarity of emotions, her eyes did.

"Before we start again," I said before Cinder attacked again. She looked at me curiously. "Do you have any plans to complete before this winter break?" She shook her head.

"Everything I need to do is done directly before the break or after it. The CCT is being hacked during the dance in January and Roman should acquire all the dust needed by himself," she replied.

"Oh good," I said, pleased. "Then would you mind coming with me on a trip? I need two people who are decently amoral and I'd prefer you and perhaps Raven. I would be alright on my own I suppose but I'd get lonely."

"Why me?" Cinder asked curiously.

I shrugged. "Somebody needs to watch Roman. Raven is the best for that particular job. If you don't want to come with me I'd bring along an agent of mine or a friend of mine, though none of my agents are as skilled as you in combat or as unknown as you and my friend is rather detached from most of humanity, even more so than Salem. You're the best choice to bring along for the moment."

Cinder nodded, a curious look in her eyes. "And what would I be doing?" I smiled a little.

"Infiltration, assassination, possibly abduction, and responding to exotic opponents. As for what you'll get out of it? You'll gain intelligence on the Arc heir, my sister, Pyrrha Nikos, who I know is as much an unknown factor for you as the Arc heir," Cinder scowled at me. "You'd see how I operate and get a small read on my abilities beyond what you know so far, and I can assure that all of the assassinations and such you might perform will not interfere in your mistress' plans whatsoever. Most importantly, it would be fun."

Cinder gave me an appraising look. "That's a lot of benefits."

"I know, that's why I know you'll say yes. Other than that I'll be too busy to train you if you stay behind. If you come I won't have that much time for you but sharpening your skills before a large operation like the CCT wouldn't be unwelcome." I made sure my smile didn't grow as Cinder considered my proposition.

"And where exactly would this 'trip' take place?" Cinder asked carefully.

"I'm not telling you until we go," I said a little more seriously. "If you want to know then you can come with me. Otherwise, you'll be having barrels of fun sitting around with your henchmen." Cinder scowled again and I knew I had her.

"Fine. I will inform my mistress tonight," she said begrudgingly. I could tell that she was satisfied, though. I had given her enough details as it was. Besides, I was an ally of sorts to her and Salem.

"Again, then?" I offered. A wave of wrath swept over me and it was well determined that yes, we were doing it again.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Mister Mavros and… Oh dear."_

" _Yeah! We're going to shake things up!"_

" _Sit down, Miss Valkyrie. I believe the system malfunctioned."_

" _Huh? But our names-"_

" _Sit. Down."_

" _I promise to not cause mass destruction, Miss Crimson."_

"… _Fine. To the ring."_

" _Hey. Here."_

" _Huh- *GASP* IS-"_

" _Quietly, please."_

"… _Is this white sap?!"_

" _Yes. Yes it is. Now, I can't destroy the arena - I gave my word after all - but you can. Oh, and I swapped the grenades you had with better ones. I used special dust to make them. I made it myself. They'll do much more damage than usual."_

"… _Wait, why are you doing this?"_

" _I want to sleep in class but I know Crimson will pick me for fights sometimes. I'd like her to avoid me as much as possible. Mass destruction solves most of my problems. This won't be much different."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The image of a lightning strike filled my mind. I saw it landing directly five feet in front of me-Jaune. In front of Jaune. Not myself. Well, there's the orders.

I focused on my storm and compressed the energy again. For a moment the lightning ceased and I held it back for a moment. Then I pointed the energy down, found Jaune, and released five feet in front of him.

A laser-like beam of lightning slammed to the earth and I paused. A moment later another pulse of aura drifted into me with a congratulations. An image of Ruby running away and Pyrrha backing up quickly appeared to me. There. Jaune's safe.

The new ideas Jaune had were really something. Or at least his inspiration was something. Aura sharing was a technique he had leapt on as soon as he heard about it from us. He and Pyrrha quickly learned to send emotions and pictures through their aura and were caught up fairly fast. Jaune then took it a step further.

To say he wanted instant battle telepathy was the basics of it. He wanted us to be able to send and receive data instantly like some sort of hivemind and fight as a unit better than anybody else could. Not that we really needed that sort of advantage, but it was interesting at least, and it got rid of our only weakness, that being our lack of team unity, though that was much more between Jaune and I than Pyrrha or Ruby. It was a stopgap solution at the least.

At this point even YLRB was better than us in unity. Yang had those boys whipped to the bone. If she asked one of them to fan her with leaves while she suntanned they'd do it without question, I'm pretty sure.

That led us to this training. Jaune fights off Ruby and Pyrrha with a sword and no armour, though he could use me to call in magical artillery strikes. Pyrrha and Ruby attacked and retreated as needed to beat up Jaune, though one of them had to be blindfolded while fighting. If (more like when) they beat him I had to save him while wearing a blindfold using his vision to fight Ruby and Pyrrha. All of us had runes linking our auras with our chosen partner's.

Ruby and Pyrrha usually won our matches…

Jaune and I tried sharing senses, but as usual it was a little off. My eyes were much better than Jaune's. Where I could make out a blade of grass from a hundred others at twenty feet, Jaune couldn't even see in the dark. Consequently, it was dark.

I sent a feeling through my aura of making light for him. He paused and sent a pulse asking about whether that would give his position away.

A sudden flash of a crimson blade answered him.

I barely gave Jaune a moment of warning before I set off a flashbang in front of him, stunning Ruby. He had his eyes only halfway closed before it was set off. Now we couldn't see. Shit.

Jaune's aura alerted me of him moving and I did my best to swear at him through my aura. When he was in one position I could land an artillery strike on his position and leave him smelling like roses! Now he was blind and moving to avoid sword strikes, having no way of showing me where he was. I couldn't just locate him with my magical senses. He had to tell me, which he couldn't do.

Jaune slowly came back to some form of sight as he fended off sword blows from my sister and I slowly channeled light attuned mana into him. He lit up slowly and revealed the clearing around him.

Oh, and a blindfolded Pyrrha stood in front of him, looking entirely smug, with a replica of Ruby's short sword made of iron dust in hand.

"Shit," Jaune said. A crack of lightning and my vision through him was cut off. He was unconscious. Great. I leaked life attuned mana into him to heal the idiot's nerves - he was tased by Ruby's lightning bolt damnit - and came back to myself.

Sounds and scents revealed themselves to me slowly and I breathed in deeply, just enjoying that I was in my own body again. Jaune was stronger than me and I wasn't sure he could ever even get tired, but his body wasn't mine. It was stiffer, more muscled, and he had a larger frame than me. I liked my flexibility much more than his muscles. Not to mention that sharing was most certainly not caring when it came to your own body.

Jaune was slowly awakened and I put on my blindfold from my pocket grudgingly and teleported five feet above him, though I kept myself in flight. Looking through his eyes I could see Ruby's eyes looking into his concernedly. "Are you okay, Jaune?" she said. "That bolt was pretty strong. I thought you had more aura."

"I'm okay," he said, and I sent a question of when to begin the sneak attack. He pulsed to wait for now. "Abyss isn't here yet?"

"Umm… I dunno." Ruby glanced around the forest we often used for training and frowned. She then turned to Jaune and narrowed her eyes. The moment she opened her mouth Jaune sent an urgent pulse.

I immediately covered the entire area in ice. I felt no people trapped inside the ice though, so I looked through Jaune's senses. I smelled blackberries and felt the soft velvety cloth of Ruby's cloak on his face.

I scoured the area with nature affinity and immediately found the blackberry bush. Life and nature mana flooded it and I heard a squeak as the thorns caught on Ruby's clothes. I transmuted the plant to metal and squeezed it down to hold Ruby tightly. A grin came to my face as I had finally gotten Ruby trapped. Jaune was still trapped with her in the bush of thorns unfortunately but he could still see and I could bend light for him.

I told him to open his eyes and he did so, immediately seeing the rusty red of Pyrrha standing behind me, a gun aimed at my head. I ducked down and saw the motion mirrored by my body through Jaune's eyes, a sensation I had grown sadly used to, and the bullet went over me.

At this point I rolled my eyes under the blindfold and dumped heat attuned mana into the environment. Fires sprung up and I flung a blast of heat at Pyrrha. She blocked it and I made a laser as small as I could make it. It melted through her shield and hit her shoulder. Too easy.

I stiffened at the realization and felt a blade on my neck. "Got you!" Pyrrha said cheerily. I sighed and took off my blindfold. Pyrrha was right in front of me, mirthful green eyes looking into mine while she had a thin dagger at my throat.

"Illusions?" I groaned.

"Yup!" Ruby chirped from inside the thorn bush. Pyrrha took the dagger away as I facepalmed. A wave of my hand transmuted the metal thorn bush into air and Ruby stretched before getting up. Jaune rubbed his eyes with a scowl on his face.

"I couldn't see through Ruby's cloak," he muttered. "I was going to tell you when she distracted me."

"We had to get Abyss off guard," she said unrepentantly.

"Trapping you was a trick?" I asked.

"We planned it before we got Jaune. We didn't plan on you blinding him with light. We thought you'd use a lightning bolt like you normally do," Pyrrha explained. I wanted to scowl myself at the reminder. I do blind Jaune pretty often, don't I? He knows I don't mean it but he's always getting blinded by me.

"It was better than last time!" Ruby offered. Jaune and I both winced at the reminder. Ruby used an explosive to blow up Jaune and Pyrrha shot me in the back with a railgun from a kilometer away when I was engaged with Ruby. Jaune had a butterfly land on his face and couldn't see for the whole exchange. That damned butterfly would NOT get off his face either. It was a mess for us all around.

"Let's try me and Pyrrha now," I suggested. Hopefully I can avoid working with Jaune for the rest of this training time. Jaune subtly sent me a pulse of thankfulness for the suggestion.

"That sounds like a good idea," he said as he stood up. "But we really do need to work together. I guess we can work together on dinner instead. It's more fun anyways," he offered.

I glared at him. That utterly two-faced bastard. Get beat up again with him or cook with him 'sampling' all my food before Ruby and Pyrrha get it. I glanced at the two girls to see an eager look in their eyes. I was, to my detriment, the best cook on the team.

Beat up in humiliating fashion… or cook dinner with a kitchen pest. A tough decision, truly.

"Come on, Pyrrha," I muttered. I almost missed Ruby high-five Jaune behind my back with a victorious smirk on both of their faces.

I'd been played by my own sister and partner.

Pyrrha snickered beside me. I looked at her beside me, where she looked at me with wide, innocent eyes.

"I'm going to poison you all..." I muttered.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Oh no…"_

" _Abyss! How's my favorite little brother doing."_

" _And she's brought her team too…"_

" _Hi."_

" _Shut up, Russel."_

" _They really let you treat them like that?"_

" _It's the only way to reign them in. I had to beat them all up but Cardin's always trying something."_

" _No I'm-!"_

" _Do you want me to put you in the corner again?!"_

" _No, ma'am."_

" _Put your hair out, Yang, before I get a fire extinguisher again."_

" _Again?"_

" _Russel I sw-"_

" _Yang burned down a Signal classroom in our sophomore year. Abyss flooded the room with saltwater from a portal to get rid of it, but I was already spraying her with a fire extinguisher."_

" _Ruby!"_

" _Ahahahaha!"_

" _So you came for free food?"_

" _Well, obviously. And there's eight weirdos outside the door."_

" _Just ignore them and they'll go away. Eventually. Hopefully."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I didn't spend all my time during Beacon's classes playing around in alternate dimensions. Sometimes something interesting occured.

"We're not going to be using traditional dust today," Doctor Peach said somewhat excitedly. Curious eyes turned to her. Not my own eyes, although I paid a little more attention to the words that my parallel on Remnant heard. I was busy collecting flora and fauna from a safer parallel of Skyrim for Polendina. I owed him a favor after he made a runic structure that collected all types of affinity from an environment using a catalyst of nature affinity. It was useful for me.

"You see," Doctor Peach continued, "recently several colleagues of mine realized that fire root, light bulbs, water fruit, and so on display similar effects to dust if treated correctly, though it takes a fair bit of coaxing and is a little weaker."

That got my attention if nothing else. I stopped running around caves and travelled through the void in an instant, replacing my avatar in Remnant, to look at Doctor Peach with the same curiosity as the other students.

"You see, with the addition of an affiliated dust type with the crop, like water dust for the water fruit, fire for the fire root, and so on, the crop will act in the same way as the dust." Doctor Peach sprinkled some blue dust on top of what looked like a blue cantaloupe cut in half, though there was a natural basin inside.

I recognized it as a water fruit, which I made with Poledina. They stored water and a little air inside the currently empty basin, if I recall. It let them stay suspended in the ocean waters below the waves. The water had already been removed in this case, leaving bluish purple flesh between an empty pit of an interior and the somewhat tough outside.

"The minimum amount of dust required is a ratio of three to five in comparison to the grams of the crop in question," Peach continued. All the students watched her raptly. This was new and interesting. Dust was amazing but at the end of the day it was just dust; an everyday commodity. This was completely new.

Peach continued babbling on the varying results of dust on the crops and how she wished there was a dust to affiliate with white sap while she did the experiment. After sprinkling the dust on the fruit's inside the flesh seemed to get bluer and I barely saw some moisture fill the interior.

"So there's barely any water now but if you measure it you'd see that the effect of the dust was nearly twice as much as normal! This can be measured by the amount of water expelled from the cells inside the fruit. Now, normally the cells use a system similar to the gills of saltwater fish to expel salts and maintain an isotonic gradient but in this case the output of water to the water-holding organ is simply appearing spontaneously! We don't understand why in the slightest, obviously, but it's been deemed safe! And now we'll be getting to test this for ourselves! We'll be using the wattage of the light bulbs, which are produced around the equator since they do SO MUCH photosynthesis that they developed electrical defenses to parasites!"

I got out my scroll from under the table and discreetly texted Polendina. _'Scientists figured out that the crops amplify the effects of dust. I believed we planned for this. Affinities working in tandem, that is. Details?'_

I barely waited a minute before receiving a response. _'I know. On the cover of Dust Science Weekly last month. It's big news. Lab's in a bustle. Should I release the new wave of crops or the amp? When?'_

' _The amp in a few months. Preferably January. Add in the semblance amp too but remember to jack the prices. I don't want it getting into the hands of every two bit gangster with a semblance, which applies to an unfortunate number of huntsmen. Call it safe but make sure people understand that it's experimental. Remnant's still adapting to the new sources of energy and sustenance. Atlas hasn't publicly weaponized the crops yet, for example, though we both know that Ironwood has made LB fuelled exo suits. Give them a month. In fact… that gives me an idea.'_

' _K. An idea for me?'_

' _No. You're doing great. Help Penny a little with her golems.'_

' _Ah. They're magical VI; virtual intelligence. P made a pseudo OS for the golems to make commands and such. Connecting the prototypes to a computer is in progress. Doesn't look good. Magical computers don't work. Too much work, too little reward. We've considered using a golem for the computer like a hive-mind but signals are trouble. There's no magical wifi to connect the golems on.'_

That jogged something in my memories. Hivemind… interesting.

' _I have a potential solution. I'll contact you later with a material to research that has the potential to act as a 'cell tower' for the golems.'_

' _Rly?!'_

I rolled my eyes and glanced back up at Professor Peach. She was long gone in a lecture on theories about alternative renewable energy sources to dust, using my company's work as examples, though she put it all on a pedestal a bit.

' _Yes really. I'll see you soon. Oh, and I got some interesting magical plants for you. They've got no aura but display odd affinities and attributes.'_

' _I think we've worn that field of research down except for making new plants from your affinities and potentially more animals other than the kataigida but sure. It's worth a look at.'_

I put away the scroll, the conversation done, and wondered if I would ever stop rocking the foundations of Remnant's science community. I don't even have a tenth of the research Polendina does released since he focuses on magical stuff now. Biological stuff like cloning and genetic modification as well as advanced robotics like Penny were his focuses. Penny was apparently coming into her own as a golemancer now, though I've left her and Poledina to their own methods with that particular field. I'm too inexperienced to be of any help.

"Actually, how DOES that work? Perhaps you can enlighten us, Mister Mavros?" I looked around to see people staring at me curiously. It only took me a moment to recall what Peach was talking about. Oh, how the fire root generates so much heat. Right.

"Corporate secret," I said with a shrug. Peach looked interested and a little mischievous.

"So you do know!" she crowed. I looked flatly at her.

"Of course I know. Anything else?" Peach paused with a frown.

"Well… no. Not really. I could get sued if I actually figured it out. Damn patents…"

"Politics is the antithesis of progress," I said wistfully. "That's why uncle Mystic controls most of Vale one way or another. It's too troublesome to not do so."

I got some weird and somewhat jealous looks for that but I just stared vacantly at the dust on professor Peach's table until people got distracted. I was gone, back to poking around the multiverse a minute later. It was way more interesting than sitting in class listening to things I already knew.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Roman. I have another job for you. One that will prove VERY useful to you."_

" _I'm all ears. Or, well, Cesium is."_

" _What are you going to make me do now?!"_

" _Shut up, Cesium! I'm talking to the boss. So what's this new job?"_

" _I have reason to believe that Atlas has developed new weapons from the products of Nature's Bounty. Get information on them and their cutting edge tech. Just a checkup to make sure they're not making doomsday devices."_

" _That's not too hard. Atlas isn't exactly easy but I've got some friends there. Anything else?"_

" _Mmm… yes, actually. While you're at getting information on Atlas tech I sold a particular gun to them a while back. The railgun crammed into a revolver I used during that one round of the Mistral regional tournament about four years ago. Find out what happened to it. Where the revolver is now and what Atlas has gleaned from it if anything."_

" _I remember that round of the tournament. I'll check it out but I'm pretty busy with Cindy's and my joint project. I'm already working later than usual."_

" _I know. The joint job with Cinder is your priority right now, though she could stand to work a little more on her own plans. She's leaning more on you than I'd like right now. That said, your other responsibilities right now don't mean I don't want this other job done. If Atlas has its toys lying around it may also be an opportunity to defame them like we are doing to Vale or repurpose their tech for our own use. Considering that this would be classified tech we may be able to get a patent on it and claim it as our own before Atlas even gets to use it."_

" _Dust below they'd hate us for that. I wanna do it just for the death threats."_

" _I'm almost certain that General Ironwood hates me already. I haven't gotten any death threats, sadly. They would be amusing to read. Anyways, don't worry about how much Atlas hates me. Or, well, me and Mahogany. Just don't antagonize them needlessly. Get something good out of them before they hate you. Otherwise they're just a missed opportunity."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Well this is somewhat awkward," I said. The girl in front of me blinked in confusion. She had short aquamarine hair, half lidded sea blue eyes, and skin paler than even Ruby's. She wore a lavender colored hoodie and ripped jeans on her, though I thought I saw a glint of something silver on her wrists.

The room I was in was clearly personal. A black and purple bed sat in a corner and a shelf of magical books on rituals, general magics, and a copy of twilight and some other bad teenage romance. Little knick knacks adorned the room in various places from what looked like a kit to make friendship beads to a lego Indiana Jones set. So why was I here?

"I thought I was summoning a dark god?" she said in some confusion. She blinked sleepily at me.

"What words did you use, exactly?" I asked for clarification.

"Oh, um, 'hail to the dark one, it who will destroy all, one of many forms, sibling to beasts, and master of the infinite void. Heed my call and come to my side so I may lavish thee in my worship.'"

I considered the words for a moment before latching onto the important bit. "I don't feel very worshipped."

The girl frowned. "I don't feel like I'm in the presence of a god, although summoning a nekomata is a little interesting. I mean, this isn't my first time summoning things but it's mostly been a specific sheep or a toothbrush or something. It's always worked fine. I even summoned the goddess Iris once in exchange for some cupcakes I made but… I thought I had this down. I've been practicing for weeks too."

"I fill out most of those specifications actually," I said offendedly. "Although I never tried to destroy a universe before. And I think it's more accurate to say I am of the void than it's master but I could be called a master of myself so perhaps that's loosely accurate." She looked at me skeptically. I sighed and released my aura. I didn't even bother to press it onto her. She was only level ninety seven.

The girl's eyes widened and she let out a sort of squeak as she stared at me. "That'll do!" she said, her voice having raised an octave or two. I pulled back my aura into me again and the girl relaxed.

"So where am I?" I asked. "I was about to meet a friend of mine again and I got dragged here while I was hopping dimensions." I paused a moment as I got my bearing around dimensions. I looked over mine briefly from the greater void for a moment and found myself in one of the sub-dimensions linked to my destination, which was the DxD-verse I visited over the summer because of Salem. I was probably in the underworld or heaven or some other world that exists alongside this Earth. "I'm in the right dimension. Well, a sub-dimension of it. So why am I here?"

"Ahh…" The girl stopped and flipped a few pages in her book. I glanced around the room in the spare few seconds. She held her hand out and began what sounded like another chant. "Dark being from the nether reaches of our realm, I bind myself to you and thus sip from the well of power in you. I invest in you myself that you might do the same. May our-"

"Hold on," I interrupted her. She ignored me.

"-lives forever be linked and our fates bound as this servant-"

I had enough. I stepped out of the ritual circle to be right in front of the girl, who was significantly shorter than me. She froze and looked up.

"I thought a god would be okay with another follower," she said hoarsely from fear.

"Tough luck, I'm not going to sit in that circle and let you finish whatever that was." I deadpanned. "Now why, exactly, were you trying to bind me to you?"

"It was mutually beneficial!" the girl claimed immediately. "It was a mutual binding! I get some nifty powers of yours and you get a follower you can task with mighty stuff and a little boost in power!"

I looked at the girl with skeptical eyes. She bit her lip nervously. I wrapped my aura around her and she froze, petrified. I skimmed the surface of her thoughts with my mind affinity and kept watch.

"You weren't trying to enslave me?" I asked.

"No!" _Truth_.

"And I would have gotten power from it?"

"Well, um, yeah. A bit. I guess if I was your - your first then it would actually be a lot." _Truth_ "It's kinda like a devil contract. What magicians use!" _Truth_.

I was feeling a little less angry at the girl now. "There are no downsides to this… ritual?"

"No." _Lie/truth._

I narrowed my eyes and pressed my aura onto the girl. "Wait! I'm sorry! There's a little downside! An obligation!" I sighed.

"What is it?" I asked irritatedly. I just wanted to visit Ophis, damnit.

"Gods have a moral obligation to protect their followers," the girl rushed out quickly, "and their souls and magical reserves are vulnerable through their followers." I let a moment of silence pass.

"That's it?"

"Uh-huh!" _Truth._

I sighed lightly and pulled my aura back. I filled it with void and the girl seemed ready to faint when I flared it.

"You're back," a voice said to my right. I glanced over and saw Ophis looking somewhat pleased as she stared at me.

"Hello, Ophis." The magician's faint look changed to one of horror and faint reverence. "Do you have any experience with followers?" I waved at the girl. Ophis glanced at her and she flinched.

"Yes," she answered. I waited for a moment before I remembered how Ophis liked to talk with people.

"She seems honest about making me her… patron god? Is that the right term?"

"Yes."

"Well besides not being a god-"

"Yes you are. Your soul is above that of mortals."

"-Do you think I should accept it?" Ophis paused.

"Having followers is amusing," she stated. "But some of them are clingy. And when you get too powerful the other gods get afraid. I have no use for them since my powers are already infinite. They would benefit you." I considered her advice before shrugging and turning to the girl.

"I'll give it a try. I don't think I want too many followers though. Having a church devoted to me seems extremely annoying. I'm basically immune to attacks on my soul due to my affiliation with void but I don't like the idea of my soul becoming some sort of public space. My soul is mine and I'm not very interested in power at the moment. Having a presence in this dimension might make it easier to travel here, though, and I could use somebody around here to tell me when something interesting happens. An agent of sorts. So sure. I'll be your patron god. Just don't advertise that I'm sponsoring you or be annoying in general. Thank you for showing me this. Knowing about this patron thing is fairly interesting."

Having somebody in this dimension would be good for keeping tabs on my business here. If this dimension was about to be destroyed for one reason or another I'd prefer to know. Sure ,there are a million other dimensions just like this one, but this one is mine. Besides that, it would be good for understanding how this interesting little system worked. It could prove useful in the future. I'm also curious about these benefits.

The girl seemed shell-shocked. "Apostle," she whispered. I quirked an eyebrow.

"Are you referring to me?" She blinked a few times before looking at me and Ophis in awe.

"You're the Apostle!" She seemed to be getting excited. "Ophis' right hand! The one who suppressed the heads of the three factions themselves and the conqueror of the vanishing dragon's host!" She looked at me in awe and I blinked at her owlishly.

"Right…" I was a little caught off guard at how she, and likely others, apparently knew about me. "So do you want to do the ritual thing?" The girl whipped out her book and quickly found the right page.

"So what's been going on with you?" I asked Ophis as the girl began chanting.

"Nothing," Ophis said bluntly.

"Nothing?" I was a little doubtful of that.

"Nothing," she affirmed. "I stayed in the Pendragon manor and slept. I also stole Mab's sugar cookies. That is all I did." I blinked at the second part but knowing Ophis she just teleported the cookies to her and ate them. Nothing is probably exactly what she did.

"-and lay my soul in your hands for eternity." The girl finished. I felt a strange feeling in my soul, like a ripple going through it. Suddenly I felt a connection. A soul nearly touching mine but not quite. The girl's soul was a pale silver, almost white. She had no affinity for purity or anything, however. Metal and nature were the two I recognized of the four. To get the other two I had to observe her.

 **Elseria Vertagris**

 **Titles: First follower of Abyss**

 **Level – 97**

 **HP – 360**

 **AP – 5760/5760**

 **MP - 212/7160**

 **STR - 20 (+5%)=**

 **VIT - 36 (+5%)=**

 **DEX - 64 (+5%)=**

 **INT - 179 (+0%)=**

 **WIS - 144 (+0%)=**

 **LUK - 52 (+0%)=**

 **Semblance: [Locked]**

 **Affinities:**

 **Storm: 5595**

 **Nature: 1092**

 **Void: 798**

 **Metal: 715**

 **Divine: 171**

 **Communion: 102**

 **Space: 276**

 **Perks:**

 **Devotee of Abyss - Due to being under the patronage of Abyss Mavros, who has deemed to patron you, you are granted one percent of his strongest three affinities, though the amount of affinity available to you may be variable upon his will. Additionally, you may focus and communicate with said patron, though he may choose to ignore you, and he may transfer power to you as he sees fit. In exchange for these boons your pools of energy are completely under his control and your energy regenerations will fuel his pools of energy when not in use for your own reserves of energy.**

 **Bio: Elseria is the third daughter of a prominent exorcist, Jameson Vertagris. She holds no hold on family inheritance or important connections within the church, which her family has served within for generations. With no unique affinity or outstanding talent, Elsiria had no support from her family or the church in learning magical means of success, nor did she have any talent in exorcism as her sister did and thus turned to divine methods of success years ago.**

 **Unfortunately, Elsiria found no divine visits from angels either. Her father cut off support for her due to her lack of talent and poor relations with him that persisted for years. She was excommunicated at her father's request and turned to more pagan methods of magical success, which she stubbornly persisted at.**

 **Her attempts in the conventional magical world were very slightly successful. She succeeded in binding an undine to her as a familiar early on and achieved a brief apprenticeship with a magician by the name of Dave Klippin. The apprenticeship ended quickly after Klippin learned of Elseria's former ties to the Catholic church's exorcism sect.**

 **Elseria, in desperate need of personal success, sought to contract with a god. Specifically Ahriman, the Iranic god of darkness and evil, due to his inactivity and placement in a comatose state centuries ago. In her practices she came to meet several notable supernatural figures including Iris, greek god of rainbows, a reaper in the service of Hades named Ulk, and the deputy shaman of the pagan beliefs of Europe, who is only known as Alan.**

 **Upon attempting to summon a fragment of Ahriman to attempt a binding Elseria contacted you, who fit the specifications of her summoning chant better.**

I had to admit, Elseria (and finally I have a name) led an interesting life. Not an exceptional one, but an interesting one nonetheless. More interesting was this new perk of hers, though. It didn't register as a perk to me on my status screen, though.

The connection was like I had a path between my soul and hers that I could send things through. Experimentally, I sent a little mana through. I felt it seem to enter the girl's soul and refuel her, though her reserves of mana were already full. I felt a little sheepish when I realized that I just sent three times her mana capacity through our link.

That said, there were MUCH more interesting benefits that she had than that little energy medium. Like Elseria's newfound ability to use void and ability to use aura, or senjutsu and touki as it's known here.

With a pulse of life affinity, Elseria gasped and woke up. I blinked lazily at her. "Congratulations, you're now incredibly powerful. You also have touki and the potential to use senjutsu if you practice, not to mention the ability to use the same element Ophis and I use, void. While we're on that topic, could you try out using said element?"

"It's a storm in my soul…" she whispered in awe. A massive smile split her face. "I'm so powerful!" She sounded giddy.

"Elseria," I said loudly. She blinked and nodded, still a bit drunk on power. I felt a faint pull on my soul. It wasn't using my affinities, but more along the line of imitating my affinities. I also saw her aura go faintly red as she drew on our connection.

Ah, I see what happened. She doesn't use my actual soul. She gains my affinity. An 'Abyss' affinity so she and I are connected. She can contact me, use our connection, and so on, but it's a two way street. Just as she has a little aspect of myself affinity-wise I can influence her through that affinity. I'm gaining a little extra regeneration in my aura and mana due to her connection with me too. It wasn't like I was gaining a lot, but I was gaining a little. I suppose that's why gods have millions of worshippers. I can see how even a quarter of Elsiria's benefits times a million or so would make a god incredibly powerful. I can likely use her affinities if I felt like it as well.

"Well," I stood up. "This has been interesting to say the least. As your patron I'd ask that you just keep an eye on current magical events and train your aur- your touki and senjutsu. If something really important happens, inform me." An amusing thought occured to me that made me question whether I was a kind god or not.

"Oh, and move to Japan. Kuoh. Apply to the academy they have as a student or teacher if possible. There's some people I want you to keep an eye on there. Rias Gremory, her pawn Issei, and the residents of that town. Do so with haste. This should help you with the move."

I worked my affinities and made the air over my hand denser than usual. My metal affinity worked to transmute the air into gold and in an instant I had a gold bar in my hand. I repeated the process five times, setting the bars on the floor. ElsEria watched with surprised but resigned eyes, like she had just come to terms with the fact that I was a bit absurd magically.

"There," I said, pleased. "If you don't know Japanese I suggest you find some magical means of translation. It should be easy. Goodbye, now. Remember, when something interesting happens I want to know. I have other dimensions to pay attention to." I flicked my wrist and opened a portal to the Pendragon residence, leaving my budding acolyte in shock behind me.

Yeah, this place is about as I remember it. As sudden as always. It's less absurd to find a new way to utilize my soul than to suddenly meet an infinitely powerful goddess that likes my cooking and follows me around at least.


	50. Chapter 50

**AN: First off, I'm sorry. I do try to keep a consistent schedule of uploading and for the second time I've slipped. Not too much but still, it's late. Believe me, I feel pretty bad about it.**

 **The reason this chapter is late is mainly because I tried to make another crossover. That is, to make another chapter like the Harry Potter one because I thought you all would like it. I just couldn't find the motivation for it. I made some small notes on what I wanted to do, planned a little writing time, and so on, but I would sit at my computer and the words wouldn't come if I did anything. I took about any excuse I could to avoid writing. I wasn't happy with what I wrote and I was slow as hell to write even that.**

 **In the end I deleted the whole thing and felt better for it. Then I wrote this chapter, which gave me my groove back. I could, quite literally, feel my enthusiasm for writing slowly return as I wrote this. And writing this chapter is what I did for the past week after I wasted my spring break fruitlessly.**

 **I hope you enjoy what I eventually wrote. I think I know what I'm going to be writing for the next few chapters so writing might be less delayed as I try to make up for this late chapter. But there's a problem.**

 **Finals are coming up soon. Finals and school obligations and projects and so on. Teachers really pile on the work at the end of the year for some reason. I don't get it but, long story short, I have school work piling up so I'm truly sorry to say that my writing might be delayed as I deal with school stuff. I might just make my updates irregular though.**

 **At any rate, updates might get a little wonky and atypical as school ends for this year. I'll put in effort to keep the schedule once more but between my final tests of the year and putting my hobbies on hold the choice I have to make is pretty clear. I hope you all understand.**

[||||= **LEVEL 50=** ||||]

Everything in the distance was beautiful and utterly otherworldly. The mountains were made of a purplish crystal, zircon specifically, and the grass was utterly black, performing photosynthesis far more perfectly than traditional plants. Little to no light reflected off the plants local to this dimension at all. At least, not on this planet.

There were a sparse few creatures on the planet as well, mainly oddly amorphous creatures that fed on plants or naturally existing pockets of chemicals along with a few carnivores, though the carnivores looked like giant mosquitoes that sucked the blobs to nothing for food, clearly insects of a sort. The amorphous creatures bred fast enough to have not evolved a resistance to the carnivores. The carnivores were slow breeding and long lived enough that natural selection would occur slowly.

There were more creatures on the planet, of course. It took far more than two varieties of creatures to make an ecosystem but those two forms of life were the most prevalent on land. The oceans were filled with more traditional creatures, including a seafaring jellyfish-like version of the amorphous creatures and a few rather aggressive insect sort of creatures that used horizontally placed and specially evolved wings as flippers to float through the water and prey on both the massive groups of jellyfish-blobs and occasionally others of their species. None of them were dangerous to me anyways so it didn't matter. I didn't want to go into the oceans anyways.

Curiously enough there were five moons on this planet. Two happened to be in the sky, though one of them circled the planet every few hours or so and the other in the sky at the moment barely moved at all. The sun was fairly similar to Earth or Remnant's star, just being a yellow light in the sky. It was somewhat closer to this planet than either of the others though, making the climate significantly hotter than Earth's or Remnant's, around a hundred fourty fahrenheit during whatever season I was in. I hadn't cared to find out. The heat hadn't bothered me. My body was engineered for harsh climates and I had my heat resistance skill levelled to a hundred. That said, I felt uncomfortably warm if I was in more than a thin T-shirt and shorts that breathed well.

This planet was where I had currently decided to test my void abilities, particularly the mantle. I had plenty of theories on how to use void offensively and they needed testing and training. At the moment my tactics for using void consisted of throwing void affinity at people, which admittedly was nigh impossible to block and extremely destructive to anything with a soul or that relied on mana, affinity, or aura, and running away into the greater void to continue throwing void affinity at people.

This was, obviously, unacceptable. I was a wizard, damnit! I didn't like melee combat. Swinging swords or using my halberd was my backup. It's supposed to be my backup weapon for any real fights. It just so happens that it's been sufficient for huntsman activities as of late. Magic was my forte. My primary weapon. But the most powerful magic I had was one I barely had any technique in. Granted, I hadn't had it for long but that just meant that I had to fix the problem as soon as possible.

I settled myself down on the cliff I had decided to practice atop and called forth the void. Using the mantle for practice lately had drastically increased my void affinity, making my affinity far stronger than it had been even a week previously. It would be my primary affinity if I had a traditional elemental for the affinity. With Pit's static level of affinity, a somewhat small boost all in all, however, it remained my second largest. That was fine by me since I had an infinite amount of the affinity on call. It was better to exploit my primary affinity skill to make my storms far more powerful, not to mention how my semblance was affected by storm being my primary affinity.

I pulsed the void in me weakly to clear the air of any affinity floating around me. Immediately the area an a fifty foot radius around me dropped drastically in affinity. It made it easier for me to practice if my affinity wasn't being interfered with.

First I took my whole affinity and tried something I had only done a few times. I added mana to it. As usual it resisted but the resistance was token at best. My void affinity was strong enough that I could control it far better than when I had initially attempted to add mana. But the first time I had fused mana and void the entire store of mana in my body had been used to make the magical black hole. One touch and the entire store of mana was simply eaten by my affinity. However, that was when I had barely ten void affinity. Now I had more than a hundred thousand.

The void tentatively touched my supply of mana. Immediately my void affinity hungrily consumed the mana and I felt my mana be drawn into the affinity. I forced the affinity to very slowly consume my mana rather than all at once as it seemed to want to. I lost mana at a rate equivalent to that I regenerated it at, but it took effort to hold the void back, even with my high affinity.

I carefully manipulated my mana into making a mana structure. A long bolt of solidified mana that I would propel. I hadn't used solidified mana in so long. I always used hard light or ice now.

I tried introducing void to the mana structure and found it attempting to consume the structure as it did my mana normally. Irritating.

I muttered a few expletives under my breath and changed tactics. I made another mana structure but mixed aura into the structure, merging the two energies. I finally added void and found that the structure held. Void, luckily, didn't attempt to affect my aura. My aura was naturally resistant to void as it was one of my affinities, so it could act as a buffer between the void and other energies.

Opening my eyes I beheld the projectile in front of me. It looked purple, which I recognized as the red of my aura and the blue of mana mixed together. Coursing through the purple, though, in inky blotches, were collections of void. Pitch black veins ran through the projectile, giving it an exotic marble-like appearance.

Experimentally I pressed my will on the aura, void, and mana projectile and sent it flying randomly. It impacted the area below my cliff on a small hill and I sensed void rush out from the impact site. It consumed my residual mana available as the aura quickly dispersed and tore through the surrounding affinity. It died off rather quickly and the area was devoid **(AN: Hehe)** of affinity but otherwise normal.

How unimpressive. It was nothing more than a more convenient way to use void at range. Normally I had to erase all the affinity between me and a target. This new technique was nothing more than a particularly deadly projectile. Not to mention more taxing than usual due to requiring both void and mana to use.

But perhaps this new projectile had promise. It was the only way I could use void with any sort of structure. It wasn't much but it was potential.

Second, I made the same projectile but I infused storm affinity into my aura. I smiled wickedly as the structure was stable. I felt like a kid in a toy store. Now what exactly would this do?

I eagerly flung the projectile down below and saw it impact a tree. The mixture of energies rushed out for a long ways, far more than the previous projectile despite the fairly equal amount of energies used. The energies also lingered in the area somewhat for a few seconds before dispersing completely, the aura proving more resilient when infused with storm than not.

I narrowed my eyes at the affected area and scoured it with my senses. My jaw dropped slightly as I found the area completely devoid of water and static electricity. The hell? Wait…

I made another projectile exactly the same and closely observed the effects as it impacted. My wicked smile returned in full force as every affinity was untouched besides water, air, and electricity. The components making up the storm affinity.

I excitedly made another projectile while substituting the storm affinity for life affinity. I tossed it at a patch of trees and watched with gleaming eyes as the tree impacted wilted and died instantly, as did several trees near it and every living thing on or near the tree. Once more every affinity other than life affinity was untouched.

I chuckled lowly before laughing a little louder. Void affinity _could_ play nice with other energies. I just had to dilute it in my aura since it didn't erase my aura. Using my aura as a medium to combine energies wasn't exactly an original idea, but aura was like that, an affinity sponge. Even void could be used with aura. It didn't hold for long with both void and another affinity but instability was hardly a bad thing when you were making weapons.

I wonder what else I can do with void?

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _What do you think?"_

" _You look great, honey."_

" _Ignore your father. Your hair is too loose. Here."_

" _Thanks, m-ow!"_

" _Thank me later. Qrow hasn't seen you in your dress, right?"_

" _No. Agh! Stop pulling!"_

" _Good, at least follow that tradition. And… are you sure we have everything ready?"_

" _Yes, mom. There's the napkins, enough tables and then some, the alcohol is arriving in bulk in about two hours - well, one hour by now, and so on. Everything conceivable is ready or set up to be ready very soon."_

" _I don't like it. Qrow's semblance is bad luck, sweetie. Something's going to go wrong."_

" _On his third date the restaurant we were at was robbed and, as Qrow stopped it, bullets destroyed the food we were having. We didn't get a refund."_

" _What?!"_

" _Be quiet, honey. That's what I mean. Something is going to happen. Maybe several things."_

" _We've double, triple, and quadruple checked everything. We have backups for everything conceivable and plans for if they somehow go wrong anyways."_

" _Mmm…"_

" _Besides, some things have gone wrong already. Qrow's semblance is terrible for him but it's not all-powerful. As Qrow, or more accurately his sister said: 'It spoils the milk. It doesn't burn the house down'."_

" _Alright. And what's this about Qrow's sister?"_

" _She's not coming."_

" _I thought we went over everything? Do you have a plan if she does? It sounds like you don't want her here."_

" _I kind of don't. I don't want her here, that is. Raven's apparently not much of a people person and a dark spot on Qrow's family. I doubt she even knows about his wedding, and even if she does she won't make a scene so we can deal with her in private. Qrow has three separate arguments against whatever she can say. He made a script, even, and practiced it just in case she does come."_

" _Hmm…"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Ruby, is your dress on yet?" I called. I straightened the bow on one of our wedding gifts at the same time.

"Almost!" she called back. "The lace is kinda hard to tie!"

I nodded to myself at that. She would probably take another ten minutes if that was what was causing her problems.

"Eep!" I winced as I heard a loud thump from Ruby's room. The sound of something breaking came soon after. "Gah! I thought that only happened in cartoons!"

"What did you break?" I called.

"I slipped, hit my dresser, and the glass of water I got earlier fell on my head! My hair's wet!"

I very nearly punched the wall right then and there. I took a moment to calm down and remind myself that punching the wall would just make a hole and I would feel genuinely angry afterwards. "The wedding's in thirty minutes, Ruby," I said exasperatedly.

"Hold on I'm gonna-" I sensed a small flare of heat affinity come from Ruby's room, "OHDUSTIT'SWORSENOW!"

I paused for a moment and wondered how Ruby could manage to be clumsy with such a high DEX stat. We've done so many exercises for coordination. Or, well, Qrow and her did them. She had to do them to properly learn how to use a scythe. Maybe being clumsy is just a Ruby thing.

"Abyss! I burned the dress a little… actually it looks kind of cool. It made the lace blacker and it goes well with the red. Do we… can we fix this?"

"Blame Qrow!" I responded without hesitation. Ruby paused for a moment before I heard the door to her room open and her footsteps come into the kitchen.

"How do I look?" she asked. I glanced at her and gave her a once-over. It was the same dress Ruby would use to the Beacon dance, although now the neckline was suspiciously blackened. She would probably get a new one for when the dance eventually did come around considering how girls are.

The invitation specifically said 'Wear whatever the hell you want' on it so a normal dress was probably fine. Weddings were much less formal in Remnant too. They were more about partying and laughing than formal dresses and making out with a bridesmaid in a closet, though that might have just been my dad in my last life.

"Pretty good," I acknowledged. "The burnt neckline adds personality." Ruby stopped for a second and craned her neck to look at her back.

"Is it bad back there?"

"It creeps down a little," I admitted. "So long as you don't point it out most people won't notice. I was serious about blaming Qrow by the way."

"Uncle Qrow shouldn't be a scapegoat at his own wedding!" Ruby insisted. "This is HIS day! And Bella's," she added. I shrugged and waved all the presents into my soul space. I glanced down at my grey suit, which looked thankfully not burnt, and wondered if it would stay that way.

"Come on. It's time to pick up sis." I stepped through a portal and Ruby came immediately after to stare at Yang with me.

"Uhhhh…" Ruby said, voicing both our thoughts.

"Oh dust! Abyss you have to help me!" Yang grabbed me by my shoulders while I stared at her blank faced. Eye shadow was leaking down her face a little while her hair looked like it was messily dyed hot pink at the tips. Her dress was also torn around her arms and at one spot on her waist.

"Where can we get a new dress in ten minutes?!" she demanded.

"Oh no," Ruby whimpered.

"Hot pink?" I asked with a quizzical eyebrow. A spark of fury entered Yang's eyes.

"Poodle grimm," she spat.

"Nevermind," I muttered.

"Ummm - do you have a spare dress?!" Ruby asked a little quickly, seemingly panicking a little.

"This IS the spare dress!"

"What happened to the first one?" I asked. Yang grit her teeth and pointed towards the corner. A yellow and light red (not pink according to my sisters) dress was covered in some sort of red sauce and what looked like burnt scrambled egg. A brief sniff of the air revealed that it was, in fact, burnt egg.

"Your day has been worse than ours," I deadpanned. Ruby nodded while looking concernedly over Yang's dress.

"Can you fix it?" Yang asked hopefully.

"… Probably not," I said with a frown. I didn't have spare dresses or anything like that. "You can probably wash your face off for that ruined makeup."

"Maybe…" she said miserably.

"Actually…" I paused. "Do you have an old dress?" Yang blinked at me and walked to her closet. She rummaged around for a moment before pulling out an old light pink dress. It looked a little stained with something around the bust but it would work. Probably.

"Here." I pushed space attuned mana into the dress and wove it into an enchantment. The dress got bigger dramatically and I glanced between it and Yang, who looked at me like I was a saint.

"Yesss!" Yang cried with a fistpump. She eagerly took the newly enlarged dress and ran into the bathroom. I walked over to Yang's bed and sat down to wait while Ruby sat down on a chair and fiddled with the burnt part of her dress.

Yang came out a few minutes later looking uncomfortable. "It's… a little tight." I glanced down from Yang's face and immediately averted my eyes.

"Yes. It definitely is," I agreed.

"Can you make it bigger?" Yang asked hopefully. I glanced at Yang's breasts, which were nearly breaking the dress from the inadequate size, and directed the space mana around a little.

Yang breathed in relief as the dress loosened a little and looked down at the dress.

"It's a little tight still but it's better than before." Yang smiled in relief and looked at me. "Thanks. Crisis averted." I blinked and shook my head while pointing to her hair. Yang looked again and immediately got angry again.

"Right. Not averted. At all."

"There's only ten minutes left until we have to be there..." Ruby said miserably.

"Maybe I could wash out the hot pink?" Yang said hopefully.

"If you're very quick. As in five minutes quick," I gave her. Yang immediately retreated into the bathroom and I heard water begin running.

"SHIT!" I heard a splash come from the bathroom.

"Of course," I said as Ruby quickly opened the bathroom door. "Because why would that go even slightly right?"

"It's ruined!" Yang wailed. "Again!" I looked down at her dress, which was now wet around her assets and a slightly different shade of pink. Pinkish water

"Five minutes," I reminded her. Yang looked between her wet pinkish hair and wet bust and grabbed a towel.

"Give me two," she said with with weary resolution. I closed the door and glanced away out the window to see Tai's car gone. I wondered what was happening with everyone else. Most likely something bad. I hope nobody gets in a car crash… I should have brought a second medical kit.

"Okay," Yang said resignedly. I looked over to her to see her hair dyed entirely pink along with her now wrinkled and uniformly pink dress. I immediately came to the conclusion that she had soaked her hair in the pink dyed bathwater along with her dress.

"That's… well it's better than before," I said with a nod. Ruby let out a sigh that expressed equal amounts of irritation and resignation as I opened up a portal. But before I entered I paused.

"You really don't look all that bad," I added to Yang. "It could be much worse."

"Let's just get this over with," she said despondently.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _WHERE THE HELL'S THE ALCOHOL?!"_

" _This is the alcohol, sir."_

" _THIS IS BEER!"_

" _Yeah, that's what you… ordered… Oh. You're not Crow Brandish, are you?"_

" _I'm Qrow Branwen!"_

" _Ah shit. I'm sorry, sir. I think there's been a mistake on the company's part."_

" _You think?!"_

" _Uh huh. Crow Brandish bought fifty cases of beer for a party. You got the wine, champagne, and extra wine glasses, right?"_

" _I… yeah. There's more people showing up than expected and we needed spares. Everyone kind of needs a glass. There's the stuff for cocktail hour but not enough for the whole socializing thing before the ceremony…"_

" _Well there's a guy named Crow living in Atlas that just got a lot of nice alcohol. You, it seems, are not."_

" _Where am I going to get wedding drinks now?!"_

" _Try Tangerine's about two hours away. They have a little of everything, including the fancy stuff. Enough for a wedding anyways."_

" _The party starts in an hour."_

" _I can't really do more than say sorry, sir."_

"… _Leave the beer here. I have a plan. I think there's a store with dining ware pretty close to here, right?"_

" _There's a furniture store that has dinner sets three blocks from Tangerine's. They're just for display though. They only sell furniture and custom made tables and upholstery. I think they also do taxidermy."_

" _They don't sell glasses?"_

" _They're just for display. You'd have to go to Vale for any nice glasses. I really am sorry, sir."_

"…"

[|||| =+= ||||]

"It's worse than I thought," I admitted.

"Uh huh," Ruby agreed. Her burnt dress seemed small in comparison.

The bridesmaid, which was one of Bella's two cousins, was in various states of injury with two of Bella's friends and her other cousin. I clearly saw small claw marks on all of them. Perhaps the worst part was that the bridesmaid was holding a heavily bruised dead raccoon.

If my eyes weren't deceiving me it had been beaten before being strangled to death by a light blue ribbon around its neck, which seemed to be taken from the bridesmaid's dress. The blood on the knuckles of the bridesmaid seemed indicative of what caused the raccoon's bruises.

Taiyang, who was the best man, was laying on top of one of the tables just looking up at the treetops. He looked completely blank except for somewhat wider than normal eyes. In other words, he looked like he had seen some serious shit. On the plus side, his clothes weren't stained or anything. His yellow suit and tie looked mostly pristine.

Some of Qrow's friends had already arrived. Port was sleeping, Oobleck was moving sluggishly, which was still average compared to anyone normal, but was still highly concerning. Ozpin seemed perfectly fine and was drinking his coffee while his cane lay across his lap.

"Um, Professor Oobleck?" Yang asked tentatively.

"It's Doctor Oobleck!" he said by reflex. Immediately he blinked and turned to face us, having just gotten out from the portal. "Oh! You're here!" se said excitedly, regaining some of his usual vigour. He grabbed his coffee cup and took a quick sip before standing up. I immediately noticed blood around his… well his crotch. Something told me that it wasn't his and that he had a story to tell. Not that I was going to ask.

"Uhm, where's Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked confusedly.

"Qrow is on a liquor run," Oobleck answered, though he lost some of his usual vigour. He glanced to his left and we looked over to see a truckload of cheap beer.

"Could you explain a little more?" I asked. Oobleck sighed softly and sat back down. Before he spoke, though, Ozpin spoke up.

"I believe that I am best suited for this, Oobleck." Oobleck blinked at Ozpin before turning to his coffee and staring at the group of Bella's friends.

"Now," Ozpin began, "Qrow ordered some rather nice wines for the wedding but instead we got this." He gestured at the piles of beers. "He seemed to have some sort of idea and flew off to do something, though we don't know exactly what. He seemed rather determined. Miss Opaque is inside the chapel doing whatever it is women do. She appeared to be unscathed, as most of us here are not."

I nodded at all this before glancing at the bridesmaids. "And them?"

"Miss Opaque's friends and two of her cousins," he explained. "Her mother and father are inside with her. The majority of the wedding attendees were supposed to arrive by bus roughly twenty minutes ago but apparently there have been vehicular troubles. They were roughly two miles away last we heard from them twenty minutes ago and walking to the wedding as waiting for a mechanic would take too long."

We all mulled that over for a moment. "I guess we got off mostly lucky." I said to myself. I saw Yang look down at her pink dress and shake her head while Ruby gingerly moved her arm to touch the burnt portion of her dress but stopped herself with her arm halfway over he shoulder.

"Mostly lucky," I emphasized. "Besides the other guests and whoever's already here is there anyone else?" Ozpin shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. Both Bella and Qrow agreed to not host a large wedding. It is apparently friends and family only. The group of people arriving soon only number twelve people. As Qrow has no direct family besides the Xiao-Long and Rose family, his side of the ceremony is somewhat lacking in attendance."

"I see. Give me a moment," I said. I stretched out my senses through the forest and found the party guests more like three miles down the road, all looking somewhat ragged. Three of them had guns with them. Grimm weren't especially common on Patch but it was best to be prepared I suppose.

"Here," I waved my hand and the portal opened up. From the other side party guests stared through in shock. "Well? Come through," I told them as they stood still. "You're some of the last ones to arrive. As soon as Qrow comes back we're getting started."

I winced a little as the party guests cheered rather loudly. They all stepped through in a line. I nodded politely as several men clapped me on the shoulder with loud thanks and ladies cooed over me.

As they passed along I noted that Bella's family was mostly composed of thin women with long legs and arms, not much different from Bella except that most of them had dark blonde hair, as well as extremely large men.

They weren't fat men but huge, tall men with guts that hung out a little and arms as big as tree trunks as well as some impressive beards and mustaches.

The shortest man was still roughly six feet tall, taller than the average man on Remnant. Observe marked his strength at one hundred and fifty.

Last in line was a toothy little girl with dirty brown hair and eyes. "Thanks Mister Kitty! My legs were getting tired!" she giggled. She held out a pale blue flower to me and I paused for a moment before taking it. She skipped away happily to the now chatting throng of guests, who appeared to be congratulating the bridesmaid and her dead raccoon, who now looked extremely proud for some reason.

Meanwhile I stared at the flower in confusion trying to decide whether I should discreetly dump it on the bushes or shove it in my soul space and take it out as needed. Or should I pin it to my suit?

"Ugh. You're hopeless. Here," Yang chided. She grabbed the flower from me and took out a pin from _somewhere_ and pinned it to my suit. I blinked at the flower and shook it off. Who even gives flowers if they're not in a pot? You either dump them when nobody's looking or carry them around awkwardly. If you're lucky you can put them in a pot for a while until they wither.

I gave up on the flower business and looked at the first guy to approach me. He was the second person to cross through my portal and was carrying a beer bottle.

"Hey there, kid!" he spoke jovially with a wide smile. "Just wanna thank you again for helpin' us out back there. Here. I brought you a drink." He offered me the bottle, already opened somehow, and I took it before taking a sip. I didn't like it, but that was the case with most alcohol so I stomached it.

The man put his right hand over the top of his own beer and I blinked in surprise as he just popped the cap right off with his bare hands before flicking the cap into the woods somewhere.

"Now I suppose it's best I explain some things since our family is a little, well, weird."

I glanced to my left to see Yang chatting with three of the women over the dead raccoon with Ruby right beside her. She glanced at me and looked away a little guiltily. You traitor. I want to hide behind Yang too!

"We come off real strongly. I guess it's kinda like that in circus stuff. You're one of Bell's students, right?"

I nodded. "My name's Abyss. Abyss Mavros." The man blinked twice before a huge grin went over his face and he threw his head back with booming laughter. Some of the other men looked at him curiously before eyeing me. I could already tell that they were going to ask about that later.

"Ah! I thought I knew ya from somewhere!" the man exclaimed. "Ma name's Oak! Your company's been a sign from above that the world's done something right! We've barely had to hire guards with that white and red sap you make! Traveling all the time you really benefit from the stuff. I've heard nothing but good things!"

I gave the man a somewhat fake smile. "I saw an opportunity and took it. I'm afraid I put quite a lot of people out of business but it's good that the frontier is safer now."

"Aye, that!" the man said happily. He took a swig from his bottle and almost half the beer disappeared at once. I glanced over to the stacks of beer and wondered if we had enough if everyone drank like Oak.

"Man, that's great!" Oak grinned. "But as I was sayin', weird family and we come off strong. We're real friendly. Family's family and that's that. It's all we got. I know that's not quite what it's like in the city, with kids moving out in their teens and stayin' in their own apartments at twenty, but you're Qrow's family so you're our family. We'll stick with ya with all we got so long as you do the same."

The man clapped me on the shoulder - again - and finished his beer in another gargantuan swig.

"You'll do good around us, kid! Helpin' people's important! We're all alone in this world and spreadin' joy and all is what makes this little world of ours tick. Keepin' grimm out is just half of it. Life ain't really life if you don't have joy."

The man's grin grew three sizes in an instant. "But with joy so important let's skip to the good stuff! I've got baby pictures of little Bell. She's my niece, you see. Have you got anything yourself?"

I felt my fake smile turn to a more genuine, if small, grin. The man's beaming face showed that he could tell it was real.

I flicked my hand and a photo album showed up. "Do you want to start with my sisters over there, Taiyang, who's the best man, or ones I have of Qrow? I'm a bit lacking on photos of Yang but I think Taiyang has plenty."

I luckily had one album of embarrassing pictures of Qrow only, but another thicker album of copies of the photos and ones with him and Raven. Apparently the tribe liked to have blackmail over one another. Even Raven is at the mercy of embarrassing stories.

The two of us shared an understanding at that moment. "Let's start with Qrow to get us started since he's not here. When he gets back we'll share Bella's with him, solidarity between men and all. And obviously we're doing your sisters as soon as you finish that beer of yours."

I understood this man better than anyone else I'd met in my entire life.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Sir! You can't -! Those are decorative glasses only!"_

" _Glass is glass! Nobody'll notice!"_

" _They're not for sale!"_

" _My wallet says otherwise."_

" _Not! For! Sale! Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave!"_

" _You know, my fists agree with my wallet?"_

" _Security! There's a masked man stealing merchandise!"_

" _Well shit then. And I don't think that my cape wrapped around my face is much of a mask. I just thought I'd rob you politely, follow protocol and all. Look, I'm taking this glassware. Im even paying sorta fairly and, ugh, I hate playing this card. Did I mention I'm a certified huntsman?"_

" _I… no. No you cannot have the glassware! That is delicate old Vacuan chalice-ware and-"_

" _Shut up before I shit on your car."_

" _WHAT?!"_

" _Um, I mean - before I make a random bird shit on your car."_

" _You-! IS THAT MY WALLET?!"_

" _Yup! I've still got it! I don't really steal that often anymore but you know how things are growing up. It's like riding a bike or learning your first cool one liner."_

" _SECURITY! WHERE ARE YOU?!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Doesn't she look cute!" Oak said affectionately. He hugged Ruby tighter with a wide and slightly mischievous smile on his face.

"Awww, you have crumbs all over your face! That's so cute!" Yang beamed at the picture I showed.

"NO!" Ruby yelled. "ABYSS STOP PLEASE YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME!"

"She pretty much went into withdrawal if she didn't have at least three per day back then," I said with a smile. "Now it's more like three every other day."

"NO IT'S NOT!" Ruby cried. But everybody around her was already awwing at her and smiling softly, like they had just seen a puppy chase its tail.

I flipped the page once more and smiled wickedly. "Oh! Here she is with a duck she always stopped to say hi to at the pond. She practiced her scythe moves and always asked 'Mister Duck' if she looked cool enough."

"Oh my God!" Yang said ecstatically. She reached for Ruby and Oak passed her to Yang easily. Before Ruby could wiggle free Yang pulled her in for a bear hug and squeezed the life out of her. Ruby kept trying to escape in vain.

"Do you have any of her posing?" one of the ladies asked excitedly. I smirked and flipped to the next page, where Ruby was yelling something while waving a stick around above her head, one foot planted in front of her like she was doing lunges.

"That's adorable!" the lady squealed.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Ruby wailed.

"You think it's time for Yang?" I asked Oak.

Yang blinked dumbly for a moment. "What?"

"Oh, I've got this one." Taiyang, who was smiling softly, a few happy tears in his eyes, pulled out his scroll and turned it on.

"Wait, wait," Yang said nervously. "You don't have that many. I mean, I was kind of an outdoorsy kid." Ruby finally struggled free and leapt from her arms to snatch the photo album I had and cackle victoriously. I let her have it. I had a copy at home anyways. That was the backup.

"Here she is with honeybee, her first 'motorcycle'." Taiyang eagerly showed a picture of a very young Yang with a yellow helmet on grinning toothily as she rode a bicycle down what I recognized as the dirt path to the Rose/Xiao-Long cabin.

"Dad!" Yang exclaimed, a full blown blush on her cheeks while everyone laughed good heartedly at the picture. I took a sip from my nearly empty beer. It was actually my second. I didn't want one that much but it felt right to drink with the circle of dads. Everyone was doing it, including some of the women, and I felt obligated to. I didn't really mind.

Tai flipped to the next picture, which was of Yang excitedly changing the chain on her 'honeybee' to one that I think was spray painted yellow. There was a little smudge of black grease on her right eyelid and left cheek, likely from the chain while she changed it.

"Nonononono!" Yang quickly said as she tried to grab her dad's scroll. He pulled it back and put it back in his pocket with a smile on his face, his mission apparently done and his daughter properly embarrassed.

"Oh! He's back!" someone said, laughter still in their tone. I looked to my right to see Qrow pull up to the lot in a grey car. He got out while people approached him and pulled out a pack of wine.

"WE GOT PROPER WEDDING WINE!" he yelled victoriously. People cheered happily and toasted with their beers.

Qrow looked confusedly at the beers people had and at the crates over at the side. His face fell a little but became more determined a moment later.

"Someone yet me a beer!" he yelled. More people cheered and someone tossed a beer bottle to a guy standing near Qrow, who handed him the bottle. Qrow set the cap on the door of the car and levered it, making the cap fall off, before he took a long drink himself with a smile.

"So how'd you suckers all get here anyways?" he asked.

"The kid brought us," Oak said with a grin. He pointed at me and I waved relaxedly. Qrow blinked and glanced at his wine.

"Did we even need this?" he wondered out loud.

"Of course we did!" Oak said cheerily. "You can't have a proper wedding toast without proper wine! And we were short on glasses anyways. Five people would have had to have beer."

"This was worth it then," Qrow said with a nod to himself. Then he muttered something to himself I couldn't hear over the talking. Oak's face, however, turned to a happy smile upon hearing whatever Qrow said and he clapped him on the shoulder like he did to me and started unloading the wine glasses and wine.

I myself looked towards the chapel and wondered whether I should go see Bella or if that was against some unwritten rule before someone new sat down next to me.

"Hi," Taiyang said awkwardly. I stared at him for a moment before finishing my drink. I felt like I was going to need it.

"Want to take this somewhere less public?" I offered. Taiyang opened his mouth before closing it and thinking a moment.

"Yeah," he said quietly. I stood up from my table and looked towards the chapel. They probably had a spare room to talk in or at least a quiet corner. I didn't know if this was going to get heated but I'd rather be prepared. Something told me that I wanted this to be private rather than done in front of Bella's whole family.

Just in case, though, I teleported a beer into my soul space. Getting drunk was unusual for me but I might make an exception here.

A minute later and Tai and I had ducked into an office. The door was originally locked but a little motion mana shifted the tumblers and we were in. I didn't want to wander around looking for an open room.

"So what's this about?" I asked, hoping we could get whatever this was over and done with.

Tai took a deep breath. "Look, I know I've been a pretty terrible father-"

"You're not my father," I cut in. Tai winced.

"Not biologically. But Yang and Ruby are your sisters and Summer was something like your adoptive mother. I think that's grounds to call myself something." I scowled but didn't refute his point. I nearly sent another cutting remark about how if he was my father he should have acted like it but I held myself back. Ruby and Yang would be a bit irritated if I was harsh with their father.

"If you don't want to call me dad that's fine," he said a little soothingly. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes by reflex. No way I was calling him Dad anyways. "But I'd like Ruby to move back in with me. And you too."

"No way in hell," I said immediately. Taiyang frowned but didn't look surprised at all.

"Is this about this Aunt you and Ruby have?" he asked. I didn't change my expression. "I don't know who she is or why she's so important to you," he admitted. "But I'd like to at least talk to her. She lives with my daughter and you. I want to be a part of my daughters' lives."

I stared at Tai coldly in the eyes. He looked right back and rallied up a little more drive. "I get it," he said slightly more aggressively. "I screwed up. Badly. Worse than I ever did before. When my daughters needed me most I was a mess. Useless. Do you think I didn't realize that? That I haven't known that for years? I lost Ruby and you know what? Maybe I deserved it. I should have realized that my daughter, my elementary age daughter who idolized her mother, took the loss of her mother right in front of her worse than I did. But I didn't. I was a self-centered coward and I know I'll be making up for that my entire life. But I can't try without a chance."

"You were everything Raven said you were," I said coldly. Tai recoiled and I could tell that that genuinely hurt him.

"Yeah," he said, his voice choked. He steeled himself once again. "Yes. I was everything she said I was. I was a coward, spineless, and when people needed me most I was weak. But I'm trying… I'm trying to be there for my children."

"So you want Ruby to live with you," I acknowledged. "Ask her. If she wants to move out she can do so. I trust her to be mature enough to decide for herself."

"She did decide," Tai said quietly. "Yang and Ruby both did. Over the summer. They decided that they would leave it up to you. That Yang would move in with you and your… Aunt or that you and Ruby would move in with me and Yang."

I was frozen. Ruby… she decided that? They talked? I felt a surge of anger. She went behind my back. She and Yang both did. When have I ever not told Ruby something? Salem? I told her that when she was in elementary school. Magic? Even before that. Everything I believed in from heroes to her choice to become a huntress? I had always been honest. The only time I had ever not told her something were the things she wasn't interested in and that wouldn't affect her, namely my crime business with Roman.

But this time she did something directly involving me and didn't tell me about it. For the first time I had ever been with Ruby, all the way back to the days when Summer was alive, I felt betrayed.

"Ruby thinks your Aunt won't want to come live with me and Yang for reasons she won't say," Tai continued. "But all three of us are in agreement. We want the family to be together. All of us but… we know that takes time. It won't be immediate. You're in Beacon, I know, but maybe we can give it a try? Over the breaks. It could be…" Tai trailed off but I knew what he was going to say. It would be just like before, when Summer was alive.

"It won't ever be like then," I said brutally. Tai's pained expression showed how well he already knew this. "Summer is dead, Tai. Ruby knows it. I know it. Yang's known it ever since that day. Do you know it? Because you act like you can't get over her even now, when she's been dead for nearly a decade."

Tai was silent so I continued. "Ruby will never have another mother. I don't want, nor will I ever have another mother. I talk to Qrow too, you know? I know you never took up dating. You never moved on. Did you ever even try to move on?" Tai grimaced.

"Summer was my everything," he said with a strange and somewhat forced calmness. "My whole world revolved around her. The moment she came through the door everything was brighter. It always felt like when she was away that we were waiting for her. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever had your entire world shattered like that?"

"Your world wasn't shattered. You had your children," I said bluntly. "But when the time came you couldn't be there for them."

"Well I'm trying!" he snapped. "I'm trying to be their father! I'm trying to make up for everything! I'm trying to be attentive, be a part of their life, and I sure as hell am trying to get back up from my slump! But you know what? I'm not getting anywhere!"

Tai's face showed clear frustration on it. "I've tried! I AM trying! But every time I get somewhere I'm pushed back! And there's a damn good reason for it!" Tai looked pointedly at me.

"It's you! You're their entire world! You're their Summer! When Ruby's at my house I know she's trying but it always comes back to you! What your company is doing, what dust experiment you're doing, what your friends Polendina, Penny, Cesium, or Bella are doing! She wonders if you're having game night, if you're making cookies, if there's some part of your life she's missing! And Yang's no different!"

Tai threw his hands up briefly before putting them back down and standing up taller. "Somehow, and by dust I have no idea how you've done it, you're her brother! She wants to be there for you, to be the big sister for you, to be the person who drives the girls off, who sees your awesome airship and goes drinking with you, who teaches you bad habits! Any you know what? When it came time for it they BOTH chose you! They want YOUR decision! They go where you go because YOU are their world! You're the person they care for above anyone! And I can't be there for my kids because you're already there! They rely on you! Wait for you! Think about you! You're their damned Summer!"

Tai stopped when he realized that he was almost yelling. I kept my face stony but inside I was wrestling with myself. On one hand I felt warm. They chose me. They could have been with Tai, their biological father, but instead both of them wanted to know what I wanted to do.

But on the other hand there was Tai. I had wondered on occasion, of course, what I had done to him, but I never really thought about it. I had, mostly by accident, left him out in the cold. I was Ruby's family and Yang's family but I wasn't his. And in a way I drew them away from him. He had finally snapped out of his grief and realized that he didn't have any family left for him. I had somehow become the focal point of their entire family. My entire family, somehow. But Tai wasn't there with me; with us.

I sighed deeply and rubbed my eyes. This was supposed to be a happy day. It's Qrow and Bella's wedding. Why couldn't we just be happy for one day for their sake? Did we have to do this now? It's been put off for so long and now, finally, Tai and I meet alone and this happens.

"Look," I said tiredly. "I'll… consider it." Tai's face fell into relief at that, like he had a weight taken off his chest.

"Don't get your hopes up," I said without any drive. "Come on. There's a wedding to enjoy." Tai nodded and opened the door before stepping outside. I stayed for another moment.

I already knew what I was going to choose. Raven had been with me for years. I wasn't leaving her no matter what. She was family. I don't know about introducing Yang and Raven again. Eventually, though, Raven would have to deal with her daughter. Either to alienate her forever or to make amends of some sort. As long as it was something.

It was inconsiderate of Tai to ask me to leave her for him, someone I had nothing but disdain for, and unfair too at that. I'm half convinced that he actually thinks I'll go to him by how relieved he was that I said I'd consider it.

No. I wasn't going to live with Tai. He might see me as family somehow but he wasn't mine. I did have a choice to make, though. Was I going to push Ruby and Yang to him? He was their father. I couldn't say that he deserved no chance. But would I push Ruby or Yang to him?

… No. I guess I wasn't that nice of a person. Ruby, Yang, and Raven were family. Tai was not. That was all there was to it.

 **AN: No, Abyss. No it's really not that simple. Literally anybody could see that it's going to get complicated - well, more complicated at any rate.**

 **And such an intense chapter too. After a nice little filler chapter BAM! The plot comes back in full force. Ruby goes behind Abyss' back, Tai has a moment of character, Qrow's wedding goes about as well as expected, to be completed next chapter, and so forth.**

 **Honestly, did anybody expect Qrow's wedding to go well? Hell no. this is Qrow we're talking about. Everyone's favorite drunk bad luck charm.**

 **Oh, and in case you forgot, remember that one little interlude? Where Tai revealed that he made Abyss Ruby's guardian? Mmm… drama. Just wanted to remind you. "Ruby, Yang, and Raven were family. Tai was not. That was all there was to it." You sweet, sweet summer child.**


	51. Chapter 51

**AN: Sorry for being somewhat late (again). The testing is killing me, as it is to many other students. I also think I'm coming down with something if I haven't already. I blame it on the poor weather and stress from the tests as well as a healthy dosage of bad luck.**

 **I'm not sure I'm completely happy with this chapter. I've never actually attended a wedding, though I feel that I've emulated one fairly well. Just to clarify some of the decisions I made during this chapter, I can completely see Remnant being completely lax about wedding traditions and obviously Qrow's not going to actually go through the wedding like a normal person. Either way most of this chapter is acceptable if not preferable to me.**

 **On a related note, I really did try to get to know weddings better but good lord they're really complicated in that formal sort of way. Kind of like Japanese tea ceremonies but more European and Christian.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoy, and happy mother's day!**

[||||= **LEVEL 51=** ||||]

"It could be worse," Qrow mused.

"It could have been a lot better too," Yang muttered as she ran a hand down her pink dress. Qrow snickered but shut up when Yang sent a death glare at him. It wasn't like it was Qrow's fault that everyone had had terrible luck but it was still his semblance acting up, or more like going into overdrive.

"I got off kind of lucky," Ruby chirped, "A burned hem isn't that bad."

Ozpin and I glanced at each other and our untouched suits and had a silent agreement to not talk about how we were perfectly fine when everyone else might as well have walked through hell by the way they looked.

"And what the hell happened to you?" Qrow sent a pointed glance towards Oobleck, whose suit was bloodstained around his family jewels.

Oobleck took a quick sip of his coffee. "It's not mine. I had to kill a bull. It's a long story. ButifyouwanttoknowI-"

"And your story, Port?" Qrow asked.

"I took the wrong pills this morning," Port said a little drowsily. "The sleepy ones." I wondered personally if he got some other type of pills, he seemed somewhat out of it, but I kept my opinions to myself.

"What about the raccoon girl? The bridesmaid?" I asked.

"Rabies," Qrow summarized.

"Ah."

"Are we not talking about how you three look perfectly fine?" Yang demanded, looking at Ozpin, Taiyang, and I.

"In case you haven't noticed, the family car isn't in the parking lot," Tai said. He waved his hand over towards the parking lot not far away.

"Oh," Yang said, looking chatsized. "And what about you two?"

"I had to help you and Ruby out." I shrugged.

"Do you think your bride had similarly poor luck?" Ozpin asked Qrow, oh so subtly changing the subject. Qrow rolled his eyes while we all had a moment of exasperation for Ozpin.

"She's probably okay..." Qrow said, though he suddenly looked a little concerned. "But now that I think about it I should probably check on her. There's also the first look."

"Did you actually plan this?" Ozpin asked, bemused.

"Nope. Just a bunch of drinking and talking before the ceremony and dinner and then we drive away into the sunset to a nice hotel in Vale. We spent more time getting a band and a place to do this whole thing. Besides, a stiff schedule is boring and has responsibilities and stuff. Neither Bella or myself are good with that stuff. That's why neither of us ever made lesson plans for Signal."

"Of course." Ozpin smiled a little and sipped his drink, which was now from some expensive looking wine glasses that Qrow brought. We were also tentatively taking out the more expensive wines but we were saving the good stuff stashed away for later.

"You never made a lesson plan?" Tai asked, seemingly a mix of angry and incredulous. Qrow blanched.

"Uh, right. I wasn't supposed to tell you that. I just made things up as I went along with the class or assigned spars and I'm off." He immediately turned away and walked quickly towards the church to escape Tai's fury.

On that cue it was time to split up again and find new people for conversation. I had checked the schedule and we still had about thirty minutes until the ceremony. Then there was an hour of eating and drinking and toasts and speeches at the same time as the beginning of cocktail hour. After that was dancing as some people began to go home but at that point I was probably going to say my goodbyes.

"Abyss, care to talk?" I glanced to Ozpin, who had, if I hadn't just misheard, asked to speak with me.

"That depends if we're going to be talking about work," I said, meaning magical matters and the Ozluminati (though the name was unofficial).

"Not quite," he said with a vague and polite smile. It felt almost genuine but I had a gut feeling that it was fake. I shrugged and walked over towards a table before sitting down, Ozpin right in front of me.

"How are you finding Beacon?" Ozpin asked.

"Boring," I said honestly. "Being around people my age is alright, though not exactly new, but it's nice to be able to see old friends like Weiss and Pyrrha. I haven't gotten to meeting Lie Ren or Nora yet but when I do get there I'm sure we'll get along from what Pyrrha's told me. But otherwise Beacon seems monotonous and filled with paperwork and sitting in a classroom listening to others tell me things I already know."

"You know material beyond the advanced classes?" Ozpin asked, not seeming disbelieving at all but rather unsurprised.

I nodded. "The only class that slightly interests me is dust studies because we've tried using the magical plants I've made in a few ways. I assigned my R&D team to using the recent findings themselves."

"That does make sense," Ozpin agreed.

"My memory is nearly eidetic anyways," I said offhandedly. Ozpin's eyes suddenly grew far more interested at that.

"Nearly?" He asked.

"I can choose to forget or remember whatever I want," I explained. "An interesting use of my recently acquired mind affinity." Ozpin looked alarmed at that.

"Mister Mavros a mind affinity is a very rare and powerful thing and-"

"I'm not going to abuse it," I said with an eye roll. "I got the affinity to make sure other people can't mindwipe me and use me for their own ends. I'm sure you realize how disastrous that would be." Ozpin frowned but nodded.

"Besides that one of my greatest fears is having my mind tampered with. Influenced is fine, hormones, aura, and a million other things do that no matter what, but directly influenced or directly controlled is perhaps my worst nightmare. I held off on getting a mind affinity for quite some time before caving in and swearing to myself that I would only use the affinity defensively."

"Are you sure you can hold yourself to that?" Ozpin asked cautiously. I nodded.

"If I need something badly enough that I consider using that affinity to control others I'll stop and think of any possible alternatives. There are already enough ways to control others anyways. Blackmail, persuasion, bribery, and so on. I doubt I'll ever get desperate enough to use the affinity."

Ozpin seemed fairly relieved at that and nodded in acquiescence. "Good. My apologies if I seem paranoid." I waved off his concerns.

"I'm worried about telepaths when I'm fairly sure there's only one if that many."

"She is," he warned me. "She simply uses such a tactic as a last resort. I have grown a sufficient resilience to such things over the years, a sort of hardening of mind, but I am aware that everyone is vulnerable to such things."

"I doubt she'll ever use it against me," I agreed. "I've considered that my void affinity might make me immune to magical means of mind control anyways."

"Perhaps. I have little experience in such a branch of magic," he admitted. I nodded. "If you have so little interest in Beacon what have you been doing in the meantime? I confess that I have scryed you but had some sort of interference."

I frowned. "You scry me?" He nodded.

"Rarely, when I am unaware of your whereabouts or you are in some sort of event. For instance, I glimpsed you during your trip to the Schnee mines. I take care to respect your privacy and do not listen in on important conversations." I was skeptical but there wasn't anything I could do about Ozpin's 'scrying'.

"I've been using a facet of the void," I admitted. "Dimensional travel." That caught Ozpin's attention.

"Truly?" he asked. "Such magic is difficult and unpredictable." I chuckled and choked on my beer. I took a moment to cough before answering him.

"No. It's extremely easy using my particular method. I can propel myself through the void, though technically distance has no meaning there, and choose my destination. I make sure that my chosen destination is free of entities too powerful for me to handle or ensure that such entities that have great reason to not interfere with whatever I choose to do."

"Would you be willing to tell me more about your void based abilities?" Ozpin seemed almost excited, albeit controlled. "Information is incredibly scarce on the branch of magic due not only to the incredible rarity of void users even when magic was relatively common, but that such users were very secretive, either by nature or in order to keep void magic one of the strongest variants of magic."

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Ozpin, but I have the same motivations." Ozpin nodded understandingly. "If it's any consolation, there are few to no ways to defend against void, and those methods are more to briefly stall the inevitable than any form of defense. Not to mention that if I use the mantle I don't believe any defense except holding a void affinity would hold back one of my attacks."

"Of course." Ozpin didn't look put out by my refusal to give information. "That said, I have wondered if you have considered acquiring a guardian. Of the magical variety, I mean." I blinked.

"Your books mentioned that but you edited out the specifics of them. They were only described as a physical protector of a magic user and a manifestation of a facet of their soul. There were too many ways to interpret that statement. I assumed they were something like a guardian with permanently merged souls to a magic user like I did with Summer."

Ozpin frowned. "Yes. Yes I did abstain from allowing details of that. My apologies, Mister Mavros. When I made those copies I was under the assumption that the reader would be my apprentice." I glared harshly at Ozpin and he took it in stride.

"A guardian is a physical manifestation of an affinity of yours. Magic users would take a very small part of their own soul and merge it with their chosen affinity, making an extension of themselves that is expressed through the affinity. It would have no soul or mana as it shares your soul but it would be physically capable and constantly be pressed into a state of utilizing the body of worlds technique. Imagine a second you made of fire or what have you, incapable of dying and directed entirely by your will. An immortal, loyal, and entirely useful creation. So long as you are a powerful magic user and take very little of your soul it is harmless, I assure you. Given a matter of months your soul would be whole again."

I blinked at that. That did sound useful. "When you refer to the soul you don't refer to aura, do you?" Ozpin frowned and shook his head.

"Aura is the power of the soul, yes, but I would liken the soul to a body and aura to it's blood, though you cannot typically manipulate your soul and only aura. Souls are, unsurprisingly, extremely difficult to shatter without specialized magics such as void. Extreme aural exhaustion as well as an attack from an outside source works but most people prefer to perform a ritual." I scowled. Rituals.

"I never studied rituals," I said irritatedly. And there was no way I was going to go to Ozpin to let him do a ritual on me when I only had his word to count on for his honesty. There were too many ways for him to exploit that trust if I gave it. Then I paused.

"Actually I may already have something like that. For shattering souls. I just have to alter it a little…" My lips grew into something of a smirk and Ozpin looked curious before shaking it off.

"Well, regardless, this talk has been quite enlightening. It is good to know that you are dealing with your issues at Beacon. I have no issues with your activities so long as you perform well on your tests, which I don't believe will be a problem. I hope you succeed in quelling your team's interpersonal issues as well. I've heard you still don't get along with your partner. I'm sure that with effort your differences can be resolved." Ozpin stood up and walked off at that.

I nodded absently while pondering this 'guardian' construct. Of course I thought immediately of Pit, but that was still fairly different from what he described. I couldn't acquire an imprint of my own affinity but it wasn't that hard to get an affinity. Maybe I could do something similar? Pit had been wanting a human body as well. Perhaps I could hit two birds with one stone.

I pushed the thoughts out of my head and stood up to talk with Oak a little more. He was a nice guy and we never went through Qrow's embarrassing pictures. Magic stuff could wait until after the wedding.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Your name feels insulting."_

" _(Ambivalent)"_

" _On the contrary it's the name of the institution as a school. Not you."_

" _(Curiosity)"_

" _I think you should call yourself Helen. Hogwarts is a school. You're a person. I don't consider you to be a castle. You're more like the keeper of the school to me or an exceptionally friendly ghost, though I know technically you are the school."_

" _(Considering)"_

" _I also think you should get a body. Not like become a person. That would drain every ward around Hogwarts and magically deprive the school for… well, ever. Eventually it would return to a similar concentration of magical power but it would take a very long time and it would never be the same. Not to mention that all the house elves would die and so on."_

" _(Questioning)"_

" _I mean you should learn to take an avatar form. Here, I'll show you."_

" _(Exclamation!)"_

" _See? It's a second me. A magical projection that's connected to me by my soul. You could do the same. You could even call yourself headmist-"_

" _(Refusal!)"_

" _You're still on that?"_

" _(Affirmative) (Determination) (Persistence)"_

" _Fine, fine. But are we agreed that you need a name? If not for the dignity of it then to at least distinguish yourself as a person and a school."_

"… _(Agreement)"_

" _Good. Thanks Helen."_

" _(Happiness) (Blush) (Surprise) (Embarrassment) (Blush)"_

" _Was that a mental image of a blush? Or two of them, rather… You're getting better, although that blush was clearly unintentional. Still, though, it shows you're gaining mental clarity and you're better able to transmit your emotions. Actually that reminds me… have I ever told you about will training?"_

" _(Denial) (Blush)"_

" _Quit blushing. You're over a thousand years old for dust's sake."_

" _(Blush)"_

" _Ugh. Will training is a mental exercise where we try to overcome one another's emotions through aura. It's a very tame way to control emotions and battle your willpower by controlling your emotions as you assail someone else with mental images, emotions, and so on while maintaining concentration. Care to try?"_

" _(Happiness!) (Agreement!)"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Abyyyysss," Ruby whined as she draped herself over my shoulder. "I'm bored!"

"I am too, Ruby. Bear with it," I said stoically. I would have retreated to my soul space and isolated myself from everyone but Yang pulled me out of it every time I tried to escape the slow part of the event through some sixth sense and forced me to socialize once more, which was far worse than being bored after long enough.

The same treatment went for Ruby. Together, though, we looked just occupied enough that we weren't dragged once more into the fray and in just the right spot that it kind of looked like we were talking to Ozpin's gang of teachers, though Yang still gave us suspicious looks every once in awhile.

We had talked to everyone at the wedding at least once, though it was a group conversation in some cases. It seemed like Ruby and I were the only introverts at the event to both of our detriment.

Well, that was a lie. We were the only introverts not able to hide in our niches. Ozpin and co. were huddled together just close enough to not look like they were avoiding others but far enough to not be bothered. In other words, they had found the holy ground of introverts. They just didn't want to share. We took the table beside them and looked like we were utterly enraptured in their conversation, which was normally about the beginnings of the school year though it shifted around a little.

Yang and her father were hamming it up with Bella's family and having a blast. Qrow and Bella were alongside them, having decided that not looking at each other again until the ceremony was for suckers who didn't appreciate their fiance's beauty/handsomeness. It surprised absolutely nobody that Qrow and his bride deviated from tradition. It was their wedding, though, and they did whatever they wanted to whatever protest might have occured if anybody actually cared about the tradition.

Tai was Qrow's best man, after all, and Bella was reconnecting with her family and regaling them with her tales of being a huntress and former field operator. The non-classified parts of that portion of her life anyways.

"Do you think we can get away with playing scroll games?" I asked. Ruby paused consideringly but slumped a little harder in negative. I frowned and looked off into the distance for a moment into the forest. I had used my magical senses at maximum range and killed all the grimm I could. I'm not ashamed to admit that I played with some of them. I poked this one beowolf in the ass until it was driven into such a frenzy at an unknown assailant that it killed one of it's fellow beowolves in blind rage with a little nudge from me to trip it, dragging its claws over it's brother grimm's throat. It was the closest thing to amusement for me.

"Can I shoot something?" Ruby begged. I considered that.

"The others would want in," I concluded. Ruby looked at the others, who were grinning as Yang, Taiyang, Bella, and Qrow recounted some old story and filled in each other's blanks. She shuddered.

"I think I've talked to more people in the past few hours than I have in the past few months!" She cried. I glanced in my soul space to a clock.

"We've only been here two and a half hours. There's still another half an hour to go." Ruby looked at me with puppy eyes as though I had some magical solution to her boredom. I met her gaze without the smallest change in expression.

Ruby, apparently, took this as a challenge and ramped up the puppy eyes. Her eyes watered just enough to make them a little shiny and drew in on herself. I remained unchanged. A small and pathetic whimper seemed to tear it's way out of Ruby's throat, a manipulative little sister art she had long mastered. Still I remained unchanged. I had combated her charms for years. This was nothing special.

A single, lone teardrop slid it's way down it's cheek. I waited for a moment, checking for water mana. I didn't find any. The tear was natural. That she had learned to make crocodile tears without magic was impressive and clearly designed to combat me and Raven especially since we were the only people who could sense mana that were frequently around Ruby. While I was more interested in her due to her reveal of that particular skill, I kept my expression neutral as it was before.

But finally Ruby pulled out the big guns. Before I even realized what had happened Ruby's aura captured me, projecting a sense of despair and utter helplessness, as though it was some sort of dying puppy that only I could save.

It was a trap! Connivery! Skullduggery! A dagger in the side from the shadows! And I, my interest piqued, however faintly, by Ruby's crocodile tears was caught in her clever tactics. True, her crude skill in using her aura to project emotion was nowhere near Cinder or my level. However, it was unexpected and that made all the difference. My expression unwillingly shifted the smallest amount. It was nothing, really. A small curve at the edges of my lips, a small softening around the corners of my eyes. But it was enough.

"Yes!" Ruby crowed. "Victory!" I looked irritatedly at her smirking face.

"Not fair," I grumbled.

"Is too!" she retorted childishly. "It worked on Auntie!" I rolled my eyes. That had no bearing on our little game at all. A small glance to the side showed the professors watching us amusedly, though they turned back to their conversation at my glance.

"Want to-" I was cut off by a sudden dinging of metal on glass. I noticed Qrow standing up dinging a teaspoon (where the hell did he get a teaspoon? There's no teaspoons, or tea for that matter, at the wedding) on a wine glass.

"Get your butts in the church! We're doing the thing!" Qrow called excitedly. People immediately broke into light cheers and got up to funnel themselves into the church. Qrow grabbed Bella and they disappeared around the back to some back room to get ready for their dramatic entrance, because really, that was what the ceremony was to them at this point.

Ruby hopped up with a grin on her face and used her semblance to dash inside the church, to the surprise of everyone else, though they shrugged it off a moment later as a 'huntsman thing'. I just walked in like everybody else before seating myself beside Ruby.

Religion on Remnant was different than on Earth, though not in the actual religions. For one thing it was a lot more relaxed. Sunday services were nonexistent and prayers were only done before or during important events like weddings, graduations, or the like. Churches weren't often used because of this. It also made religion more personal, but less prevalent in daily life.

Ceremonies were also a lot less structured because it was supposed to be personal to the people taking part. Weddings were a big example. Ignoring the 'first look' idea was uncommon, but Qrow and Bella weren't defying any important tradition by breaking from the norm. I know that people have done weddings in whorehouses on Remnant and not been thought less of for it.

Religious figures weren't widespread either. Jesus Christ wasn't even a thing. The cross was, though but it was supposed to represent the father, the people, and the holy spirit in the people. Simply being alive was something religion approved of rather than only approving of believers in the faith. This also meant that religious artwork and symbols like angels, Buddha, shrines, or idols of gods, were obscure. I didn't think that there were religious books either.

Christianity wasn't the only religion, of course. Just the most widespread. Buddhism was pretty big as well, though it was far more involved with finding inner peace through aura than before. It was also the main reason people believed aura was a power related to the soul. There was also something like Sikhism and a mix of Islam and African religions. Overall, almost everybody believed in monotheism, however. Hinduism wasn't popular on Remnant.

"You realize that it's going to take about ten minutes until they're ready to come in, right?" I asked. Ruby wilted and looked at me in disbelief. "Right after that the minister has to talk a bit before the best man and bridesmaid give their small speeches. Then finally Qrow and Bella say their pieces, they kiss, and we all go party. Given how Qrow and Bella have mangled tradition so far, though, I'd be surprised if they do anything typically."

"That seems like a lot of work," Ruby muttered. "I don't think I like the traditional stuff."

"It's a big event," I reminded her.

"Yeah. There could have been less sitting around though. Could I fight my future husband in combat for who gets to kiss who first? That sounds way more fun than waiting! "

"That sounds fun," I agreed. "But Qrow and Bella could have also hired a wedding planner, or gotten fancy flowers, or rented actual silverware, as in silver cutlery, or done any number of useless and trivial things. Instead they hired a photographer and organist and just made this up on the fly. It seems to work for them."

"There's a photographer?" Ruby asked, puzzled. I pointed at an empty space, where a greyish aura was. Ruby squinted for a second before her eyes shot open. In an instantaneous movement her hand shot to the spot on her runic matrix where a link to a portion of my soul space lay and crescent rose was nearly drawn out.

In the interest of not giving our invisible photographer a heart attack, he was really old after all, I cut Ruby's access to my soul space and she ended up slapping her hand. She blinked in confusion before looking at her hand blankly.

"O-oh!" she exclaimed, a blush on her cheeks. "Um, sorry mister invisible photographer man." The photographer, who had a camouflage semblance that applied itself to objects he touched, peeked out from under the blanket where his semblance was focused, making it invisible, and gave her a smile and a thumbs up before retreating back under his blanket.

"Bella got in contact with him," I explained. "They're old friends and he did intelligence work before retiring. Most aura users who have a stealth based semblance turn themselves camouflaged or go invisible or something of that sort. That prevents them from taking decent pictures or they have their cameras floating in mid-air or something. So this guy comes in and takes photos of dangerous places from a ways away unseen with higher quality since he can actually set up high powered cameras closer than anyone else."

"Cool," Ruby said with another smile towards the cameraman. "I never really thought about all the people who contributed to huntsman stuff other than actual, you know, huntsmen."

"There are lots of supporting roles for huntsmen. Someone has to make all the armour, or repair the weapons for the sizeable number of huntsmen without the know-how, plot supply lines for villages, run the numbers for the supplies huntsmen use like white and red sap, map out grimm territory, and make the specialty gadgets huntsmen sometimes have to use in the field on some missions such as explosives. You could even go farther and say that the workers who make the white and red sap are helping out. Farther than them there's the normal civilians who help out through their jobs and taxes."

Ruby smiled and nodded. "Everyone contributes against the grimm."

"Exactly." I said with a small smile of my own. My grin then quirked a little. "Except politicians." Ruby rolled her eyes and leaned backwards on her seat.

"Mmm, _technically_ you're a politician too!" I looked curiously at Ruby and she continued on. "I mean, you do all that activism stuff. You're sort of a symbol of the faunus and all, though I never see you put any effort towards that title at all, and that's pretty political, right? Not to mention that SDC deal. You technically passed laws with how autonomous the SDC is in their camps. And that audit of the SDC's treatment of the faunus was another sort of wide scale political move. Some of that stuff was published, you know?"

I blinked and stared silently at Ruby. She suddenly looked awkward and glanced around uncomfortably. Nobody else was sitting near us at the moment, though.

"Um, what?" she asked nervously. "That was… that was sort of a joke? Um, hehe?"

"I didn't think you paid that much attention to my business or my hobby of faunus rights. Nor did I think you were perceptive enough to realize that large scale business and politics were essentially the same," I finally said.

Ruby puffed her cheeks out childishly. "Of course I pay attention! It's sort of your job! Just because I'm not there with you doing fancy stuff doesn't mean I don't cheer you on! Yang and I watched a documentary on your company once. It was super boring, but I still watched it!"

"They have a documentary on Nature's Bounty?" I wondered.

"Uh-huh." Ruby nodded.

"What's it like?"

"Boring."

"I mean whether it had a positive or negative view of what I've done."

"Oh." Ruby smiled. "They liked you. Most of the people thought you'd done some real good for Remnant. Dust isn't renewable but it's not like we're running out any time soon. But with your company dust prices fell, which meant the price of everything else fell too since, y'know, everything uses dust. Not to mention the faunus stuff. Even the super racist guy they had was a little impressed with you since you hired from all the poor communities. The only things people didn't like is that you don't do more speeches and stuff and that your… Uncle Mystic is a recluse. They also didn't like that you use Menagerie as a producer, claiming that the country didn't deserve it or that other kingdoms could have used the stimulation to their economies more than a kingdom that they claimed didn't have an economy to speak of."

I nodded. "The company does help Remnant but it's more of a hobby to me than anything else. R-Mahogany is the only person that really tends to it, though apparently Cesium is learning the ropes of it pretty quickly."

"Is he okay with Roman now? Last I remember they didn't like each other." Ruby frowned slightly as she mentioned Cesium. They weren't really friends, but she got along well with the guy. He was more of a friend of a friend for her.

"They've worked something out," I said. I didn't really know how their relationship was. I didn't particularly care either. They got along in the end, or at least tolerated each other. That was enough for me.

"Oh." Ruby spent a moment thinking of another topic before her eyes lit up. "Didn't you say something about a magical castle?!" she whispered conspiratorially.

I rolled my eyes at the unnecessary quietness of her voice. Nobody was listening to us. "Hogwarts is the name of the school officially." Ruby made a somewhat disgusted expression.

"I know," I agreed. "The name is terrible. Awful, really. Recently I've just called her Helen. It seems somewhat disrespectful to call her Hogwarts. I think she also likes the more personal name since she's more of a person now than just an institution ever since she got more defined sentience from aura."

"Do you think I can visit her?" Ruby asked.

"Sure," I shrugged. "Just know that almost every wizard in her is miserable at combat and most forms of magic. They have massive amounts of potential but they don't have much of a need to use that potential. Imagine if you only ever fought beowolves. You would never develop anything near the level of skill you have now. There's just nothing to push those other wizards."

"I can see that," Ruby said thoughtfully.

"They think that immortality is something to be proud of. Some sort of great accomplishment," I snorted.

"It isn't?" Ruby asked, puzzled.

"I discovered it by accident, Ruby," I said exasperatedly. "Immortality is pathetically easy to obtain in almost any case. All you have to do is enhance your soul sufficiently. Having more aura or magic increases your lifespan anyways. Just look at the correlation between that and figure out how to transfer your soul between alternate bodies. Anyone mildly competent in soul magic could do it. Actually, come to think of it, any huntsman with good aura control and a decently powerful aura could tear someone's aura from their body and potentially keep it in someone else's body or a homunculi."

"Really?" Ruby asked with wide eyes. I nodded.

"I know Ozpin has a machine capable of performing such an act in a Beacon sublevel. People would have discovered immortality through that method a while ago if huntsmen lived longer. They always die because of the grimm, and few, if any, huntsmen are research oriented. Being a huntsman implies that you're going to fight so few intellectual people activate their auras or become huntsmen."

"Could this aura tearing thing be how the maidenhood is transferred?" Ruby asked. I considered that for a moment.

"Perhaps. The maidenhoods are something like souls but less sentient and likely have the act programmed into them somehow rather than consciously doing it. Also, doing the transfer themselves implies that they have more divinity than most souls or use less of it to sustain themselves, hence their ability to briefly exist without a body so they can be transferred between people."

"The maiden souls definitely have some sort of sentience," Ruby confirmed. I glanced towards her curiously.

"Sometimes my powers activate unconsciously. Normally the stronger ones," Ruby explained. "It's like I can talk to them. Feel them out. And they react to stuff. I tried petting my air affinity - and I have no idea how I did that - but it was super fluffy and seemed happy."

"That's just affinities," I told her. "Affinities are like a part of you so it makes sense that yours are more independent from you than most. After all, they're extensions of the maiden's souls imparted onto you. My own affinities do the same thing. Using them becomes instinctual rather than something you have to focus on. I barely think about using an affinity to move an object to me. Sometimes I just think 'I need a pencil' and it flies into my hand. In the same way you don't have to think about navigating your scroll because you're so familiar with it, affinities don't always need conscious thought to act for you."

Ruby nodded with a smile. "They're like buddies!" I snickered for a moment before I heard a crashing of glass. I whipped my head around to see a speckled black and white shape breaking through the colored pane window behind us. I blinked once just to make sure I wasn't seeing things before realizing that yes, that was an owl. An owl with a little note tied around it's leg.

The owl flew down to stand at the pew in front of me and stare at me while everyone else in the church stared at it in dead silence. It didn't seem to realize that it had just broken into a church before a wedding.

With a small groan of just how bad the timing of this was I plucked the tie holding the letter to the owl's leg and put it into my soul space before looking up at the owl.

"How'd you even-" I didn't even finish my sentence before the owl exploded into a cloud of feathers. Feathers got everywhere on me. I couldn't even see through the absolute maelstrom of feathers raining on me.

Luckily the rain of feathers only lasted a few seconds as they all fell down to the floor. Unfortunately a lot of them got caught on my nice, formerly immaculate - suit.

For a few more seconds nobody spoke, just looking at the utterly ridiculous stroke of… well, magic but everybody would call it-

"Bad luck," Ruby groaned. "Just… the worst luck. Ever. Uncle Qrow's semblance must be having a field day. I don't think it's ever gotten you this good though." I leaned back in my seat and didn't even bother to try and pick off the feathers or justify anything about what just happened. There were way too many and the service was likely about to start. It was a strange sort of irony that I was now the messiest looking attendee after coming through unscathed so far.

As if on cue Qrow and Bella walked in, arms linked, and an organist started to play. Qrow gaped at the mess of feathers and almost laughed but choked it down. Bella was slightly more controlled, hey eyes widening for a moment before she focused on the altar, where the priest guy stood waiting stoically, though his eyes flicked to me once or twice.

Ruby, perhaps unintentionally, perhaps not, had left a mess of rose petals down the aisle for the two to walk down. Qrow smiled a bit at what I think was a happy accident and people just smiled at them, glad to see them about to have their special day.

I didn't pay too much attention to the couple as they finished walking down the aisle, but rather just soaked in the atmosphere of people smiling and the auras of people around me. I felt happiness for Qrow and Bella, sadness at not being married themselves, and a cluster of other emotions from all the people.

Some felt only joy, like Ruby. Yang felt a little sad that her uncle was getting married and worried that he wouldn't be the same. Tai felt wistful and a little jealous of his friend, or brother really, but hoped almost desperately for his happiness. Bella and Qrow were a mess of nerves, though they felt oddly secure in a way I hadn't seen in anyone before. Qrow also felt guilty for ruining everyone's days with his semblance but that was an afterthought. He knew nobody really blamed him.

The emotions overwhelmed me somewhat and I let myself fall into them. It was more memorable than whatever the priest was saying. One of my parallels alerted me when they were about to make the vows though.

"Bella," Qrow started, a wide grin over his face. I wondered if he was going to get all sappy with everyone and got myself ready to tease him afterwards. I could recruit Yang to help me. "Before I met you I was at a low point for a long time. Alcohol's always been a favorite pastime of mine, but I took it farther than I should have more than enough times after the death of one of my teammates, Summer Rose."

People grew solemn for a moment before Qrow continued. "A lot of stuff was messed up around then. Some of it is still as much a wreck as before. But for the first time in awhile I've been looking forward to the future. I've started realizing what I have rather than what I don't. Two nieces, an ass of a nephew, a brother in all but name, some few friends I'd trust with my life and more, and you. I won't say that you're the light of my life or anything but I know for a fact that things are easier, happier, and far more fun when you're around. That's why I promise that I'll always be around for you whenever you need it. I'll trust you with all my secrets, not that there's any you don't know at this point, and I'll make sure that we'll be together for a long, long time."

Bella smiled brilliantly with some tears in her eyes as people clapped and cheered for a few moments before quieting down for Bella to make her vows. I was just thankful Qrow didn't try to swear off alcohol or something stupid like that.

"Qrow," she began. She sniffled a little and refocused herself before laughing a little wetly. "You're making me look bad…" A few chuckles escaped the audience while Qrow rolled his eyes.

"When we first met I thought you were a drunken ass. I was right." More chuckles from the audience. "But you were also caring. You cared immensely about your students then as you do now. Even though you always smelled like alcohol, not that that's changed much, you eventually did what you had to. I didn't like you but eventually you managed to become my closest friend and someone I know I can trust with anything. Everything you try to give me I promise I'll try to give back twice over, from love to passion to sympathy. I-"

A spatial distortion. I eyes snapped to it immediately to see a red portal in space. Fucking Raven. I stilled the air and bent light around her portal to mask her presence. But even when I did that she calmly stepped out of the portal and sat down on one of the pews. She glanced to me neutrally, not even blinking at the feathers, before turning her attention to Qrow.

Cheers rang out at the end of Bella's vows and I scowled while I reviewed the memories I had from a parallel quickly and looking once more at Raven. "Don't ruin this for him," I warned. She nodded but said nothing, her eyes fixed on Qrow with an odd expression as Qrow and Bella kissed.

…

…

…

Maybe they should stop now…

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _You think we're ready?"_

" _:| "_

" _A little more time would be nice, yeah. I think we're good for the dust. Robbing the stores was pretty fun too. Can't have the company linked to buying a bunch of dust right before a big dust explosion. But I think I would have liked to rob a little more. I get so few excuses to go on crime sprees these days. Not that I need one but I like to have a meaning to my crime other than my reputation."_

" _;) "_

" _Yeah, I don't think you EVER need a reason, Neo."_

" _^u^ "_

" _Sure, sure. You're all puppies and rainbows; free as a bird. A murderous bird that lives on an ice cream based diet."_

" _;) "_

" _Back to being ready, though, ya think we could take a few huntsmen if they caught wind of us?"_

" _..."_

" _Yeah. Let's take up our fiery eye candy on her offer then. Let's hope this Adam guy is as good as fighter as eye candy claims she is."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

Everything hurt.

"Urghhh…" I moaned.

"Shut up," someone else moaned. I opened my eyes, seeing only blurs for a moment, before my eyes focused and I saw the face of Bella's cousin, the bridesmaid who killed that raccoon bare handedly, naked beside me. Right, her name was Amethyst.

"Oh..." I muttered. I worked my aura to clear the alcohol from my system and started feeling better immediately. The headache I had faded quickly and I allowed my magical senses to spread out, though the mental strain made the headache worsen, I doubted that I would have it in a few minutes. Half an hour was the longest I expected to have it. Food and some iced tea did wonders according to Raven. She mentioned that once during dinner.

Luckily, I was at my apartment with Raven and the clan and my shower was nearby. A parallel made a glass of iced green tea for me and I sipped it as I stepped into the shower. I turned the nozzle and just relaxed for a moment as I tried to figure out what happened last night.

Luckily for me, I had an eidetic memory so blacking out drunkenly wasn't that big of a deal. I drank a bit keeping an eye on Raven as people started dancing. I got dragged into it and got taught a few moves, which I took to easily thanks to my high DEX. Really I just copied the moves and made them flow better, incorporating a little of my sting style into the moves so they were more familiar to me. But apparently I held my own with even the much more experienced dancers.

At that point I attracted a bit of attention. Bella's cousin Amethyst was one such person. We talked a bit, danced a little more, and I bid everyone goodnight before coming back to my place where we showed each other some more intimate dancing moves, which Amethyst was really good at. I was better though. However, she was also thirty six. Ah, well. You win some, you win some.

Showering took five minutes where I just did everything quickly. I didn't really have time to enjoy the hot water. I had left Ruby and Yang on their own last night and they might still be at the church. I was supposed to be their ride for the night.

"Amethyst," I shook her shoulder lightly. She opened her eyes blearily and looked up at me before suddenly hugging me, her face resting against my stomach.

"Mmm… abs. Good kitty," she slurred deliriously. Then she went back to sleep. I rolled my eyes and separated her from me before setting the glass of iced tea on my nightstand. She would need it later. In the meantime I got dressed in casual clothes and checked the time. Only nine? I thought it would be closer to ten.

Today I didn't have school to deal with so I could do whatever I pleased. But I was more curious about where Ruby was since Raven was asleep in her bed at the apartments as I could see with mage sight. Qrow could enjoy his privacy with his new wife I suppose. I'll need to find out what Raven did after I left later.

My first stop was the church. It was, as expected, a mess. Party streamers were strewn about the place chaotically as well as beer bottles and sandwich wrappers. People probably got sandwiches as a late night snack.

I closed my eyes and searched out auras, finding a lot of them around the parking lot. I blinked over to a car and looked inside, finding three of Bella's family members snuggled together under a heavy quilt in the backseat with their clothes still on. I suppose people didn't bother to get to hotels.

Even if Bella's family were still at the church, I didn't see the newlyweds or my sisters anywhere. Not to mention whatever mischief Raven had gotten up to. I wouldn't have put it past her to have seduced Tai… dear dust I hope she didn't do that. If there's a higher power may he/she have mercy.

I quickly repressed that horrible thought and decided to just try to locate Ruby first. Luckily I had a teleport marker on her, which made things far more convenient than they would be otherwise.

I found myself in Ruby's room in a blink. I glanced down and saw her sleeping peacefully in her bed. A quick check through my mage sight saw Tai downstairs looking miserably hungover and Yang showering with a heavy scowl. It didn't look like she'd had a good night.

I was about to teleport back to my room to deal with Amethyst when I got tackle hugged. "Abyss!" Ruby exclaimed. I watched a little nervously as her smile at seeing me turned into a scowl. "You were supposed to teleport me back with you!" she accused.

"I'm sorry for leaving you at the wedding," I apologized.

"Mmmm…" Ruby growled. It was entirely unintimidating. "You totally owe me!"

I grew a little more serious, deciding to get this done now rather than later. "I think I won't after we get through talking about you going behind my back."

"I did?" Ruby looked confused for a moment before her face showed a realization.

"Tai and Yang," I said flatly.

"Ohhhhhhh…" she said slowly. "Right."

"You should have made that decision on your own. It was YOUR decision. We both know you're mature enough for it," I said angrily. "Yang as well. We already live together at Beacon most of the year anyways! Putting the decision in my hands just means you can't make your's."

Ruby nodded, looking chatsized. "Not to mention that you're already on good terms with both your father AND myself. You stay with whoever you want! There's no reason you can't stay with Tai sometimes and me and Raven the other half of the time. What did you think you would get out of this?!"

"Yang and auntie…" Ruby said softly. "Also you and dad." I scoffed.

"Tai and I aren't friends. We sure as hell aren't family either. He's as far from my father as water is from fire." Ruby winced. "And Yang? What about her? Sure she has issues with her mother but that isn't your business. We've been over this more times than I can care to count and my answer is the same as always. It. Is. Not. Our. Business."

"But what about when she finds out?!" Ruby blurursted out. I realized that this was going to get heated and stilled the air around the room, making sure nobody heard usRuby and I. "When Auntie and Yang meet what is Yang going to think of us?! ShHe's going to think we've betrayed her and we kind of have, haven't we?!"

"What's Raven going to think when you tell Yang?" Ruby grimaced and I could tell that she already thought of this. "Neither option is good. So choose the third. Things are fine as they are. Raven is living her life as she chooses, although at this point you seem to dislike her making her own choices when it comes to her daughter. Does Yang seem terribly unhappy? Is she suffering because her mother isn't here? Leave it. Don't try to make Yang change homes or bring me to Tai. Either option will end badly, I can promise you. Even with that little crack in who we call family you still got Yang back not too recently. Do you really need more? When it means risking what you already have?"

Ruby looked down silently and I just watched her for a moment. "Look," I began, "Any day of the week I'd choose Yang over Tai. If she wants to live with me and Raven then I'll ask Raven about it and defer to her. She's been my best friend for years now and I won't let that change because Yang wants to move more into my life. Yang's been trying to be my sister and it's working pretty well, though that she defaults to being the big sister is still irritating. People are happy except for Tai, but he's been a mess for so long that I doubt he'll ever be a really happy person again. Could you just stop pushing for Tai and Yang back? You can't have both parts of your family completely together. At this rate I'm wondering if you plan on getting Raven married to Tai again." Ruby shook her head sullenly. Thank dust for that.

"Just be happy with what you have. There's a point where you can just stop, you know? Stop working so much. Let people deal with their own problems on their own terms and slow down. Enjoy Beacon, kiss a guy, kill grimm, do something other than whatever this is! Live your life for yourself for a moment!" I took a small breather while Ruby looked saddened but she still wasn't saying anything.

"I'd appreciate it if you told Tai and Yang yourself. I've already had enough of these talks I keep getting into. Text me if you want to go back to the clan's apartment for the night. Otherwise I'll leave you here and you can catch a ride with Yang." I finished. In a split second I blinked away to see Amethyst in my bed, still nude, rubbing her head with a pained expression on her face.

"What happened?" she moaned.

"We slept together," I said bluntly. Then I mentally reprimanded myself for acting that way. That I was frustrated with Ruby didn't give me a right to be short with Amethyst. If anything she was nice to me. "I'll teleport you back to your family after you've had a shower and some coffee. I have some rather important things to talk about with a friend of mine soon." Amethyst groaned at the sudden deluge of information and looked at me blearily.

"Whoa. Nice," she said approvingly. I rolled my eyes and blinked away to return a moment later with clothes in her size from Vernal's closet.

"Enjoy your shower. I doubt your family will be having one today. They're sleeping in cars."

"Hey, we don't drunk drive," Amethyst smirked. I rolled my eyes and walked out of my room as Amethyst was caught in a yawn. It was time to wake Raven up… I should probably tell her about Ruby's plotting too. I hope Qrow enjoyed his wedding. I would have too if it wasn't for Ruby's meddlings. I just want to go back to Beacon at this point. Maybe the breach will distract everyone enough that I can stop with all this annoying family drama.


	52. Chapter 52

**AN: And why are so many people reviewing my old chapters?! Yeah they're screwy. I'm an ameteur writer, not a professional. Not that most of them will ever see this note. A fair few of them might drop this story judging from the comments. Ah, well.**

 **Again the chapters are hard to write now. That's also why this one is a fair bit shorter than the recent average and late at that. There's school concerts, finals, AP tests, and more. You know how some people say they're being buried by work? Well I sure get what they mean now. Did you know that it's possible to have two concerts in a week along with school finals? I do! It's as awful as it sounds!**

[||||= **LEVEL 52=** ||||]

My sword gleamed and light shined as a cry of pain rang out, marking the elimination of the girl's place in our fight. The hammer she had been about to swing dropped the the floor with a thump. That didn't matter in the scope of things so I moved onto the next opponent.

My sword flashed once more and sparks fell on me as she parried with her katana. When the attack failed I drew storm mana into the fingers of my left hand and flicked it at the opponent's stomach. The arena shook with the boom of thunder and the girl I was fighting crashed ingloriously into the arena walls, cracking the concrete slightly. Her aura was almost entirely exhausted and she was barely conscious. She must have knocked her head against the wall.

Quickly, I took the initiative and leapt towards my last opponent. She flicked her rapier and circles born of her semblance manifested around her and turned rich shades of green and yellow. I felt the disturbance of mana and identified the affinities as wind and lightning.

To avoid the attack I simply dropped out of space. The girl held her semblance and did not release the attack. A stalemate then. Fine.

I flickered back into existence for a moment and raised a gun. The bullet cracked and slammed into the girl's shoulder. It definitely left a hefty bruise. Her aura wasn't potent or focused on that spot enough to stop a bullet completely. To her credit she didn't make a sound but gritted her teeth at the pain. She angrily swept her hand out and all the circles aligned in front of her concentrically and released their charges.

If only it were that easy. I stretched the space between me and the attack to miles and the attack fell flat, the wind dispersing to a faint breeze and the lightning channeling itself into the floor. I snapped the space back and the air compressed, releasing a weak shockwave through the air. The girl didn't move but was forced to brace herself against the harsh wind. I was given enough time to land a hail of bullets on her body, only some of which she was able to block. The buzzer rang obnoxiously then, signalling the end of the match.

"Good job, Weiss," I said with a nod. "You might have landed a hit if you used all lightning dust rather than wind and lightning."

Weiss scowled at another match lost and took stock of her teammates. Nora was rubbing her stomach from the harsh blow I dealt her earlier while she sat on the bench for eliminated huntsmen. Ren was the first one I had knocked out of the match with a few assault rifle bullets to the forehead and was leaning against the wall beside Nora. Blake was trying to store Gambol shroud in its sheathe but was too twitchy after the lightning strike I gave her. I also had a suspicion that she had ringing ears from the thunder, but I didn't see any evidence of that.

"An acceptable job as always, Mister Mavros," Glynda acknowledged from the side. "Team SBVR, while the coordination between you all was acceptable, you still did not attack as a unit but rather planned as a unit. Miss Belladonna, instead of distracting Mister Mavros to allow Miss Schnee time to prepare an attack, I would have recommended that you disengaged after your initial attack. You have learned from experience that clashing blades with him results in a defeat not long after. As for you, Miss Valkyrie, you should not have let your anger for your comrade's defeat affect your combat form. Defense must always be considered no matter your emotions."

"He shot Rennie-bear!" she cried. "He must suffer a thousand years of torment!" In other words, I had to give her a jar of red sap or she'd pout at me for a few days. Ren put his hand over her mouth to quiet Nora, but immediately jerked back, his hand looking wet, as Nora laughed at him. I smiled slightly as Glynda pinched her nose at their antics.

It's good to be back at Beacon, strangely enough. Even if I was just gone for a weekend.

[|||| =+= ||||]

 _Dear Mister Mavros,_

 _It has come to our attention that Barty Crouch Jr., due to his status as a wanted terrorist as well as other minor crimes such as the identity theft of Alastor Moody, has been incarcerated due, in no small part, to your efforts. I personally write to you out of concern for the incident and to confer other matters of equal if not greater importance._

 _For example, there is the fact of the matter that you claimed to be a friend of my friend Alastor while he was captured, yet you also revealed Barty Crouch in the process and made no move to harm the students of Hogwarts. In fact, by the reports of the majority of the student body, you were a capable instructor and markedly improved the student's approach to personal defense and house solidarity. Though I may dislike your methods myself, I'll admit, I agree, as does Alastor, that they are potent if nothing else On a related note, students are no longer allowed to carry weapons in the halls. This is just one of the many, many issues we have to resolve._

 _I would be greatly amicable to clarifying your involvement in the matter of Barty Crouch Jr. as well as discussing why you approached such a problem as you did rather than informing the authorities of Crouch's actions._

 _To conclude this communication, I would like to assure you that I mean in no way to threaten your identity, as you seem averse to escaping relative anonymity, and that I did not take measures to discover your identity. The owls of Hogwarts were unable to find you, as a matter of fact. It may sound quite unbelievable, but Hogwarts itself appears to wish for your return. It is my hope that you might return so that we may discuss your actions during the incident and the associated motivations for said actions._

 _With good intent,_

 _Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore; Headmaster of Hogwarts_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Concentrate," Salem ordered. "If your image isn't clear the grimm will emerge distorted."

I worked my aura like a blade, cutting through corruption to make a form from the chaotic mess of corruption the grimm pool emanated. However, I refocused the image of the grimm I wanted to create in my mind, pressing the image onto the corruption just like I did in my mental battles with Cinder. The corruption didn't resist but simply by the contact with my aura it spread thoughts of atrocities to me: tearing men apart like wood before fire, strangling children in their sleep, walking through a dying city and revelling in the carnage.

"Better," Salem said approvingly. "It appears ready. Infuse the affinity you chose." I nodded before immediately returning to my work in full. I made one more pass over the form I had sculpted and took control of my metal and fire affinities. I pushed fire in first, making a dense core of the affinity with a hint of mana to hold it together, though not enough mana to make the affinity crystallize into dust. The metal affinity I did crystallize into dust but I also made sure to merge it with the corruption deeply.

With the infusion done I pressed onto the three affinities from the outside, pushing them together. They seemed to click in a fashion and I smiled and opened my eyes.

Before me a large clawed hand grasped the outside of the grimm spawning pool. Another quickly followed. Unlike normal grimm, however, these claws were made of pure metals. Iron, titanium, and many others all designed to become the most efficient metal for killing. Preferably in a brutal and bloody fashion.

The beast drew itself out of its spawning pool slowly, muscles working hard to escape the viscous liquid of the spawning pits. It was seemingly reptilian, though it walked on six taloned legs. Its mask had dark orange lines through it like the most powerful grimm of Salem's, marking some sort of ability.

It was scaled, too. The metal affinity made a shell of dense metals surrounding it. I saw mostly hard ferrous metals, but there were also lines of gold, silver, and other soft metals on it's skin. None of them shined, seemingly blackened by corruption.

I couldn't help but feel pride at the beast as it drew back it's jaw almost relishing it's new form and revealing jagged gold and silver teeth. It huffed slightly and white hot flames escaped it's jaws. I could feel the heat from several meters away. The gold and silver teeth were apparently much more durable than their apparent composition suggested.

"Good," Salem said approvingly. She eyed the six legs the lizard-like grimm had curiously. "Why did you give it six legs?"

"Six legs are better for scaling cliffs. The talons are extra sharp and hard with the metal affinity, making this grimm perfect for climbing around rocky terrain," I explained.

"Indeed. It is a good first grimm." Salem nodded at the grimm and it preened for a moment before turning around and walking away, presumably to escape to a different continent and do as grimm do; sow carnage. I felt a little guilty at making a weapon against mankind, but Salem had promised earlier that the grimm I made would not go to Vale and I didn't really care about the other kingdoms.

"It may be somewhat vain, however," Salem muttered. I shrugged and checked the time.

"I have to go now. Beacon calls." Salem nodded.

"I will see you on Thursday then." I smiled politely and teleported away.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Something's going on."_

" _What do you mean, Blake?"_

" _The White Fang in Vale. Their comms are… wrong. Too empty. Hardly anyone is using them and I don't know why."_

" _Isn't less White Fang activity in Vale a good thing?"_

" _Not for the faunus."_

" _Ah, right. Well things are much better for faunus now."_

" _Yes. Well, a lack of comms means that either the Fang are downsizing here, which would have meant a burst of comms for a few days as the fang organized people, which never happened, or something's being hidden. Considering the recruitment drives lately, the Fang is active and strong in Vale right now. I don't know why I'm being left out of the loop though."_

" _So something's going on with the Fang and they don't want you to know."_

" _Yes."_

" _Do you have any idea why?"_

" _Well…"_

" _Yes?"_

" _It's probably because of you. Having a Schnee on the team is… it doesn't win me any favours."_

" _Oh. Well, we could investigate."_

" _Mhm…"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"I want to try something new," Jaune announced at the end of a school day. We had just finished combat class, where Ruby had smacked around some third years and I had discussed dust manipulation with Pyrrha before we all went to our room to study. It was also, conveniently, one of those occasional days where I didn't wander the multiverse.

"I thought we weren't doing team orgies?" I said curiously. Pyrrha nearly stumbled but Jaune talked onwards regardless.

"No, not that. I think I thought of a way out of our team coordination problem."

"Really?!" Ruby asked excitedly.

"Really," Jaune said to Ruby with a shared grin. "We share auras, but not like the 'one body two minds' thing Abyss does. Dr. Peach mentioned brains earlier yesterday and it got me thinking on whether we could use our auras to communicate."

"We can," I confirmed. "It's how elementals talk."

"Can people do it?" Jaune asked, his excitement growing.

"With training, yes."

"What's it like?" Pyrrha asked.

"How long does it take to get a thought across?" Jaune asked before I could answer Pyrrha.

"It's instant, for one thing. Thoughts, images, words, and generally any thought are transmitted instantly along with the emotions to understand said image immediately. As for Pyrrha's question, it's somewhat like empathy to the extreme. You understand the other person's viewpoint and thought process completely. That old English teacher's adage, putting yourself in someone else's shoes, is probably the closest way of describing the process."

"I've done it a little," Ruby volunteered. "Mostly to talk with Pit occasionally. I kind of suck at it. I always get myself and the other person in question confused and it takes me a moment to re-order my thoughts."

' _It's like this'_ I pulsed to my team. Pyrrha squeaked in surprise, her eyes wide, and Jaune winced at the foreignness of the mental message.

' _With training you can even send abstract thoughts like this'_ I recalled the feeling of snow on my skin last winter, the faint but distant chill before I wiped it away with a flex of my heat affinity through my body and the satisfying and deep warmth of the affinity within me.

' _Or images like this'_ I sent an image of the island bay I used during my Signal years with the subI class.

"How do you do that?" Jaune asked, eyes nearly sparkling.

"To start out you pulse your aura while focusing intensely on a strong memory. You have to sort of think it as loud as you can if that makes any sense." Jaune nodded and he and Pyrrha both closed their eyes.

"Ooh! I'm going to try!" Ruby said. She closed her eyes before a pulse washed over us.

I had a vision of sitting in my/Ruby's room holding a stuffed grimm. _'Rawr! I'm a scary beowolf!'_ I said to myself. I moved it to claw at my face and giggled. _'Never will you beat me, beast!'_ I giggled dramatically.

"No! Shoot! Wrong memory!" Ruby said panicked. "I meant that awesome one where I was fighting a bunch of grimm!" But it was too late. Jaune was snickering behind his fist while Pyrrha quickly repressed a laugh.

"Oh! Wait!" Jaune laughed. "I-"

I was waist deep in grimm. My blade sang as it flew from grimm to grimm, killing most of them and wounding others for later. My shield rang at every strike against me, keeping me safe from harm. My aura roared in me like a blaze, making me faster, stronger, and more deadly. My semblance and the markings on my skin only made me more so, pushing me beyond my limits.

"Jaune!" Coral cried out. I glanced her direction to see her fighting a large lizard-like grimm that spat acid at her. She was too busy with a beringal to retaliate and the lizard was too accurate. She was pinned, in other words.

I soaked the air dust in my sword with my aura and pulled away from my grimm to swing mightily at the lizard. Pressurized air whipped out and the lizard screeched as a deep gash appeared on its neck. I returned to my grimm and distantly heard a 'Thanks!' a moment later.

I smiled as I dove back into the fray.

"Good to see you making use of the sword I gave you," I said as the memory finished in my mind.

"Blanc lumiere," Jaune said by reflex.

"Could you send a little less next time?" Ruby groaned. "It's hard to seperate myself from big memories like that."

"I think I've got it," Pyrrha told us. "Here."

I smiled fiercely as Abyss threw lightning at me. My semblance grasped at the electrons and I threw the electricity right back at him only to discover that the lightning was a distraction and I was repressed by a hail of icicles sharper than any arrow.

I whipped the metal dust under my semblance and knocked one of the icicles out of it's path towards me. I adjusted my stance and nearly gasped as three of the icicles around me exploded into steam.

My skin was scalded and I nearly screamed under the burns. Icicles didn't explode! How was that fair?! A sharp pain at my neck revealed something I feared.

' _You lose'_ Abyss said smugly. I was furious - dust damned teleportation - but felt a fierce warmth in my chest… and on my skin but that was likely the burns. He had beaten me soundly. He was one of the few able to. What I wanted to say wasn't what came out.

' _Yes.'_ I smiled. I felt a faint sadness that I didn't say what I wanted to say. _'I guess I did.'_ He chuckled and his smugness diminished somewhat.

' _Another round?'_ I blushed and hoped that the burn hid it.

' _Yes. Could you heal these burns first please? Sorry.'_

"I remember that match." I grinned. "You were so furious that I had exploding icicles. I told you that anything can explode if you try hard enough." Pyrrha nodded silently as her blush increased. Was she really that embarrassed? I might be missing something here.

"How long until this can be used in combat?" Jaune asked.

"Probably a month," I guessed. "It's not instantaneous. If anything it's a training aid until we understand each other enough to operate as a team without sharing thoughts, though sharing thoughts is sure to enhance our ability to work as a group. Soon enough we should be able to fight without it as easily as we will be able to with it. I never thought about communicating with our auras like this. It seems somewhat obvious looking back."

Jaune nodded dismissively. "Anything else?"

"It's hard to lie with your aura," I added on. "It's hard for people to hide emotions when they're communicating with them. That's like fighting with a weapon that looks good but is actually faulty. When tested it fails. Understanding each other as a team might be a bit… well there's a point where we can be too honest."

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Ozpin!"_

" _Hm?"_

" _Team JSPR! You have to stop them!"_

" _Why?"_

" _They're fighting like a team now!"_

" _Oh good. I didn't expect that they would ever be able to do that."_

" _Nobody's a challenge! They need a mission."_

" _Hm… fine. Do you have a suggested-"_

" _A rank. Maybe S if there's a somewhat easier one."_

" _I see. Are you sure?"_

" _Mavros can teleport them out of danger if there is any."_

" _I see. Alright. There is an A ranked mission. However, it is based in Vacuo."_

" _Then give them an extra time limit and have their other teachers collect their work into a few packets."_

" _Missions are coming up soon. Fine. I'll give them a week before the typical mission assigning week to get to Vacuo. Tracking down and killing a dangerous and unique grimm should be to their liking."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I was beginning to think that Pyrrha had a crush on me.

I glanced at her, looking up from my lunch, and she blushed. I focused on her aura and felt her embarrassment along with that strange warm feeling. I had felt something similar from Vera sometimes. Where Vera's warm feeling was more like a burning fire Pyrrha's feeling was like a warm caress. It made me uncomfortable.

I didn't really think of Pyrrha in that way. She was a friend that was fun to test my skills against. She was pretty, extremely so, actually, and she was nice as a person, not to mention driven…

She would be fantastic in bed. Her competitiveness would do it for just about anyone.

That wasn't really a factor to consider though. I was more concerned about her feelings. If we tried dating - because I was NOT having a casual relationship with Pyrrha - it would be awkward and strange not just because it would be both of our first times dating but I also consider her my friend and I've never thought of her as dating material.

Maybe I should try it just to see how it works out.

"Tomorrow. They're doing something tomorrow." I heard Blake say a few doors down from our own. She sounded shady and suspicious. Bella would be ashamed of her for being so obviously up to no good. I also faintly heard tapping from a scroll.

"You're sure?" Weiss asked. This sounded important and I paid attention.

"Yes!" Blake hissed. "Look, we'll bring it up with Ren and Nora later. In the middle of the hallway is hardly a safe place to discuss this." The two went quiet and one final tap was accompanied by the click of a lock disengaging and the two closed the door behind them.

"What's so interesting?" I jerked a little to see Pyrrha sitting on the floor a few feet from me making a mixture of a few different types of dust.

"Some students up to no good. It distracted me for a moment," I said vaguely. Pyrrha stared at me for a moment before shrugging and returning to her mixture.

"… You're using too much gravity dust. Use seven less milliliters per liter. It should make it more potent without compromising the stability," I chimed in after a moment of observation. Pyrrha sighed and grabbed a few vials of the other types of dust to dilute the mixture.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Poledina. I have another task for you. A rather tedious one."_

" _I'm kind of busy with, you know, the twenty other things you have for me."_

" _That's nice. I need you to tinker with my faunus traits. Pit wants a more human body so she can speak and such. However, she needs a body suitable for her innate affinity. So I want you to isolate the gene-"_

" _Boss, I got the genes that manage innate affinities months ago. Remember?"_

" _Did you do it for Pit? And can you splice the innate affinity genes onto a homunculi?"_

" _Theoretically. But it's more complicated than just splicing some genes onto a chromosome. Pit's from a different species. That would be like slapping the genes for a lizard brain onto the part of your DNA that makes your brain form properly. It makes a mess. This is going to take time."_

" _Be tedious, in other words."_

" _Yes. I'm going to have to reconfigure half of the whole gene. That's tens of thousands of nucleotides! Innate affinities are NOT a small gene, Abyss."_

" _How long will it take?"_

" _About a month of diligent work between three people, I'd guess, to make the gene applicable. Then more time to make the homunculi body. Some life affinity should speed up the growth process but we're still looking at about four to six months of time."_

" _I see. Fine. Splice the genes and make some cardiocytes with an innate affinity. I'll manage it from there."_

" _Are you doing the thing you did to make your current body?"_

" _Yes. It should work alright and save a few months of waiting."_

" _Alright then. I'll put Umber on it. She's the best geneticist we have right now. This should be somewhat fun for her."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

' _Block-parry-intercept-push-magic-improvise-replan'_ Jaune's aura spoke. I saw the blur as he envisioned the battle before us. Jaune would parry Ruby's next attack and try to block Pyrrha from advancing. I would intercept them with some sort of magic to push them back and we would plan from there.

' _Agreement'_ I sent through my aura.

Ruby advanced and twirled, Rose Eclipse spinning for Jaune's midsection. He knelt down and raised his shield, sending the scythe skidding off it in a shower of sparks. Pyrrha took the opportunity to charge him, as expected, with her shield raised. He swung at her and let loose a blast of wind dust from Blanc lumiere, negating her momentum. Perfect.

I molded my mana with lightning quickly, the components of my soul snapping into place with the ease of practice. My blade flicked out with a boom against Pyrrha. She yelled as the raw lightning slammed against her metal dust armour and she was thrown away from Jaune before catching herself. That was fine.

A tornado quickly sprung into existence with Pyrrha at the center, immediately pulling her upwards. Ruby, being light, was immediately pulled into it but she slammed her scythe into the ground while preparing her own air affinity to try to disrupt the tornado. I whipped out my rifle and forced her to pull up her scythe to block the bullets, making her fly away in the process.

' _Shoot?'_ I posed the question to Jaune with an image of me firing at the helpless duo.

' _Agreement'_ Jaune's aura pulsed. He stepped back and let me take potshots at the two for a moment.

"Okay fine! You win!" Ruby yelled. I instantly dropped the tornado and Ruby hooked her scythe around a tree branch, cutting halfway into it, and landing neatly on the ground. Pyrrha floated for a moment before descending.

"That was NOT fair!" Ruby said petulantly.

"That was tactics," Jaune said proudly.

"I couldn't fight back! It was either let Abyss shoot me or get blown into that tornado!"

"That was the point," I said amusedly.

"An excellent display of teamwork," Pyrrha said happily.

"This aura talking thing is really working well," Jaune agreed.

"You're at least vaguely understandable now..." I muttered halfheartedly.

"I'm working on it," he groaned.

"You also project to Ruby and Pyrrha half the time, letting them know everything!" I protested.

"Thanks for that!" Ruby chirped.

"It's called misinformation," Jaune said.

"It's not misinformation when it's actually the right information!"

"It is when we're not actually doing that plan though!"

"Because we have to scramble to make a new plan in half the time and hope you don't broadcast it!"

"Are they ever going to stop?" I heard Ruby whisper to Pyrrha.

"I think this is just how they communicate," she said quietly back.

I continued arguing with Jaune. Improvisation was a lifestyle and one I lived by most of the time. It was NOT a plan!

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _We've finished all the factories n' stuff."_

" _Already?"_

" _Well the SDC is good about setting up bases of operations quickly. They do it often with how often SDC mining facilities get attacked. Well, most of them. The ones in Menagerie were set up quickly out of pure enthusiasm for a chance to trade for the high tech goodies nobody has over there. Like scrolls. Did you know that only one in ten of those suckers has a scroll? Kinda sad."_

" _Hm… well what do you want me to do with this information? It's nice that you're done but…"_

" _I'd like a chance to relax. The company's fine and needs some time to rake in the lien and stabilize. Also, we're headed into a recession for a little while, or so the number jockeys say."_

" _Sure, sure. Go invade Vacuo if you ever want to do that."_

" _Not really."_

" _Good."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Ice! Ice, Cinder!" I berated her. Cinder gritted her teeth and waved her hand but nothing came out.

"It doesn't obey me!" she growled. I grabbed her hand and gripped her aura with my own and forced her ice affinity to act with a bit of mana. In an instant hard spikes of ice violently shot up from the ground in front of Cinder and she glared at them so fiercely that I wondered for a moment if she could direct such a potent glare into an attack.

"It. Doesn't. come." Cinder waved her hand again and still ice refused to come forth. "It's fine. I'll use fire."

I paused and thought for some sort of solution to her… problem. Oh. That might work.

"Fuse them," I said. Cinder frowned at me with narrowed eyes.

"What?" she questioned. I sighed and grabbed her hand again and gripped her fire and ice affinities. I rubbed the two together, for lack of a better description, and took hold of the strangely merged parts of the two affinities, expressing it in the world.

A ghostly yet dark blue fire appeared on the grass in front of us and Cinder blinked at it. "Where is the heat?" she murmured as she reached for it. I saw faint lines of hoarfrost appear on her glove as her hand was held near the flame.

"It's frostfire. A purely magical element. It can't exist without mana to sustain it, but ambient mana works fine. It emits cold rather than heat. It's not ice but it works well enough. Use earth for solid defenses. It's inferior but you can dodge."

Cinder's lips pressed together at the suggestion that she use anything 'inferior' but she didn't state her displeasure vocally. We had been practicing ice for almost a month now, after all, and she simply couldn't use it properly. The best she'd ever gotten was a scattering of icicles on tree branches when she was exceptionally calm one day.

"I like it," she said after a moment as she gazed at the frostfire. I could see the light from it flickering in her eyes. It was only then that I considered that I had just given an anarchist pyromaniac a new avenue of burning things. Cinder's lips quirked upwards just a tiny bit but it was the closest thing to an actual smile I'd ever seen on her. Her eyes briefly looked over to me and I wondered what exactly she was considering at the moment.

"Hmph," she grunted, still somehow sounding ladylike, before she waved her hand and extinguished the fire. "You never mentioned that there are artificial magical elements."

"It's relatively unimportant," I said casually. "They consume more mana than is practical for combat unless there's extenuating circumstances. Usually when you're putting an affinity to waste. I didn't have a fire affinity for quite some time so I had to make frostfire using consumption. It's more expensive than natural elements and shorter lasting, though it is sometimes more potent or exotic. There aren't many elements that radiate cold. Most magical reactions are exothermic in my experience. Negating energy is ironically harder to do than making it."

"What about other magical elements?" Cinder asked quizzically.

"There's plenty. Just take a physically based affinity and mesh it with an energy based one. For example, using ice and shadow you can create this." I took hold of my ice and shadow affinity and 'rubbed them together' and used mana to produce the element. A strange black ice formed in the palm of my hand. It looked smoother and less jagged than normal ice and light seemed to be sucked into it.

"I don't really have a name for it. I do know that it melts extremely quickly in the presence of light or fire and stays unnaturally cold and hard in shadows. Using motion and ice makes an ice that, when struck, explodes into shrapnel, life and consumption makes a sort of energy that saps the lifeforce of anything it touches, which, I might add, can also be used to create a literal lifesteal enchantment that heals you by sapping aura, and so on. Artificially made magical elements are, as a rule, though, impractical. That lifesteal enchantment loses power like a faucet, the ice melts in seconds on it's own in light and the enhancing effects of shadow are fairly unnoticeable, and so on.

"Worse, the weaknesses of each artificial element are made more potent the more powerful the affinities used so you can't slowly improve each artificial element by enhancing your own affinities. If you want to use a proper magical element then get an affinity for it. I know that you can acquire a frostfire affinity through meditation and I have my void affinity anyways. I don't believe the affinities come naturally in humans, however. Even so, using your ice affinity to make frostfire is better than leaving it useless."

Cinder was quiet for a moment. "I understand," she said finally. "I would like to see this list of yours. For now, though, perhaps we should attempt to refine this frostfire."

"Have fun doing that yourself," I said with a low chuckle. "I almost never use fire. Why would I when I have raw heat to make fire if I ever even need it?"

"Of course you don't use it," she muttered. "Power never comes easy, does it?"

"Give a five year old a railgun and say that again," I said half-teasingly. Cinder scowled in response. "Power is hard to acquire for yourself from yourself. Just like it's harder to make a railgun than have one handed to you."

"Are you saying," Cinder said slowly in a tone I had learned to associate with her attempts at humor, "that power comes from the _power_ of friendship?"

I openly laughed at that. Cinder raised an eyebrow as though puzzled by my reaction, but her aura was mostly honest, showing a smothered sense of amusement at her joke. Not that she would ever admit to joking, of course.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Must you really?"_

" _But he wanted to meet with me awhile ago!"_

" _And now he trusts that he'll never have to deal with you because he and our mistress have an understanding."_

" _But I wanna!"_

" _No."_

" _I have free time though!"_

" _Truly? That's unacceptable. I'll alert Tyrian to double your training."_

" _Oookay then. Now I'm definitely coming."_

" _Ember, n-"_

" _I'llseeyousoonCindybyeeeeee!"_

" _DON'TYOUDARE-!"_

" _I'LLALSOSEEYOURFUTUREHUSBANDANDMESSWITHYOU!"_

" _NO-!"_

 _*Beep*_

" _GAH!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

School was passing really slowly. It had only been about a month and a half by the time that I was tiring of the whole Beacon charade. I still had to deal with the breach, which is scheduled to happen around early November right after the dance; only days after it actually. Cinder had decided against infiltrating the CCT tower during the dance and was instead going to be attempting to infiltrate during the breach. It was perfect, really. Every huntsman was gone at that point and swarming around the breach. Nobody would notice her sneaking in until it was too late.

I could infiltrate it myself easily but Cinder took it as a point of pride to contribute herself to her operation at least somewhat, though she made a point to compare me to Salem in that I shouldn't have to do much of anything except designate underlings. Funny, because that was all I ever seemed to do recently. I was getting bored again of just sitting around. That was bad. I'll get back to Hogwarts soon enough. I don't want to tie myself down with an actual job. Even if I only taught part time I would hate it.

That said, there were some benefits to being around Hogwarts.

"Yes!" I shouted triumphantly. I held out the book with a cackle as I re-read the title again just to make sure it was real.

 _Tha bineding ah souls an tha land wi'out severance_ by _Earl Harkenheart Friedreich_

"In other words, making horcruxes without the negatives!" I said gleefully. Of course, there were some negatives. A weak soul would be torn apart by the strain of stretching from one point to another. Also, spells that directly attacked souls like the killing curse (which was a spell designed to sever a soul from the world) would attack all of the pseudo-horcruxes thus preventing revival. Also, the caster of the spell would never be able to leave the land they bound their soul to, though they would be extremely powerful when inside their land.

The spell actually inspired the legends of druids and tree spirits, AKA spriggans, and was one of the early stages of horcruxes. Immense power with no mobility. Druids would have power over their forests, making the land defend them like the caster was their own part of the forest, but leaving meant death because their soul couldn't handle the strain of the space between the druid and the land their soul was bound to. Of course they also went crazy more often than not when they lost their body and had to deal with being a forest. It rarely ended well for the druid. It's why the practice went _out of practice_.

I didn't have the issues, though, if I ever wanted to use it, which I didn't. I had no reason to rely on a bunch of dirt. I could survive as a wandering soul without issue where most magical beings just died, their souls not fit to properly survive without a body.

This ritual wasn't for me though. It was for my affinities. My hope was that I could bind an affinity to a body and use my mind affinity to encourage a consciousness to form. Of course, we would share souls so we couldn't turn on each other. Horcruxes specifically didn't work since the ritual demanded that one soul breaks another, kind of like a hadron collider breaking apart a single atom. The sacrificial soul and dying soul without a body would then merge with the whole soul but would be too weak to sustain itself, leaving the formerly whole soul split and with some extra divinity to make sure that it can survive with half of it in it's new object, the horcrux, and the rest of it still in its body with no loss in magical potential due the added divinity from the sacrifice.

I had originally wanted to know how a soul was split without void, and it turns out that another soul has to split it. The ritual was still useful for a few things, though. Mainly soul fusions. What would happen if two souls were split and the halves switched? A split personality of sorts? I hadn't done experiments yet but I would when I was less busy with Beacon and researching things like making a guardian.

A guardian, Ozpin? How about I rip out a dragon's soul and stuff one of my spare affinities in there? Nature specifically. A giant magical dragon made from nature itself. Next is to see if I can bind it to nature like I was to void. Ozpin mentioned that example of a man who couldn't die in nature when we talked of mantles and my void mantle. A giant, immortal, regenerating dragon that manipulates nature with ease. Gods I'm a genius. There's no way this could go wrong. A dragon who can call upon the forces of nature, hurricanes and earthquakes and whatnot, will surely be a great protector for me so I don't have to protect myself.

If it goes right I'll finally be able to stop fighting physically! I would be able to just sling magic like I always wanted to. The bombardment mage lifestyle would be a sweet one.


	53. UPDATE! Not a chapter

**AN: I'm back! I mean, it took awhile but I'm feeling good about writing. I spent time with my relatives, went camping for a week, played some games, switched from glasses to contact lenses, etc. I wrote some other stuff, too. A FSN fiction I'm not going to release until I write on it a lot more and DxD fiction, though I should warn you that they're unedited and not something I spend a lot of time on. The DxD fiction is still good, though, according to my brother.**

 **At any rate, I hope you all enjoy this as I get back in the swing of things. The chapter's a little over the place and jumps around a bit, but hey, next chapter's the breach and missions. FINALLY! And then I have a few ideas on what to do next. But for now it's time to stop sleeping in until noon… maybe just eleven. Or eleven thirty. That sounds about right. Small steps, you know?**

[||||= **LEVEL 53** = ||||]

"I was wondering, are Beacon students only allowed to take Beacon students to the school dance?" Cinder asked, sweat on her brow. Her aura clashed against mine with memories and emotions bared. Lust sought to distract me with wrath while ambition, a weak emotion not worth bothering with, crept behind me, urging me to make a mistake. I stayed tranquil amidst the emotions, stamping them out quickly.

"No," I said simply, preferring to bombard her with confusion and curiosity. Curiosity was weak as well, but I hoped that confusion masked it by disorienting her, making her waste her time getting rid of it.

"Is there a reason behind that?" My ploy worked and she wasted time getting rid of the curiosity. I shifted to the offensive in our emotional spar, directly attacking her with a new emotion she was unused to, compassion. Yes, Cinder would fall before my affection towards puppies and kittens. Love was clearly the power she knew not.

"Students that transferred from Haven, Shade, or Atlas might have started to date Beacon students," I explained as I continued my direct attack. Cinder was doing something, but she was able to shield it from me and I was too invested in my bombardment to lose focus to look closer. It would give her an opportunity.

"Do they have to be from the other schools?" My assault continued and Cinder's aura was slowly subsumed by my compassion, a strange emotion for me to see in her.

"No," I said simply. Cinder's aura shifted and I took the risk to glimpse what she was doing only to fall for a classic ploy.

"Then… how about you go with me?" A blunt blast of lust assaulted me like a slap to the face. It compounded on my compassion and formed some sort of warped version of love with a heavy emphasis on lust. I fell straight into it, too jarred from the sudden shift. Cinder didn't use _love_. She took my compassion and warped it. How like her.

"I…" I raised my hand and she stopped her assault as I admitted defeat. "My teammate has a crush on me. A very bad crush. I have to deal with that."

"And then?" she asked coyly. Her eyes drifted down where - yes, little me, you can stop standing at attention now.

"Then I'll consider it," I muttered. I had no lunacies that sex with Cinder would be anything less than fantastic, but I also knew that she was _dangerous,_ aseductress, and extremely dishonest. I also knew that she had some sort of ulterior motive, though what it was I didn't know.

"Only consider?" she asked lustily. Her hand drifted downwards and I reached out and gripped her wrist.

"Consider," I grunted with a scowl and suspicious eyes. She didn't bother to fake embarrassment, nor did she look unsurprised, instead smiling in a way that I couldn't help but notice was extremely sexy. In the back of my mind I wondered how soft her lips were and how I'd use them.

"I'll hope to hear your response, then." She had timed her questions and attack on my emotions just so that we would be ending the training session as she seduced me. My eyes were pulled to her hips almost not of my volition and I followed them as she stepped onto the circle of runes I made a month ago to teleport her back to her base. She caught my eyes after I finished staring at her ass and smirked flirtatiously before teleporting away.

I suddenly considered that maybe Cinder was more dangerous close to me than away from me. I could fight her with a blade and magic any day. I could only stop myself from being seduced for so long.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Yes! Finally! Dear dust that man has a will of steel or is denser than a brick! Three damned months and only now he stares at my ass?! Even my sister stares!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I had gotten a number of books from my correspondences with Salem. It was a part of a sort of circle of minor favors we had with each other. I ask her for something and she asks me to do something for her. It was nothing like a friendship but more an understanding like I had with Raven back when we were first feeling each other out. A little political support for a Mistralian law here, a compromised safehouse magically nuked there, another set up here, and so on. Nothing serious like killing or any major support in any form. If anything I was just handling inconveniences for her that would otherwise occupy Watts or one of her other minions.

Besides, I was learning quite a bit. What aether was, which was some sort of spell structuring based on patterns of mana and… well, it was basically useless. Then there was a whole book as thick as the largest of school textbooks filled in tiny script with every recorded affinity and it's usage, a similar book on magical creatures, and so on.

There was even a ledger on ancient magical nobility and royalty. I was fairly sure I found the predecessors to the Schnee line. They used to be mages specializing in a small range of magics such as servant binding magics, ice based combat magics, time magics, dimensional based magics, and a few other ones. Based on a book about semblance patterns through family lines I had concluded that the family had used those few magics so intensively for so long that the affinities became standard fare for the bloodline.

It was actually my current branch of study. Semblances and binding affinities to things. Namely for my nature dragon guardian but I decided to pick up semblances along the way in the hopes that I might figure out what was happening with my semblance. Salem had smirked knowingly when I described the general situation, namely my fate affinity being ripped out of me. She seemed terribly amused by it, and refused to hand me the answers, thus leading to my studying.

With a small groan I returned my eyes to the old book and began reading once more on the various effects affinities could have on a semblance.

That was, the effects they had in combination with two to three other affinities as well as personality influences, lineage influences, environmental influences, and more exotic influences, which meant crazy magic experiments like infusing affinity into a woman's womb or something. It was more complicated than a person would think at a glance. In fact-

"Soyouwannagotothedanceorsomething?" Pyrrha blurted out. I looked away from my book and stared at her for a moment. I had completely forgotten she was there, or registered that Jaune and Ruby had left some time ago. She froze on her bed, a pencil broken in her right hand and her homework only half done with a ruby red blush on her face.

"Ruby's rubbing off on you," I muttered. Pyrrha blushed harder in response. I deliberated for a moment before deciding that going to the dance was a good way to break Pyrrha out of her crush, or at least make her certain that she actually liked me. "I'll go to the dance with you. If it goes well I suppose we can try dating if you're still interested in that. I've never tried it personally." Pyrrha's eyes widened and she blinked quickly for a moment before she shook her head.

"I can't believe it was that easy," she quietly said, somehow managing to look more embarrassed. I snickered a little.

"Asking people to the dance is a delicate and precise ordeal… unless you just spew out an invitation like you did." Pyrrha grabbed her pillow and slammed her face in it with a dramatic groan. "Want to try it again?" I offered teasingly.

Pyrrha looked up from her pillow and got up on her knees before narrowing her eyes at me determinedly. "I'm going to drag you out of the friendzone!" she declared. I rolled my eyes and looked back down to my book. She would have to try hard for that. The first words I thought of when I thought of Pyrrha was 'good friend'.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _You did it?!"_

" _I - yeah. Sorry, did you want to-"_

" _Nonono! I just thought you would have some sort of, I dunno, ambush strategy. Like cornering him outside of a class or something."_

" _I thought about that. I thought about it a lot. I was thinking about it while staring at him reading and just blurted it out."_

" _I'm rubbing off on you!"_

" _That's what Abyss said."_

" _He did?! Of course he did. This is great! Have you thought about weapons a lot lately?"_

" _Ruby, I don't think blurting out an invitation to the dance makes me you."_

" _You're becoming Ruby by osmosis, of course! Ooh! Wanna go get some cookies?"_

" _I… yes."_

" _Hah!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Can I come?!" Ruby pleaded, clutching Eclipse Rose.

"No," I said sternly.

"We could make it a team activity," Jaune said that as though it was already decided that it would be. He was also dressed up in his armour with his sword at his side.

"No."

"It does sound quite agreeable," Pyrrha said with a beaming smile. Her jacket and iron dust was on her just like the others.

"No!"

"So when are we heading out, Abyss?" Jaune asked, a small smirk on his face.

"Forget this," I muttered. Jaune, Ruby, and Pyrrha instantly grabbed onto me before I could warp to a different dimension, the only place I'd be safe from my clingy team.

"Nope!" Ruby chirped.

"Ruby, you would be squished!" I snapped.

"Nope!"

"They're dra-"

"Nope! Dragons are awesome and I wanna see one! I could totally kill a dragon! Just shoot it!"

"That's so-"

"Correct!" Pyrrha chimed in. I gritted my teeth.

"This is NOT a lizard with wings!"

"It's a magical lizard, Ruby," Jaune chided. "You have to make sure you get a headshot."

"Oooh, good point. I'll double check my sights."

"Not! Helping!" I growled.

"Just let us come with you, Abyss," Jaune said exasperatedly.

"Fine," I gave up. "Have fun!" I said. In an instant the four of us were at a version of the ancient dragon temple in Skyrim. Four of my parallels handled the hard light illusions back at Beacon that were attending our classes. We were already late with their pleading this morning anyways.

"WHOOOOO!" Ruby screamed. A bullet tore from her gun at maximum velocity to blow through a dragon's skull. Its head nearly exploded on the exit and Ruby moved on to her next victim. The next dragon, however, was smarter. The unrelenting force shout at three words leapt from it's mouth to hopefully ward off the bullet yet the bullet had too much force behind it and not enough mass to be affected by the dragon's magic. Its head also exploded. The rest of the dragons finally mobilized and began attacking, forcing Ruby to move. I flicked my wrist and her gun locked to a lower setting, making her actually try rather than one-shot everything. She didn't seem to mind.

Jaune was clearly holding in laughter as he fought undead draugr in ornate armour. Their swords, enchanted by master enchanters, clashed with his and Jaune tested his skill against them in real combat… until Pyrrha mowed the draugr down like a lawnmower, firing a few railguns to spice things up.

The version of the ancient dragon temple I had brought us to was much different from the one in the game. For one thing there were hundreds upon hundreds of draugr; an army. There were dragons aplenty as well.

I myself scowled and backed off. A moment later a large red dragon landed a little behind me carrying a woman in what was clearly dragonscale armour holding what was, if I wasn't wrong, the nightingale bow. She got off and took off her helmet, revealing dark blond hair done in a braid and pointed ears. She was a high elf then, with more human-like eyes and facial structure. I wondered if she was a half breed. She looked remarkably human besides the ears and odd purple eye color. Even her skin was less golden and more pale than I recalled most high elves having.

At any rate she was absurdly beautiful. She had no makeup and was wearing armour rather than a dress but I could hardly imagine that she didn't have men falling at her feet in a place like Skyrim. In other words, she was above average compared to female huntresses and most other woman in civilized societies with makeup or beauty products.

"Khajit?" she asked quizzically. I snorted inwardly at her voice. It was like the tinkling of a bell in a way that absolutely did NOT suit her, considering the armour and weapons.

"Something like that," I grumbled, hiding my amusement at my thoughts. I waved towards my team massacring the army. "Call this divine intervention. It's not right but not quite wrong either." The dragonborn looked towards the carnage and nodded slowly.

"I admit, I had not anticipated help besides Odahviing."

"I didn't want help. They begged me to come until I relented..." I muttered. She looked at me for a moment before nodding and focusing some sort of magic in her hand. A bottle of mead appeared reading "Honingbrew Meadery." She offered it to me and I took it, deciding that it would be an insult otherwise, and I didn't feel like pissing off the dragonborn at the moment. I waved my hand and a metal chair formed. The dragonborn sat down easily and I sipped the mead.

"This is pretty good," I said impressedly.

"Black briar is too rough for my taste,." tThe dragonborn sniffed.

"My name is Abyss. You are?" The elf eyed me for a moment.

"I am Irisai, daughter of Pernella the second."

"Lovely name. I think my parents wanted me to be a demon. Or maybe they just had a thing for the color black."

"Are you a demon? Divine intervention does not mean goodness."

"Perceptive, aren't you? No. I'm not a demon. In my experience demons are typically accompanied by an oppressive aura and hellish words that scrape on your mind. I'm… well you could call me a demigod."

"Really." Irisai looked at me flatly. I flared my aura and mana. She tensed and nearly jumped out of her seat.

"Relax, dragonborn. Save the fighting for the worldeater. I don't think you'll have to fight anything here." Irisai looked at the battlefield, where Ruby hooked her scythe around a dragon's neck and swung around it straight into the air, slitting the dragon's throat in the process, before aiming mid-air and firing quickly at several important looking draugr. She used the last shot to escape several dragon's breath attacks of ice, fire, electricity, some purple stuff, and what might have been a laser.

Jaune waved his sword and shock dust arced forward to stun a host of draugr. He swung again and a blade of air decapitated some of them. He engaged the rest gleefully. Pyrrha had decided to go melee and battled three draugr without dust. It was taking her a little while but two of them looked wounded in various places while Pyrrha was perfectly fine.

"I see," she agreed.

"I just need a dragon soul. Call it payment or whatever you please but I'm taking one."

"That is perfectly agreeable," she said a little quickly. Whether it was because me and my companions scared the shit out of her or because it was actually agreeable was up in the air. Considering the woman was willing to go blade to blade with an army and a hundred or so dragons I guessed the latter.

"What was your plan to deal with all of this, anyways?" I asked curiously.

"I assembled an army under a petition to the white-gold tower and my kinsmen in the Aldmeri Dominion and assembled a teleportation array fueled by the Eye of Magnus. My kinsmen in Skyrim fell in for their homeland. The dragons are… _were_ a threat to everybody." she said quietly and confirming to me that half breeds existed in this version of Tamriel and that her parents were likely a nord and high elf.

"Bet you're embarrassed now that you didn't need them, huh?" Irisai refused to answer but I saw a dusting of red on her cheeks. "Yes, we divine-types are eccentric and uncaring most of the time but we do come in handy on occasion." Irisai was still silent. I paused.

"Considering you have to explain this to your little alliance our intervention may not be the best for you, but at least you don't have to use that damned eye. It's such a pain."

"I know!" she suddenly burst out. I choked on my drink in surprise while she held a hand to her mouth wide-eyed with a full blown blush on her cheeks.

"I seem to be making a lot of women blush lately," I commented, my voice still a little choked from the mead. Irisai refused to comment. "Here." I opened a portal across the ruins to the portal to Sovngarde and easily tore apart the dragon priest's soul, causing the old bones to collapse to the ground under the golden regalia the ancient mage wore.

"I… thank you," Irisai said with a flattering honesty. She paused for a moment and seemed to have some revelation and looked deep into my eyes before smiling and looking away.

"It's no issue," I said. Irisai chastely kissed me on my cheek suddenly and stood up, donning her helmet. I smiled amusedly at her as the portal opened for her and she leapt in.

"She likes you, kaaz (cat/khajit)," a rumbling yet strangely feminine voice said from behind me. Odahviing, then.

"How nice of her," I said absently as I sipped the mead she gave me. "Do you have any advice for having too many women interested in you?"

"Take them all as your mates," she rumbled.

"That's not helpful."

"It is. You're just not listening." I turned my head behind me to Odahviing, whose head was pointed at me.

"Or maybe that's just terrible advice." A low chuckle escaped the dragon.

"Kiir (Child)," she said amusedly. "You overthink things too much. She is the dragonborn. She likes you. Your power makes you attractive. Lay with her. Women enjoy a strong mun (man) anyways. She is in need of a mate anyways. You would do well."

"Ugh," I groaned. I slumped in my seat a little.

"Had you courted with her she would have rejected you handedly. Few are not in awe of her beauty, prowess in battle or magic, or the power she wields in the thuum (voice)."

"She's not that desirable, is she?"

"There are ballads of her beauty across Tamriel. The emperor himself saw her due to his intentions to take her as his mate, though she convinced him of the alliance she made not long after."

"Poor woman."

"Indeed."

"I'm not going to court her."

"She enjoys your company, short as it may have been. She will find a way to meet with you again."

"Five minutes chatting quietly is not a reason to pursue a guy across dimensions."

"Kiir (child), you truly do not know Irisia. She chased me across Skyrim, Elsweyr, and down to the Summerset Isles out of sheer stubbornness to not let me escape her and claim another dragon to take her to this temple. If you are within reach she will meet with you somehow, though I know not how. She may give up courting you but this will not be the last you see of her. You intrigue her. You may escape Tamriel but you cannot escape Irisaai. Even if she has to share, though she will not do so happily."

"Fucking perfect. I got a stalker."

"…"

"I… I don't hear you saying she isn't a stalker, or that she's pursuing me with noble intentions."

"No, and you will not hear such."

[|||| =+= ||||]

 _*In a divine realm far, far away*_

" _Sheogorath, what the FUCK?!"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Had your fun?" I asked. Ruby, covered in dragon blood, was humming happily. Jaune smelled terrible but had a pleased smile on his face. Pyrrha was still antsy, shifting from foot to foot as if there were still enemies near. I myself held a dragon soul in me, which I was pouring my aura into. Slowly the dragon soul seemed to reflect mine more and more. I also made sure to bind it to me like I did to Elseria, my 'worshipper'. I made sure that the dragon didn't have any of my affinities, though, and I just got it's aura regeneration, which was sizable, and it got a deeper connection to me.

I had isolated their memories using my mind affinity and destroyed that portion of the soul with void. The dragon would likely be just like a newborn.

" _A brother?"_ Pit asked sleepily in my soul. I wasn't aware that she was taking a nap.

" _Something like that. More like a stepbrother. Akatosh is the soul's father. I'm just adopting him,"_ I thought back. Pit accepted the halfhearted effort to placate her easily and went back to sleep in my soul.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _Odaviing I'm-? Where did he go? Abyss, I mean. Not his companions or servants or whoever they were."_

" _He left not ten minutes earlier with his companions."_

" _Troll shit! The one time I find a man who doesn't drop down drooling at the sight of me!"_

" _I hammered in a sufficient wariness of your tendencies."_

" _Yes, yes. I showed up and he didn't drool or even gawk, which is more than I expect from any man. Then, I played the pretty and polite blushing princess and he didn't buy it for a minute. That's two. Then he actually MADE ME BLUSH! What man in Skyrim has ever been able to make me do that?! By the divines, who in TAMRIEL has been able to do that?! That's three and just to finish me off he practically walked me to sovengarde! He's the polite, dashing prince and slayed my fucking dragon so where's my prince?!"_

" _Did you forget his-"_

" _Strength? Yeah, yeah, he's super strong. I don't particularly care about that."_

" _Nok (Lie)."_

" _Now, by Dibella I'm getting that ahmul (husband) for myself while he's free! Nirn OWES me a prince after killing the dragon so I'll ask again, where is he?!"_

" _Such smoliin (passion), truly. The poor Kaaz (Cat/khajit). He moved planes to a place outside charted Oblivion."_

" _GAH! Of course he did!"_

" _We could simply give up n-"_

" _Let's find the Elder Scrolls then."_

" _By Akatosh, again?!"_

" _Obviously. Let's try the dragon scroll first or track down that moth priest."_

" _He said you would krii (kill) him if you appeared once more. I do not believe his heart can handle you."_

" _He's got a few heart attacks left."_

" _Zu'u (I am) Aus (Suffering)."_

[|||| =+= ||||]

"This is a wonderful idea!" Poledina exclaimed from the intercom happily as I pushed the dragon soul from my soul into an 'egg', though the egg was actually a three dimensional construct of runes Polendina and I made specifically to contain souls. I used a small scattering of Harry Potter runes along with Remnant runes in it. The Harry Potter runes were less flexible, less powerful, and more disorganized than their Remnant counterparts, but far more stable and less likely to blow up if you handled them wrong. Most of them were unusable, though, since they required a world affinity. They worked to keep the construct from breaking under the dragon soul's might, which far surpassed any puny human soul's.

"It's going to be fun, at the very least," Vera agreed. I could tell that she was nervous, having rearranged the notes on her two clipboards three times in the past half an hour.

"We've got an aura reading and all other readings are stable!" Penny chimed in from the console room. A USB cable extended from a port in her side to the console. She kept digital records of everything that happened in the room. Since the experiment we were doing wasn't overtly dangerous we were more lax with security than we were when I played with void and the infinite nothingness from between dimensions. Dragons were low-risk compared to all of that mess.

I double checked the construct's runes one more time and found no flaws with the dragon soul in it. The soul seemed almost placid, having no memories in it. I still stepped back a few steps from the construct.

"Do you want to proceed? We can sit back and observe for a little while," Poledina offered. I paused.

"No. We should keep going. Nothing's even gone wrong yet." I said back. A little hesitantly, I extended a tendril of aura between me and the construct. Immediately, I felt the soul try to worm it's way through the tendril, as though the connection with me were a crack in it's prison. In a way it was. Still, my soul was far larger than the dragon's.

"Ooh! Readings jumped up! You connected souls?" Penny asked. I nodded and she hummed appreciatively.

"I'm going to try making the link," I said.

"The whole godly worship one?"

"That's the one." I felt around my soul for that little facet where my 'followers' were. A sparse amount of mana flowed into me from it but nothing great. I tried connecting the dragon to it but the link didn't take. Maybe the dragon sensed something like submission from the link?

"There was a spike. Like your auras drew closer but then separated a little violently before stabilizing. It didn't take?"

"No. I'm going to try taking away existing affinities."

"Go for it!" Penny cheered. Poledina was muttering something to himself while Vera looked between her papers quickly, scribbling a few notes in nigh-perfect handwriting.

I got more aggressive in my link, piercing into the dragon's soul. It couldn't quite resist and I could feel the panic in it. Still I searched deeper and deeper. I drifted off for some time, rummaging around it's soul, before I found several interesting features.

"I think I found the affinities. But there's something else. A link like I have for worshippers," I spoke.

"Akatosh," Poledina said instantly. "Likely the link between the dragon's god and itself. Whether as a way to manipulate the dragon, take power from it, make adjustments to it, or otherwise, I don't know. However, I think you should investigate this facet of the soul. The divine link, that is. It might be a part of all souls or it might only develop in beings with particularly powerful souls. Imagine if hunters could regenerate their auras with the power of a hundred civilians! Connecting auras could be bigger than we expected."

"This confirms a few theories I had, by the way. We can talk about them later," Vera spoke up. "However, we can investigate later. Take it's affinities or extinguish them. We want pure nature affinity, right?"

"We could leave a secondary affinity. Water, earth, or otherwise might be fine if it's a facet of the nature affinity..." Poledina mused. "Other affinities with no relation to nature, like fire, would probably interfere."

"We can always add a secondary affinity later, if it's even necessary," I said dismissively. "For now we should focus on giving it a mantle of nature."

"I agree," Poledina said solemnly. "Let's continue." With that I felt for the affinities. One felt like burning. Void consumed it and the soul seemed to howl in pain and thrashed about. Its feelings were something like horror, defilement, hatred, and excruciating pain. I felt a little repulsed at my actions and decided to wipe the soul's memories once this was over. I didn't want any guardian of mine to hate me for putting it in horrible pain as soon as it was aware.

"One down. I believe it was fire," I said neutrally. "Continuing." I felt for other affinities. A cold, solid one. The void extinguished it. One that felt like freedom, movement, and air. Likely something to do with flight. The void extinguished it. I found about five more to extinguish and did so. Then I found something likely bad.

"Oh no," I groaned.

"What?" Poledina asked in concern.

"An innate affinity. I'm fairly sure it's linked to voice or shouts."

"Ugh. We should have expected this, honestly. You told us that the dragons do most if not all of their magic through their voice. Can you just get rid of it?"

"Actually," I paused. "I might be able to transplant my nature affinity into the void where the voice affinity will be. But we still don't know much about innate affinities."

"Other than being intrinsically tied to the magical being in question," Poledina observed. He mulled the idea over for a moment. "Let's do it. I can't imagine that being more closely tied with nature would be a bad thing for a being that's supposed to use nature to keep itself alive."

I agreed and moved void in to erase the voice affinity. The dragon soul redoubled its efforts to keep me out, but it was futile. I used a small trick I had picked up from Cinder and dropped a chaotic memory of partying she had once used on me to get my attention. The vision of blaring music and flashing lights, neither of which were something the soul had experienced before, completely threw the soul off its game and I struck at the voice affinity. It barely took a second before a gaping hole was left in the dragon's soul. If the soul was capable of crying I was certain that it would be. Now for the hard part…

I took hold of my own nature affinity and tried to push it into the void where the voice affinity had been. Of course, the nature affinity didn't want to simply leave my soul. It stretched and moved, but didn't leave my soul, as expected. I felt around the nature affinity and found something like roots where the affinity was kept in my soul. It was like the deepest, richest parts of nature affinity in my soul. The source of nature affinity that I used. I had to cut it out.

Void didn't harm my soul, that was a fact. But I had never intentionally tried to harm myself with void before. I didn't seem to have any issues with it. Void wrapped around the core of my nature affinity and wore it away from my soul. It didn't take too much harm to the affinity to disconnect it from my soul, though I myself felt a strange bon-deep ache as it left. It felt quite like pulling out a tooth. I controlled the bountiful source of nature affinity and pushed it into the hole in the dragon's soul.

To my satisfaction the affinity settled and the dragon soul seemed to flawlessly absorb the affinity. I quickly wiped the recent memories of the dragon's soul and it was as innocent as an infant once more.

"Done," I said somewhat tiredly.

"Those were some interesting readings..." Penny said thoughtfully.

"Last step. Make a permanent bond. Wait, there were no complications?" Poledina seemed concerned.

"None that will affect the experiment," I said. I didn't hear anything and decided to continue. I felt for the facet of my soul that connected me to my 'followers' and reached it out to the dragon's soul. It seamlessly connected to the same spot Akatosh once presumably connected to the dragon and the soul stirred, though it seemed to be recovering from the shock of being operated on, memories of the event or not.

"Done," I said. "In fact, the connection seems even deeper than it would normally be, courtesy of Akatosh's former bond."

"That's it, then?" Poledina asked.

"Done. Get started making a body for our new draconic friend." In the meantime I needed some sleep.


	54. Chapter 54

**AN: Ah, I said that the breach was happening last chapter, didn't I? … well I'm not lingering on the dance but the breach isn't going to be finished this chapter. I've got the set-up for it written but not the whole thing, though I know where I'm going with it.**

 **I'm extremely sorry for this being late. There were a number of things in the way, but all in all I probably could have gotten this out earlier if I had been more focused. Even now I'm not truly happy with this chapter but I'll take something over nothing. Hopefully next chapter will be better.**

 **Thanks to TheNightSHinobi for doing a better job than usual. Some sentences and stuff were kind of awkward and didn't flow well. He picked up the quality of his edits this time. Editors are an author's best friend, truly.**

[||||= **LEVEL 54** = ||||]

The days coming up to the dance were about as I expected. Chaotic, filled with anxiety, and a LOT of awkwardness as gawky teenagers asked other gawky teenagers out. I also saw a few nasty rejections between partners, which was sure to be messy for their teams.

Yang and Weiss ended up planning the dance as in canon, though Yang's team had been press-ganged into setting up the decorations, which surprised nobody. Their place as Yang's bitches was well established throughout the school, not that anybody teased them for it. With Yang training them they were no pushovers. Yang was just scary when she put her mind to it, much like her mother.

As expected, Ruby was going alone, though with Jaune as a friend to hang out with. Yang was going with Sky, one of her teammates. Blake was going alone, Weiss was going with someone I didn't know, and beyond that I barely noticed Ren and Nora going as friends.

Of course, I was going with Pyrrha, who had put the same amount of focus into preparing for the dance as she would an important fight. That is to say, she was almost single mindedly focused on preparing. If it wasn't for Ruby having her back she would have missed a sizable amount of schoolwork in just how determined she was. I was of the opinion that it was a little unhealthy to be focusing so much on me, but I had no clue how to handle Pyrrha's feelings. The best I could do was awkwardly avoid encouraging or discouraging her, which I wasn't even sure was the right decision in the first place.

If there was one thing I was sure of it was that I was distancing myself from Cinder. I had banned the use of lust in our emotional sparring sessions and greatly reduced the amount of training sessions we had. She seemed to take the hint, though I got the sense that she was frustrated at something, however, I didn't think it was me. I almost asked Salem if she knew why Cinder was trying to seduce me but held off at the last moment. Asking for advice on your romantic life was for friends, and while Salem and I were far from enemies, I wouldn't call us friends. More like pseudo-allies who drink tea and chat often.

It crept up on me quickly, the dance. I was debating the pros and cons of pranking myself from a past time period before I got void when I realized that the dance was tomorrow. I decided to prank myself later and slid through the void into my dorm room.

"The dance is tomorrow!" Ruby yelled at me the moment I appeared. I winced.

"Yes, I just realized that," I said neutrally.

"Pyrrha's freaking out!"

"She's been doing that for the past… week?"

"Two!"

"It's probably not that bad." Ruby pointed towards the bathroom.

"She's been in there for three hours modeling different dresses with her dusty stuff! She was in there for five yesterday! Just… I dunno, do boyfriend things!" Before I could open my mouth Ruby's motormouth barreled onwards. "I know you're not her boyfriend! Just hug her!" I closed my mouth and looked between the door and Ruby's glare and decided to walk towards the bathroom.

I seamlessly phased through the door to hear a shriek from Pyrrha and a swirl of iron as she cloaked herself in the dust in a crude imitation of a towel. It didn't leave much to the imagination.

"Abyss! Get out!" she yelped, an atomic blush on her face.

"If I wanted to see people naked I just sense the space they occupy under their clothes. It gives an uncomfortably good picture," I said casually, hoping to downplay the fact. Despite already knowing this Pyrrha's blush intensified. "Now what's wrong?"

"I… has anyone ever told you that being able to see everyone naked is a little creepy?" I stared at Pyrrha and she gave up on changing the subject.

"I'm nervous," she nearly whispered. I raised an eyebrow.

"You're scared of going to the dance or dancing with me?"

"The second," Pyrrha said bashfully. I rolled my eyes.

"Don't worry about it. I don't know how to dance anyways," I said uncaringly. Privately I felt a flash of nervousness at not knowing how to dance and still going to a dance, but Pyrrha looking at me blankly was worth it.

"You… how do you not know how to dance?" she said in confusion.

"I never learned," I said simply. "I can fix an airship, pickpocket nearly anyone, trade punches with living legends, sing a decent tenor, read lips, and make nearly anything out of metal. But I've never danced before. As much as I can do I never claimed to have a normal set of skills." Pyrrha seemed to understand and nodded in agreement.

"I guess I learned a lot of weird stuff too," she said quietly. "Not many girls learned how to shoot when they were eight."

"True," I smirked playfully. "Ruby learned when she was about seven."

"That's not what I mean!"

"Everyone in Beacon is a little weird, Pyrrha. We're not exactly children. Children run at the sight of grimm, you see. You're not expected to get everything right in the dance because nobody here really knows what's right in the first place. This isn't a fight. It's not a competition. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. Just wear a dress and have fun. I know that I'll just be wearing a suit and bowtie."

Pyrrha gave me a complicated look. I didn't know exactly what to do so I sighed and took Ruby's advice and stepped forward. Pyrrha squeaked as I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her, her arms wrapping around me by reflex.

"Just have fun," I said quietly. Pyrrha didn't react to me until I pulled away and glanced down.

"Oh," I said a little dumbly. The shock of hugging apparently broke Pyrrha's concentration over her semblance, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination.

"Get out!" she yelped in a high pitched voice.

"Right," I said a little quickly. I blinked through the bathroom door back into the team's room, where I was immediately assaulted by Ruby.

"How'd it go?" she asked conspiratorially.

"Off, Ruby," I muttered, pushing her away.

"Ohmygosh it went awesomely didn't it!" she babbled excitedly. She must have seen something on my face because she cackled and clapped her hands together.

"She was naked!"

"Ruby!" I exclaimed with Pyrrha, who was apparently listening in. Ruby just laughed harder for some reason.

[|||| =+= ||||]

" _I'm putting ten on them kissing!"_

" _I've got fifty on the two sleeping together. You put your bets with Jaune, right?"_

" _Ruby, but they're running the same rack. And those are long odds, man."_

" _It's good to have hope."_

" _He apparently just wants to be friends with her, though. I doubt he'll cave just like that and I doubt that Pyrrha wants to have that kind of relationship."_

" _Hope, man. Hope."_

" _Just remember, they can't know that everybody's watching."_

" _Yeah, yeah. Mavros spaces out half the day and Nikos only has a few friends. I think we're okay."_

" _Yeah… did you know that the headmaster has money on them too?"_

" _Really?"_

[|||| =+= ||||]

The day of the dance we had a half day of school, meaning no combat class. I actually attended for once and people could tell. Professor Oobleck actually commented on how attentive I was being. I was also fairly bored for most of the day, but I had fun in dust studies. I ended up discussing the possibility of a space program with the professor and ended up getting her really excited about how possible it was with the advent of Nature's Bounty and its energy producing crops.

Finally when classes ended for the day I got dragged into the typical rush around my team.

"Jaune you can't go to the dance with armour on!" Ruby cried. Her dress was a fairly simple crimson one with dense mesh around her upper body and neck. She almost wore fishnet stockings but decided for normal ones instead.

"I always wear armour!" Jaune protested. His grey suit with gold trim was squeezed under his light armour, which was a white breastplate not unlike what he wore in canon.

"Wearing armour under your school uniform is only okay if nobody notices! People will notice you wearing armour over your suit!"

"I'm not going without armour," Jaune said stubbornly.

"Yes you are! And with your aura you're the most durable person in school if not the planet!"

"One moment feeding a bad habit is worth ten moments nurturing a good one!"

"Then wear your armour for ten days _after_ the school dance!"

"That's not-"

"Nope!" ruby interrupted and immediately she used her semblance to dash forwards and poke Jaune's chestplate. Not half a second later she flew out the window, Jaune's chestplate missing.

"Hey!" Jaune yelled. Everyone in the room was silent for a moment before Ruby flew back in smirking.

"It's gone!" she said cheerfully. Jaune glared at her and she nearly skipped towards her bed and flopped down on it.

"So should we go now?" I asked Pyrrha, who was sitting next to me on the couch, calmly.

"Let's," Pyrrha agreed. The two of us slipped out of the room quietly while Ruby and Jaune were arguing the merits of wearing armour everywhere.

Before I left the room I heard something about Ruby carrying weapons everywhere and decided not to ask.

It only took a moment for Pyrrha and I to arrive. The dance looked interesting, at least. Weiss and Yang meshed together weirdly, compromising on some things and clashing on others to make something that could be called chaotic if it wasn't for the students.

The dance hadn't gotten full swing yet but there were other students piling in from what I could see and the music was slowly being turned up. As huntsmen and huntresses everybody had some sort of style they wanted brought to the table, which when viewing the whole student body made a soupy mess of styles and colors. Some girls were even wearing suits, though Coco took the cake with an almost military looking suit that was somehow feminine. Doubtlessly she pulled some sort of fashion trick to look that way.

"Come on, Weiss wanted our opinions on the dance," Pyrrha said, pulling me gently along. I sped up and kept pace with her, not wanting to be led around. We worked our way through the crowd, some people throwing their arms in the air, some sticking close to their friends or date talking, and some others quietly sipping a drink or eating a snack while soaking in the atmosphere. In a quiet space around the wall, though, Weiss and Yang were hanging around the poor student managing the music.

"Turn it up!" Yang encouraged.

"It's fine as is!" Weiss argued. "Any more and people won't be able to hear each other."

"They can yell," Yang said dismissively. The student hesitantly touched the knob that I assumed was volume for the music.

"This is not a rave!" The student pulled his hand away, clearly uncertain of what to do.

"Everything's so low-energy! Crank it up! Get some arms moving and hunky guys sweaty!"

"Maybe when more people arrive you can turn the music up a little more," I suggested. The student gave me a thankful look as Weiss and Yang turned to me.

"Abyss! Good of you to be here!" Weiss plastered on a smile that was half convincing, though that she was still a little flush from arguing with Yang ruined it.

"Abyss! I've got a very important question for you." I looked to Yang curiously. "Can you do light shows?" Weiss gave up on her smile and glared frostily at Yang.

"Did you even hear my suggestion?" I asked.

"I wouldn't have if our resident DJ would…" Yang trailed off as she noticed that the student had fled while the two girls were distracted.

"So what do you think of the dance?" Weiss changed subject.

"It's very nice, Weiss. You and Yang did an excellent job with the decorations," Pyrrha said, drawing attention to herself.

"Thank you, Pyrrha," Weiss said with an honest smile.

"I like that it's a bit chaotic. It matches what everyone in the audience is doing pretty well." I glanced at the crowd to glimpse Ruby and Jaune entering and Blake lurking around the edges of the crowd alone.

"That was… completely intentional," Weiss replied unconvincingly.

"Yup! _Totally_ meant for that effect!" Yang agreed.

"Right," I said skeptically. I looked again at Blake and decided to talk to her later. For now, though, I looked at Pyrrha. "Want to dance?" She smiled and took my hand, leading me to the dance floor. I looked at how the other students were dancing and put my hands around Pyrrha's hips, while she put hers around my shoulders.

"So how do we dance?" she whispered.

"Just don't step on anyone's toes, especially not your o-" Pyrrha stepped on her own toes and nearly fell over. I caught her and pulled her back to a stable position with a completely blank face. Her face turned red and she couldn't meet my eyes. We were both utterly silent for a few seconds.

"So just don't do exactly what you just did," I said tonelessly. Pyrrha snorted and hid her face for a moment before looking at me with a wide grin on her face.

"Okay so this is rather fun," she admitted before leaning forwards and kissing me on the cheek, though it was close to my lips. I blinked in surprise while Pyrrha looked away bashfully. I shook my head and we continued dancing.

Eventually, after a few comedical situations and getting the hang of dancing through a few different types of songs Pyrrha and I split up, Pyrrha to talk to Ruby and Jaune who were lurking by the punch stands and myself to Blake, who was blending in even better than they were.

"Hello Blake," I said conversationally as I approached her.

"Hello Abyss," she responded. She glanced over at somebody in the crowd before meeting my eyes.

"We haven't talked much. How have you been?"

"I've been… well," she said carefully. I felt like she was dancing around something.

"You haven't done anything recently?" Blake looked a little hesitant as I grew suspicious that she was up to something.

"Nothing… criminal." Had I not known her for a few years I would have missed her hide her flinch. I scowled at her and she sighed defeatedly. "I'm investigating the White Fang," she admitted quietly. I stilled the air around us to hide our conversation.

"Of course," I groaned. Canon why do you haunt me?

"They're up to something. Something shady," she insisted, "I've been visiting safehouses, checking in on a few trusted friends. There have been supplies missing, people assigned on falsified projects, and recruiting has picked up! Something's stirring in Vale and I think it's bad."

"What have you found?" I groaned, expecting the worst.

"Adam's the ringleader, I know that. He's doing something outside the city." Blake looked tense. "I… I want you to help. Please."

"And you didn't approach me before because…"

"You've been busy with team troubles. Your team hasn't gone as smoothly as mine." Blake paused for a moment. "Also, I wasn't sure if you were involved or not," she said almost embarrassed. I internally scoffed at her. I was literally the person behind the entire thing.

"And your future plans?" I asked patiently.

"I want to bring this to Sienna," I winced. That would be bad for me. It could be handled if I applied some pressure on her to forgive Adam, but that had consequences. So did throwing him under the bus. If my plans with Cinder were derailed it would be an irritating setback to my 'discrediting Ozpin' plot. I had to nip this in the bud.

"And you're sure Sienna can actually stop Adam?" I asked. Blake opened her mouth but I spoke over her. "Sienna does large scale things. The direction the White Fang takes, the opening of new branches, and managing the reputation of the faunus worldwide. Some missing members and supplies are below her paygrade and any actions she took would have to travel down the chain before anything would be done. Any orders would likely be intercepted and have countermeasures enacted" I explained. Blake seemed to be agreeing with me somewhat but wasn't convinced. It was time to go for her weakness.

"You should finish this yourself," I proposed. "You're one of the best infiltrators out there and the best informed as well. Besides, there's the chance that you're seeing a covert operation that the Fang is doing and not a criminal element." Blake seemed to consider it and I could see that it appealed to her. Not just because it painted the White Fang she believed in as good people but also because she got to run off on her own.

"I don't know what to do next," she said pointedly.

"If there's an operation outside of Vale happening, the Fang is going to need supplies shipped out. See where supplies are being shipped to. They have to keep records somewhere. See who falsifies them. They'll probably know where the supplies are going, which is where the base of operations will likely be," I suggested. Blake thought about that for a moment.

"I could get a ride that way too," she agreed.

"Take your team with you just in case," I told her, "You're good but can you take an entire White Fang camp by yourself?" Blake nodded in agreement.

"I'll bring them with me then. Thank you for the advice, Abyss." I smiled at her and she smiled appreciatively at me back before turning away and disappearing into the crowd.

She was so screwed. I'll give Adam a heads up after the dance and loan him Neo and a few good bandits to run security.

For the rest of the night I danced with Pyrrha, Weiss, Ruby, a dozen random girls, and even got shoved together with Jaune once, though I suspected that that was a prank of some sort.

[|||| =+= ||||]

' _Blake is suspicious that something's going on. Get some backup. Pick out a few lieutenants from the gang if you have to. I've told Roman to give you Neo on loan.'_

' _Understood. Security will be tripled at the operating site. Roman has informed me of the reinforcements available.'_

' _Be aware that this is Blake and possibly her entire team. They're dangerous but Blake is reckless and despite their talent the team is still green. You can use her.'_

' _A hostage situation?'_

' _A way to send a message if need be. Don't kill any of the four.'_

' _While I seek a more aggressive approach for the White Fang I wouldn't go that far with schoolchildren. I will contact you with the mission results tomorrow, though I suspect that you will see them on the news.'_

[|||| =+= ||||]

I woke up slowly.

"ABYSS WAKE UP THERE'S MISSIONS TODAY!"

Ruby did not, and was somehow already dressed. I blinked a few times feeling her hands on my shoulder and rolled over on my side. Or tried to, anyways. I got a face full of red hair a moment later and spluttered a little before sitting up. Of course, Pyrrha was in my bed half clothed.

For just a moment I panicked before remembering that I hadn't gotten drunk for once and she sure wasn't in my bed before I went to sleep. She was still at the dance. So she must have snuck into my bed.

"Oh! Um, am I interrupting something?" Ruby asked, sounding awkward.

"You're not interrupting anything." I swung out of bed and gently removed Pyrrha's hand from my wrist before stepping towards the bathroom.

"Aww…" I looked curiously at Ruby for a moment, wondering why she was so disappointed, but got distracted when I saw Ruby's bed in the corner of my eye. It looked perfectly unruffled, almost like nobody slept in it.

A glance showed that Jaune's bed was VERY messy indeed.

"Oh, heh… I… see you noticed that." Ruby blushed.

"I see _I'm_ interrupting something," I muttered. I ignored Ruby's protests as I made my way to the shower. I could already tell that it would be a long day.


	55. Ending note (Dropped)

**Alright, I've decided to stop delaying. I'm sorry to say, but the story's died. It's been declining for awhile now, in length and quality, but I've just sort of run myself dry of creativity. Written myself into a corner, I suppose.**

 **My general plan for the story from the start was to improvise and build up the world of Remnant but not directly influence canon and how that went. I planned for things like Nature's bounty, drawing Ozpin's attention, and having interactions with side-characters. Then I started writing Summer, she sort of wrote herself, and My OC ended up becoming the focal point of most events, which was the opposite of what I wanted.**

 **I rolled with this sort of writing for some time and I think I did it well but there were some clashes of what I wanted to write and what I actually wrote. Abyss was edgy as hell in some ways, though only superficially. His name and pessimist streak, mostly. Otherwise he's pretty normal. I wanted a character that didn't quite fit in Remnant and it's optimism and cast. I just went too far too fast (name and dead parents) and didn't think of the long-term consequences of my actions.**

 **Those were the main mistakes I made. There were some more ambiguous actions, too. I'm not sure if killing Summer off was a good thing or not. People were really turned off by the whole losing a body thing for some reason (really that lasted for like three chapters? Four? And it wasn't like nothing was happening) and I could have handled Yang better. I don't think I quite captured her character, mainly her brashness or attachment to Ruby. She was too passive. I think I got Raven pretty well, at least.**

 **Now as for things I did right… well I did quite a bit. Remnant's more minor details were written on pretty deeply, magic was done fantastically, though I lingered on it a bit (I'm a nerd), characters like Roman, Raven, Summer, and Pyrrha were well written, and I showed Ruby's character changing with her actions pretty well.**

 **I'm very proud of my Signal arc and how I handled Nature's bounty. Signal was apparently interesting for everybody and the company helped fuel the plotline without getting in the way of anything or being illogical. It kind of came out of nowhere for me but it worked out quite well.**

 **That's all I'm going to say as far as my pros and cons for this story and I'd like to thank you all for reading this far and especially thank you for those of you who wrote reviews. I don't always respond to them but I certainly do read them all, even if I don't respect them all. The flames hurt my oh so tender feelings.**

 **Thanks one last time to my beta, TheNightShinobi, for doing a good job with all his reading and being surprisingly patient when I was late.**


	56. Spinoff chapter 1

**AN: … Hi. So, I didn't think I'd ever post here again, on this story I mean. But a lot of you guys are persistent. Even now, nearly two months after announcing the series as discontinued, you're still PM-ing me. That's some dedication right there. But you finally got to me. I was writing to another PM explaining why I wouldn't write on this anymore when I slowly stopped thinking 'Wow… I'm having a hard time thinking of reasons to say no'.**

 **So here I am. This is not, however, AWG.** **THIS IS A SPIN-OFF OF A WIZARD'S GAME.** **Specifically, a sort of jumpchain of sorts, though if you've even been halfway attentive to the story up to this point, you already know the method of world travelling.**

 **Next, this fic won't have the little italics dialogues in-between line breaks. I have a suspicion that half of you don't read those and I'd honestly rather just make interludes more common than make a bunch of them.**

 **Finally, I made two pretty important polls related to this story. Go to my profile and look at the top of the page for them. I'm going to wait a week before taking it down and uploading more chapters.**

 **If you have a profile I'd appreciate it if you would vote on whether to make this a new story and post it elsewhere or leave it here in the AWG story. On one hand I'm not sure how many people will notice a spin-off if I post it in a different story.**

 **On the other hand, I'd prefer not to bother you all who follow the story here with notifications about a story that's not truly AWG but a spin-off of it in case you don't want to read this renewal of the story. Let me know, would you? Oh, and I made a second poll for, *ahem*, lemons. About three people have asked for them and I'm not sure whether their opinion represents the majority or not.**

[|||| = **WORLD 2** = ||||]

[|||| = **LEVEL 1** = ||||]

The feeling hit me like a chill up my spine so violent it was almost painful as well as a feeling of something tearing out of me. Thinking I was under attack and caught completely off guard considering I was asleep just a moment ago I rolled out of my bed only to fall onto scorching sandy ground, which I sunk into even as I cloaked myself in a dozen magical defenses. I reached out with my more magical senses, as I was buried under sand, and saw nothing. I looked harder and more thoroughly and saw nothing. Other senses gave me nothing as well. I tried to trigger a teleport back to Beacon but it felt like I ran into a wall. That had never happened before. I tried doing a teleport with void in case I had to break through wardings but the same feeling persisted. What was going on?!

I phased myself out of space and flew upwards before looking around physically. There was… sand. Sand everywhere. But that answered nothing. Was I in Vacuo? Eastern Mistral? Or even far down south?

Flying farther up I made sure to keep the air and pressure around me stable. I briefly considered a space suit but had no idea where I'd get one. I prodded my metal affinity to make a thick suit of steel around me, using my magic to keep the joints flexible. For the faceplate I took out two circles of bulletproof glass I had for constructing weapons scopes and put them near my eyes before melting metal around them so I could see but was entirely covered from radiation. I could probably cure cancer, but I had never tried and this was easier.

I kept going farther up, looking far over the horizon. I was high enough to see the curvature of the planet but it wasn't quite far enough. There was just desert. Besides that, nothing.

Having a moment of something like inspiration or perhaps fear I stored my body in my soul space and teleported myself far out into space. It was then that I saw the planet clearly. It was NOT Remnant. It wasn't Earth either. It seemed completely random, honestly. So I had no idea where I was, and I couldn't teleport back to Remnant… shit.

Though I doubted it would work, I reached out to the greater void and commanded it to bring me back to my Remnant. I felt it respond and felt my soul compress and twist, but when I was released I was still far above the desert planet.

So Remnant was blocked off… how?! There were a - quite literally - infinite amount of Remnant's just like my own! How am I being…

As my mind came to a conclusion I focused my senses on myself. It didn't even take any effort to find what I was looking for. An anchor of some sort was on me made of an affinity I could clearly recognize and braided through it was another affinity I recalled but couldn't remember at the moment. Mind affinity. Somebody was screwing with my head somehow despite all of my precautions and mental defenses. This was literally my worst fear.

After looking through my memories quickly for discrepancies of any sort, I decided that I was as safe as I could be. Nothing related to my identity was tampered with. or if it was, it was neat enough that I'd never find it. Even so, the anchor of mind magic I could detect was inert. It wasn't doing anything at the moment. But I had a good guess of what it was supposed to do.

I grasped the void. Nothing happened. I reached out to the greater void. Nothing happened. I reached out for Remnant and the anchor jerked, tearing at my mind and through my mind the void. As soon as I sent the impulse to transport myself back to Remnant I sent another command to cancel the command, making the void stop transporting me. The process was instant, though, so I had no way of really stopping it.

So that's what the anchor does. Now for the other stuff…

I looked through my memories again, matching all the affinities I had seen. I looked through a few hundred I had seen in the souls of random people before I moved to ones I had once had and were removed when I found my match.

Fate affinity. The stuff that gave people a destiny. I didn't have one anymore, I was pretty sure. I think I had one before I was brought to Remnant, but now I had the FATE system, or just the system as I called it, because some gods had yanked it out of me. Not that the thing was all that useful. I didn't forget the skills I learned and I learned at what was clearly an abnormal pace, but I would have liked the ability to control fate more than a game interface.

At any rate, I had fate affinity on me. Oh boy, I wonder what that does. Just because I was nearly out of options, I tried to turn my void on the anchor of mind affinity. The violent chill hit me again despite my lack of a body as the fate affinity in the anchor pulsed and I hesitated. I brought my void towards the anchor again and the anchor pulsed much harder.

I felt my senses fade to black and my soul shook. I saw blue windows despite my lack of eyes, each with ominous warnings like 'NO', 'STOP OR DIE', and 'YOU ARE BARRED'. Behind them was a flickering stat window, my stat window actually. The numbers I was used to flickered with symbols, some english and some other languages. A moment later the boxes faded and I felt achey.

So it seemed like I couldn't go to Remnant anymore. For the foreseeable future, at least. I had a few guesses as to who it was. Somebody with magic, control over fate affinity, and a reason to exile me from my home… it's either the brothers of light again, or the siblings if the god of light actually was female like Icmant claimed years ago, or it was an alternate version of me. I've met with at least a dozen versions of myself at this point.

Either way I had a problem. I just didn't know how I could fix it.

[|||| =-= ||||]

"Hi, Ophis," I muttered as I shifted dimensions. The tiny goddess got up from her sitting position and hugged me for a second before sitting down and looking pointedly at me. I rolled my eyes and filled the room we were in with void. She instantly relaxed and I looked around. I noted the fluffy pink furniture, the fluffy pink walls, and the cat pictures on the wall before I decided to just ignore it all. Whoever owned the place, I didn't want to meet them.

"I have a problem," I said to her. She nodded woozily and leaned back into the eyesore pink couch.

"What?" she said quietly without opening her eyes. Well she was apparently fine and as short as always. It was good to know that Ophis at least wasn't having any problems.

"I have a parasite in my soul," I explained. Ophis' eyes opened a little and she frowned just a little. She must be incredibly alarmed! "It's blocking me from travelling to my home. It's tied to… not my fate but my skills. I can't remove it without losing all my power or possibly destroying my soul."

Ophis blinked at me silently. I waited for her, counting the seconds. I got to five when she sighed lightly. "That's not fair to you," she said discontentedly. I was about to respond when she continued, to my surprise. "It's a binding. You will have to live with it. It will wear off in… centuries. Less than a millennium. It will stay." If possible Ophis looked more tired than before and sunk into the couch, which I noted was so soft that it might actually be uncomfortable for me to sit in.

"There's… no way?" I asked, hating the note of desperation in my voice. Ophis seemed to rally herself, held awake through will alone.

"… Wait," she said.

"… What about time-"

"No," If Ophis had to try before, now she was actually glaring at me, even if only a little bit. From the nearly all-powerful, if childish, goddess it was more intimidating than it should have been. Especially since she was being eaten by the pink couch. "I will not be alone and your binding will not allow it. Wait." I was silent and Ophis took that as her cue to be consumed by the fluffiness of the pink couch. I could only see her nose and a little of her cheeks. Feeling more than a little angry I swiftly cast the enchantment to keep the void in the room for some time and was about to disappear.

"I will look for a way to suppress it. Do not hold out hope." I heard from within the pink couch. I clenched my teeth, despair taking over. My space affinity flexed and I disappeared into thin air.

I needed to talk to somebody.

[|||| =-= ||||]

"Nyaa… Do you want some chinese food?" Kuroka, in some dingy apartment she called a safehouse, asked me. I curled myself deeper into the couch I was laying on. I was taking after Ophis' example and drowning my sorrows in fluff. I was already wrapped in at least three large blankets and I didn't care that one of them was barbie doll themed. I was more busy dealing with the fact that I wouldn't see my family again for a long, long time.

I was interrupted from my brooding by two chopsticks poking at my mouth. "Say nyaaaah!" Kuroka said, a teasing tone in her voice but a lot more gentle than normal. After hearing Ophis' news and going through that first night crying into her chest, which I wasn't going to get into, I had been alternating between brooding and quietly talking with her. Besides everyone in Remnant, who did I really have? There was Ophis, Kuroka, and the Pendragons in DxD but I wasn't friends of any sort with the characters in the HP-verse. I barely knew the lady from Tamriel, Ira-something, really all I had was Kuroka and Ophis right now, and Helen, but when I thought of someone to cry with Kuroka was the first person to come to mind.

I had tried reaching out for my family in every way I could think of. I reached for them rather than Remnant, I reached for versions of them wildly different than the norm, I tried astrally projecting myself rather than just moving my soul, I tried looking through the minds of the people I knew through links to their souls, which were still present but so muted as to be useless. I couldn't go to Remnant, I couldn't see into Remnant, and I was all but certain that I couldn't send a third person to Remnant. Pit was gone too, probably the tearing feeling I felt when I first woke up.

"Here," Kuroka pushed something into my cheeks when I made no effort to open my mouth. Noodles, I vaguely recognized. I swallowed them and turned my face downwards. I didn't want to eat. She looked at me with clear concern, worry in her eyes. I kept looking downwards while I felt her her crawl over me. A moment later she was playing big spoon to me on the couch. I didn't want to admit it, but it felt nice.

"Hey…" she whispered. "When I… lost Shirone I wasn't in a good place." I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started paying her more attention.

"I was… kinda messed up," she admitted. "I stole some stuff, broke some more, and cried sometimes… pretty much every night. I beat a few people up looking for fights, and did a lot of running, not all of that just because I had to. I thought 'If I get stronger I can save my sister'. So I got stronger. Lots stronger. But I wasn't happy. I didn't really have anything, you know? I was messed up. Badly. I spent a lot of time like that. Years, I think. I hated it. I hated it so much I made it my goal to never be like that again. That's why I want a family. A huge one, with so many kids I'll never have to be sad if I lose somebody again. Do you get what I'm saying?"

I was silent. My throat hurt. I might be close to crying again.

"But I got better," she continued in the same quiet tone of voice. "People don't do stuff alone. Ever. they've always got somebody in their heart." She reached around the blankets I was cloaked with to poke me right where my heart was.

"I had Shirone in my heart. You've got your family in your heart. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts a lot. I'm not sure if I know exactly what's going on with you but I know you're hurting. Bad. But… are they dead?" I was quiet but then I shook my head a little.

"Then be happy," she said. "Your family is alive and they can live their own long, happy lives with each other. But you? You need a family. Always. Everybody does or they start hurting inside like I did. Like you are. So… start a family. Find friends, lovers, wives, battle buddies, or pets. Family makes you happy. So be happy. Trust your family to be happy…. Now do you see what I mean?" I was quiet. Then I sniffled and realized I was crying a little. I moved myself around to be facing Kuroka and took a deep breath.

"When I was young," I started, "I was… alone. For a long, long time." Memories of the desert, the parents I never really knew, and Summer passed through my mind. "Then I was… found. Adopted. Summer wasn't really a mom but she was family. When she died, I didn't have time to blame myself. I took care of Ruby. My sister. I focused everything on her… I was a little obsessive, going everywhere with her. It was, to me, how I repaid Summer, though I didn't think of it like that. I didn't have to take care of Ruby. I only knew her for a month. But… I was her big brother then. The moment Summer died." I stopped, choking. Kuroka gave me time and pressed her forehead against mine solemnly. It might have been a minute or it might have been five, but I continued.

"I did a lot. I made a company. Got rich. Ruled a city. I got an aunt for her. She was family too. But I think I realized something eventually. I didn't remember my time alone. What little fragments I remember still, I hate. I was tired and angry and alone. I wasn't feeling anything. Not really. But when I got Summer, got a family, I started remembering things. I made memories worth remembering. Happy memories. I got friends, my best friend, a community, and a girl, Pyrrha, even had a crush on me. Now… now they're all gone." With that I finally broke down into real tears. Kuroka reached around me and pulled me closer.

"I'm never going to see my family again," I cried softly. "Ruby's going to grow up and… Pyrrha's going to get married. Jaune's going to grow up and Raven's going to be hurt again. Yang's going to be there for Ruby and everyone… everyone… everyone I know… is going to be so sad…"

By this point Kuroka was crying a little bit too, though my heavy breaths and tears were much worse than her. "Hey Abyss?" she asked, as quietly as before. "Do… do you want a family? Not like… for me but… a family. For… us…" I was quiet and my tears calmed down a little.

"… Yeah… I'd… I'm not…" I sobbed a little, not feeling confident in an answer. Kuroka moved a little and tenderly kissed me. It wasn't loving but it was the most comforting gesture I could ever remember.

[|||| =-= ||||]

"I'm better. Really!" I protested, pushing away the floating hot chocolate. I was lying a little, but compared to two weeks ago I was practically stable. Kuroka had been there for me much more than before, where we only had a physical relationship. Before I had _really_ come to DxD, just dropped by for fun and friends, we had been much more casual lovers. But now that she was one of the people I was closest with I was seriously considering actually dating her. Like… with marriage as a viable option moving forwards.

It was so weird to consider that, but Kuroka had really taken a leap for me when I needed help. I'd say I was closer to her than I was to most people I was on Remnant, barring just a few. And strangely enough, we hadn't even had sex while I was staying with her. She just seemed to know that I wasn't feeling up to it.

Still, visiting Helen and filling her in on the news might have been a bad idea.

"Helen, really!" I warded off the hot chocolate again and it clinked around the spoon in it a little, as though angry I wouldn't accept it. A wave of emotion, an empathetic sadness that screamed 'teary-eyed housewife' coursed through me.

"I-!… Fine." I stopped my protests and snatched the hot chocolate, feeling a little pissy even if I shouldn't have. Helen nearly felt relief as I sipped the admittedly good hot chocolate. I buried that warm feeling deep inside me where she would never find it… I was such a sucker.

I leaned back in my chair only to find that I was somehow sitting on my favorite armchair. I cradled my hot chocolate and sighed as Helen talked to me again, having calmed down a little.

"No, they're not dead. Just… gone," I said to her. I took another small sip. "I woke up and somebody put a… a binding on me. I asked a friend of mine and it's going to go away but it's going to take a long, long time. It's resistant to time-altering magics, apparently. I still might test that, but going forwards the result is the same. My family will be long dead by the time I get back." There was a dark, sad tone to my voice at the end of my sentence and Helen felt another burst of nail-biting concern. "No, no," I waved her concerns away. "I… I'm not great. I know it. But I'm getting better. Two weeks ago I was much worse off. But now I can talk without crying. I don't need a shoulder to lean on all the time now. I'm old, Helen, and I've dealt with this before. I'll get better. I just need time." Helen's concern lessened and I doubted I'd get rid of any more so I changed the subject.

"So how's Dumbledore doing?" I asked. Helen immediately sprung into fiery anger, her concern fading to the background. "That bad?" I felt vigorous agreement. "What's he doing?" I saw images of Dumbledore standing in front of a large goblet as he spoke two solemn words. 'Harry Potter'. Helen's anger, upon seeing the memory once more, rose to a white hot fury at the injustice happening to her students. It was more than somebody rigging the tournament, that they had somehow gotten away with it! I stood a little straighter as I heard a faint rumble and saw stone dust fall from the ceiling. A wave of my hand brushed all the dust away from me.

"Was that around the whole castle?" I asked. Helen sent a confirmation, her anger still hot. "That must not be helping the games." Agreement, and a grudging sort of guilt from her that she was disrupting the Triwizard Tournament. Or, in this case, quad-wizard tournament.

"Hmm… I don't suppose you want help?" Helen perked up and I got an excited sort of pleading. "I will, fine. I need something to do other than just lay around with Kuroka. She has her own business to do, after all." I heard her call the Khaos Brigade three days ago. All she had to do was namedrop me, 'The Apostle', and everybody instantly backed off getting her to attend whatever meeting they were running.

Apparently I was some sort of ambassador of Ophis now to everybody. I already knew that the Underworld thought I was her champion or something, but I didn't know that the Khaos Brigade bought into that. They weren't wrong, though, I was probably the only person Ophis actually listened to.

"So, I'm helping you out with whatever this is" I considered. "So… everyone thinks I'm some sort of hitwizard or… what did they call them? Ahhh, Unspeakables! Yes, that's what they think I am. So I need a badge that shows I actually am one of them, though it doesn't have to be official, just convincing. Then I need to… hm. I guess mentor Harry? It sounds kind of boring though. I suppose it's better than nothing."

Helen sent agreement. _'The contract of the tournament is unbreakable. Even to the unwilling,'_ a voice said. I blinked at her using direct speech. She had avoided using it often. She preferred her primal pulses of emotion and sensory information. Formulating speech was awkward somehow for her. I attributed it to her not having a body. I knew from personal experience that real telepathy with just aura wasn't that easy. Conversations were complex things when you thought about it.

"Well I'll… hm… actually, do the rules state that there can be a moderator of the tournament?" There was silence as Helen's consciousness left for a moment. I sipped my hot chocolate for a moment longer and closed my eyes, just relaxing in the armchair I often used to study the magics Harry Potter's world had to offer.

Helen came back excitedly with a devilish flair to her. An open book thudded down on my lap from thin air and I looked at a few of the rules. No peacocks allowed for magical rituals, no magic with a radial range of greater than two thousand hands, and… ah, 'Any oversight to the abidement of the rules must be recognized by the landowner in which the Grande Evente occurs'. So Helen announces me as the moderator for this year's tournament and I become a moderator. I think. Nobody truly owns Hogwarts as far as I know, except perhaps an even split between the four founding families of the school. Besides, who was going to say no to Helen? She WAS the school, and she could cause a lot of trouble in not just the tournament but the school itself if she wanted.

"Huh. So since you _are_ the land you just announce me as a moderator, or overseer as it is. Also, is abidement a word?" Helen dismissed my worries and sent an inquisitive feeling. "Yes, I'll moderate in the tournament. When is the next meeting between whoever's managing the tournament? Or should I just announce myself during a feast? Has the first task started?"

Helen responded with a happy feeling, a shrug, a negative, and another negative in that order. She then sent an image of an eight and a sun. So there were eight days until the first task. Good to know. Now, to plotting.

[|||| =-= ||||]

I watched through Helen's eyes as a house elf arrived at Dumbledore's side with the same book I had held hours ago. He set aside his dinner as the elf whispered to him and pointed out the rule of a moderator for the tournament. Dumbledore whispered something back and the house elf shook his head vigorously. At this point a few eyes were on the scene, including all the other headmasters. When the house elf urgently whispered one more thing to him Dumbledore reared back a little in surprise and cleared his throat. Whatever eyes weren't on him already turned to the front of the room.

"It appears that we may have an… additional party to the triwizard tournament," he announced. "As my friend here has just informed me," he gestured to the house elf, who waved to the students shyly, "a moderator may be selected by the owners of the land on which the tournament occurs." Whispers broke out among the students and teachers as he paused.

"With this in mind, I have been told that a moderator HAS been chosen. By Hogwarts itself," he said a bit dramatically. The whispers rose to a loud murmur, no voice easily distinguished from the rest. Dumbledore easily spoke over them and they quieted down once more. "Now, if such claims are true-"

' _ABYSSss GRANIte…'_ The words rang through the halls in a feminine voice, fading around the end. Speaking out loud was hard for Helen but doable so long as I fed her a few million points of mana. I was certain that she was hoarding more mana than she needed to just project herself but who was I to complain? I wasn't using it at the moment and I regenerated it all easily enough.

Of course the hall broke out into shouts, the foreign teachers demanding to know who I was, the students crying out in surprise, more people asking if this was a farce, and others just sitting in shock. This was my cue. I merged my soul with Helen's for a moment and pushed away the sensation of becoming a whole castle. Instead I used my storm affinity through her to still the air in the great hall. The sound instantly quelled to nothing, shocking many people. Eyes turned once more to the front as Helen formed a doorway in the walls behind Dumbledore. He turned around to look as I opened it and separated myself from Helen. Going from a whole school to two eyes was jarring but I didn't let it interrupt my stride. I stood in front of the school and smiled broadly.

"That would be me. Hello again, all of you. I will be making sure nobody dies this time. Besides, I find myself in need of entertainment. A tournament should do nicely. They're meant to entertain, after all."

The horrified looks I received were hilarious.

[|||| =-= ||||]

My plan was deeply flawed. Dumbledore quickly mustered all the Headmasters and myself and put McGonagall in charge of the Great Hall before shuffling us all to a room with a rounded table.

Of course, some people didn't wait to sit down before they started yelling.

"What the blazes is a moderator doing here?! What trickery are you trying to do, you-" The castle shook once more and an angry feeling from Helen swept through me. A harsh, cold wind went through the room and the big man, Karkoff I think, closed his mouth and sat down.

"Now that we're all here I expect that you'll all stay silent as I explain why I'm here again." A few mouths opened and I stilled the air again so they couldn't speak. "Thank you all for being silent. I'm not affiliated with the institution of Hogwarts or either of your schools, though I am friends with the spirit of the castle itself, and yes there's a spirit of Hogwarts. With how old the castle is and how much magic is here you'd think that would be obvious. Now, she made me the moderator because this tournament is a nightmare for her and I have nothing better to do with my time than help out. Being moderator means that I have the final say on rules, meaning I assign punishments for breaking them and decide whether they have been broken or not if that's unclear. I have the responsibility of handling emergencies and a few other minor powers like invalidating judges that I deem unfair or providing assistance to champions if a task seems too deadly. Don't worry, I have loose standards."

I paused for a moment and waved my hand with a small burst of intent to Helen. The book of tournament rules appeared in front of each of the judges turned to a page with all the powers and responsibilities of the moderator, most of which were irrelevant and the rest of which I'd already described.

"Now, questions?" I released the stilled air and three people spoke up at once. The traded looks and the headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madam Maxime, spoke.

"There has never been a moderator until now. Why now?"

"There has never been a fourth champion until now. Helen, that's the spirit of Hogwarts, hasn't been able to interact with the students much more than the runes and latent magic of Hogwarts allowed her to. Next."

Dumbledore spoke. "As the Headmaster of Hogwarts I was expected to be presiding over this tournament, as it takes place in my school. How, exactly, has this changed?" I was almost impressed. Rather than getting angry that he had lost some influence in the tournament or questioning my new position he was actually rolling with it. I had thought he'd try to pull another power play.

"My apologies for usurping some of your power here, Headmaster," I began. Dumbledore's expression didn't seem to change but I thought he was pleased that I acknowledged him as headmaster. "But your authority extends to your students and their wellbeing, safety, and education. When there was no formally acknowledged moderator you were acting as one, which was in your rights since you were the highest authority in Hogwarts. Now that Helen has awakened, she has the final say in things, including your position." Dumbledore's face grew somewhat worried.

"Not to say you're going to be removed," I assured him. He relaxed a little. "I have no interest in the position of headmaster any time soon, if at all." Helen emitted a feeling of patience. I ignored her, the pushy woman.

"My authority is over the tournament. I can't, for instance, pull out any of the champions, but I can assure their safety and intervene if their life seems to be in danger. I can't do anything to any of your students either except for Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. Those two are under my supervision and I can do with them… nearly anything, actually. Their responsibilities lie in the tournament first and Hogwarts second. I technically have more authority over them than Helen, though she can strip me of my position as moderator." Dumbledore seemed uncomfortable with what I said. He was only really able to do what he normally did, administering Hogwarts.

"On that note, I'll be making my first ruling as the moderator here. I declare Harry Potter unfit to participate in the triwizard tournament as he is an unwilling participant by his word. If this needs confirmation I'm sure he'll swear under veritaserum that he didn't intend to participate. Though he's obligated by magic to participate he will not receive the prize of ten thousand galleons and he will not be formally recognized as a champion or victor, should he actually win." Everyone seemed pretty happy with this news. Even Dumbledore didn't seem very put off by it.

"To compensate for his unwilling participation, by his own admission, I'll be training him to be a bit less terrible in combat, just so he doesn't get horribly injured and I don't have to play mother hen to him. I'll talk with him about pulling him out of some of his classes during the day since champions are not obligated to attend their classes when preparing for the tournament." Karkoff and Maxine didn't seem to mind all that much and Dumbledore looked at me curiously. I was certain that he'd pull Harry aside to ask about me later.

"Is there anything else?"

"Yes," Karkoff grunted. "Who are you? I've never heard of you so how do you know this Spirit of Hogwarts, as you call her, and how are you at all qualified for your position? How can we even trust what you say when we don't even know you? And why in Merlin's name do you have cat ears?!"

"I'm in my position because Helen says I am and she has the authority to do so. I don't need to justify my position to you. If you need proof of my abilities, ask some of the fourth year students. I acted as a substitute here earlier in the year before you all arrived. As for trust, of course you're not going to trust me. I just showed up here out of the blue. I'll prove myself during the first task and continue doing so. And I have cat ears because I don't like losing the extra senses I have when I change to a panther. I'm an animagus, you see." That was apparently enough for Karkoff as he leaned back and nodded, though he had a scowl on his face.

"I will be needing to talk to you, Mister Granite, on the events occurring earlier in the year," Dumbledore reminded me before he got up. I recalled the exploding owl he sent me and groaned.

"Let's leave that problem until we settle the one in front of us, namely informing the students and champions about what's changed. For now, just know that I don't care to be hostile to you." Dumbledore nodded and we all got up. I sighed inwardly when I realised that I would have to repeat everything to the students. Maybe I had been a bit too headstrong getting into this tournament mess.

Hopefully Kuroka hasn't gotten too worried that I went missing.

 **AN: I avoid these normally but this time I think it's warranted. To really put himself out there Abyss needed to go cold turkey from Remnant. He needed to get kicked out of the nest, you could say. And obviously that leads to a lot, and I mean a LOT of emotions. Next chapter is actually doing the multicross stuff rather than just DxD and HP. I'm keeping it a secret for now, though.**

 **Just know that there will be a short return to Remnant but it won't be present for more than short trips. Abyss is banned. Forever. He might just get short vacations here and there. Oh, and remember that** **POLL** **I told you all about earlier? Just saying. It's really important to me and this story.**

 **Oh, and don't worry about this little Hogwarts business taking too long or much effort. Abyss has plenty of time to do other stuff as well as have fun in the HP-verse. A LOT of fun~**


	57. Spinoff chapter 2

**AN: Hey, I have like... thirteen chapters in this spinoff already, just letting you know. I'm not really sure how I'm going to be releasing all of them. I'm sure as hell not going to try and write on a schedule like last time.**

[|||| = **LEVEL 2** = ||||]

"Oh, I decided I needed something to do other than lay around you apartments. So I got a job," I said to Kuroka. She looked a little surprised at that but happy and leaned forwards interestedly on the couch I had been laying on just days ago.

"Well… good! Moping around all the time was getting old." I nodded.

"I was getting tired of it too. I've had some time to feel sorry for myself. It's time to do something. I'm working as a moderator for a tournament on behalf of my friend Helen.'

"Helen?" Kuroka asked, a strange look in her eyes and crossed her legs. "You've never mentioned her before, nyah."

"She's a spirit," I told her. "She used to be asleep, latent almost, at a magical school in a different dimension I frequent but when I first checked the place out the power of my soul and the aura - sorry, touki - I emitted woke her up. We've been friends ever since. None of the wizards in her domain can talk to her anyways since they can't feel the emotions in her touki."

Kuroka nodded. "Is she one of _those_ friends?" I paused, surprised at the insinuation.

"The only other person I had that relationship with was Vera and she's…" I trailed off and Kuroka winced.

"Sorry, nyaa…" she said. I shook my head.

"It's fine. Helen doesn't even have a body, by the way. I guess I could make one for her but she really loves her students and I'm not interested in her in that way."

"Aww, so you're not making a harem?" I looked at her incredulously.

"Why would I want a harem?!"

"All the super powerful guys have a harem!" I rolled my eyes.

"Power attracts some types of women, a lot of them the bad kind. I saved Vera and gave her an opportunity. She and I liked sleeping with each other and so we did, but it wasn't very romantic. And I don't think you can go looking for a harem without seeming like a jackass, no matter how powerful you are." She nodded, not seeming all that disappointed.

"So if you met other women who were interested in sharing…"

"If I like them, you like them, they're comfortable with sharing, they like me, and there's no real reason to say no, then sure. I wouldn't mind, but that's about one percent of women."

"True…" Kuroka seemed contemplative. "Well, if you meet anybody like that I'm happy to share if I get to fool around with them." I shrugged.

"I wouldn't mind… but… are we dating?"

"Do you want kids?"

"Not right now. I don't have a house, and while I can get money and things easily enough, I still want to travel and experience new things. Having worlds to explore means that there's a lot that interests me. I can think of ten dimensions off the top of my head that I'm interested in studying at least a little."

"So, later then?" I considered it. I… liked Kuroka. As more than a friend. She was surprisingly dependable and more than a little friendly, not to mention committed to me if her taking care of me when I was down was any indication. It wasn't like I had any pressing threats or responsibilities like I did on Remnant. There were plenty of world threatening beings around but those were always there and I had never tried to play hero. I just wanted a better place for my family, mostly being Ruby. I couldn't think of a reason to say no to have a family again.

"… With later meaning potentially years later and if I don't have any reason to opt out of it, not that I'm expecting or looking for one."

"Then we're dating!" Kuroka said excitedly. She leaned forward and kissed me full on the lips, then pushed me down onto the couch, her hands trailing down my shirt. "And that means… we can do this!"

I decided that dating was a very nice experience not long after. _Very_ nice.

[|||| =-= ||||]

"Up and at em," I said as I pulled Harry out of his bed, thankfully wearing boxers. He flailed and yelled but I had already silenced the area. Helen's amusement and enthusiasm was in the back of my mind.

"I- what?" he stammered as he looked at me in exercise clothes.

"Training. I did say I'd be training you, didn't I?" I raised an eyebrow. He rubbed his sleepy eyes.

"I-yes, but…" He turned to his bed and fumbled around under his pillow, pulling out his want. " _Tempus_ ," he muttered. He looked at me angrily. It's six in the morning!"

"Yes," I said simply. "And classes begin at nine thirty. I'm working you until eight and taking you again after dinner until ten. Now get some clothes on. We're jogging."

"But… but why?!" he protested.

"Because wizards are wimpy little sniveling whiners. You aren't. Every auror goes through physical training and you're doing more than any auror does in their entire life. Besides, the fitter you are the better you can avoid spells that would otherwise dismember or kill you, and using less magic to avoid getting hit means you can use more to hit your enemies. Believe me, I don't like working out either but I still do it because I have the time and I can see the benefits. And if you get stubborn and refuse I'll throw you out in your boxers and have wolves nip at your heels. Actually…"

Harry quickly lunged for his trunk beside his bed and pulled out some clothes. I was actually a little disappointed. Wolves would be an effective motivator for him.

About fifteen minutes later I ran alongside Harry in what most would call muggle clothes around the lake a ways away from the castle. It was just a white undershirt and blue sweats but still muggle clothes. It was cold, being November, but since Harry and I were running it was rather nice. Harry, though, had pants, muggle pants, and a baggy shirt. I noted that I needed to get him some decent workout clothes.

"So you see, running isn't all you should be doing," I said breezily, not straining myself at all. "I'll be having you do crunches after this and some pushups, though thankfully for you not much of the second. You need to be fit but you're not going to be punching much, or stabbing as I often find myself doing. Just working your lower body would make you look odd, though."

Harry was breathing too heavily to respond. I noted that he should be able to run longer. Everybody should. Was he actually malnourished? We weren't running at what most people would consider a sprint but we were going faster than normal.

"You should eat more," I told him. "You're growing and you're going to be working your body a lot more than the norm for those your age. You'll be looking like hell after this. So eat until you can't. If others say you're going to get fat or something equally ridiculous or insulting tell them off and that I told you to. Physiology doesn't work that way anyways. People get fat because of genetics more than effort nowadays, their bodies are more predisposed to making fat than muscle, you see. People like you could eat a whole turkey every day and be fine."

Harry tried to slow down, lagging behind. "Catch up or I'll make some wolves. I was serious about that." He sped up a little bit, catching up. Apparently he believed me.

A little later, after pushing Harry through a workout of about a hundred crunches and forty pushups in sets as well as a little stretching, I gave him a fifteen minute break and a plate of bacon and an egg sandwich the house elves made. It turned out that they could teleport pretty far away from Hogwarts. I didn't know they did groundskeeping, but it made sense.

"So is your house still treating you badly?" I asked him while he ate. He shook his head and swallowed.

"No. Not getting any reward or recognition made them stop treating me badly… where did you hear that they were doing that?"

"Helen," I said.

"Helen?"

"She's the spirit around Hogwarts," I explained. "She moves the passages, aligns the stairs, keeps the magic around working properly, and plenty more. She's supposed to keep the students happy and working but she's been sleeping for a long, long time. She only woke up recently. Last summer, I think. She's been more active since then but she can't really do much." Harry frowned as he chewed some bacon.

"Come to think of it the stairs have been convenient lately, and the house elves have seemed happier. I think some students were talking about it. I just thought we were getting lucky."

"That was probably Helen. She's supposed to make sure you all learn properly. She reminds me of a fussy mother hen." We fell to silence as I looked over the lake. I could faintly hear Harry chewing. Working out gave him a serious appetite apparently.

"What are you going to be teaching me?" he asked after a minute before polishing off his sandwich.

"Nonverbal magic first. It's more flexible than people realize and simple if you have the talent for it, which I think you do. I'd prefer wandless magic but you're on a time limit and I don't think that's something you can really teach, more something you learn for yourself. I can give you the foundation though. I thought about doing elemental magic but I never learned the words for spells like that. I learned nonverbal first."

"What kind of school teaches nonverbal first?" Harry asked, licking his fingers.

"The kind that prepares people for combat," I answered. He looked surprised but then understanding. "Now come on. Wand up. We're starting. What kind of spell do you think is best for combat?"

Harry hesitated for a second. "Stupify if you want to avoid… killing," he answered.

"And if you do?"

"The… the killing curse. Or cutting curse if you…" I shook me head.

"Wrong either way, not that there was a right answer," Harry didn't look very surprised. "Combat is fast and messy. There's a hundred and one ways it could go. That's why there's a hundred and one different spells for it. Sometimes it's best to use the cutting spell, sometimes you need a blasting curse, and sometimes you need to just kill somebody with the killing curse. Not that the killing curse always works. Armor blocks it just fine, you know? Medieval, that is. Thin clothing doesn't block the magic but steel about two or three centimeters thick does. It seems like a lot but with magic such armor can be quite light."

"Then… why don't…" Harry seemed lost.

"Because it wouldn't make a difference," I told him. "Such armour would be expensive and it could still be circumvented by a cut at the right place, a pit falling under the person, or just tripping. Wizards aren't cut out to be all that powerful in most cases. I'm the exception, not the rule, and people like Dumbledore are too. Wizards are deadly because they're versatile. They can always take the easy path and that means that there's a lot of spells to make things easy. Cleaning, crafting, travelling, whatever. Taking the easy path is more than easy for a wizard."

"I can see that," Harry agreed.

"Good, now I'm not going to be teaching you to take the easy path," I said, enjoying the grimace Harry sported. "What, did you think you have an easy path ahead of you? Ridiculous. Now, wand up." Harry obliged and fished his wand out from the back pocket of his jeans. I had to get him a wand holster, immediately.

"Think of an effect. Something easy that you do verbally, and close your eyes." Harry closed his eyes. "Think of how you make that effect happen. How your magic feels. Reach for that feeling and pull on it, expelling the magic through your wand. Give it actual effort and push your desire into it. You have to want this to happen. Oh, and ignore those silly wand movements. Do what comes naturally. Magic is natural. If it doesn't feel right, it's not right. Swish or flick or jab or whatever. Now focus and act when you're ready."

Harry closed his eyes and I focused on his magic. I saw his magic morph a little, some mana and world affinity mixing together inexpertly. Sometimes it moved one way but jerked another. It was like Harry was fighting something.

"Stop fighting. Your magic wants something to happen. Let it act as it pleases. Your magic is you. Channel it and let it enact your desire. Don't mold it." I told him. The process stopped for a moment before restarting and becoming more smooth, those kinks less common and less intense. I nodded, not that Harry could see me. It took about thirty seconds before Harry actually cast the spell.

When Harry moved he stepped forwards and slashed his wand. A red bolt appeared from the tip and flew through the air. It went for about a hundred yards and hit a hill, making a little dirt fly up into the air far away. So there was a kinetic force in it.

"That was a stunner, right?" Harry nodded, his chest moving to his breathing.

"That was… harder than I thought it would be," he said, pausing to take a breath in the middle of his sentence.

"It was slower than I thought it'd be too," I commented. Harry gave me an annoyed look. "I also thought you'd take four or eight tries to get any result." I told him. He paused and his lips twitched into a small smile.

"Don't get too prideful. You took twenty eight seconds. I want you to have it down to one, preferably less, and be able to do so without focusing on it too hard so you can dodge while you're forming spells." Harry's face fell into disappointment.

"Now for drilling. This is going to boring for both of us and grueling for you so lets get started. We'll shift to a different spell in an hour, an hour on telekinesis, which should be extremely useful for solid projectiles, and spend the last fifteen minutes sprinting back to the castle. If we get back early you'll have extra time to get ready for breakfast. Consider a shower motivation. Oh, and you'll be doing this all on Saturday, by the way. Sunday's free, though."

Harry sighed, probably expecting a busy schedule already, and got ready to cast again.

[|||| =-= ||||]

"…Ophis." I spoke the name of the devil (figuratively) after playing video games for three hours and getting bored. Then I had decided to study about the multiple alternate universes I had available to explore when I decided to do so, which is to say I read and watched all sorts of fictional works, mainly anime and fantasy novels. But there was, in fact, too much of a good thing, and I had hit my limit.

"Yes?" Speak thy name and she appears. I didn't even release any void that time.

"Should I do anything as your apostle? I got a job teaching a kid but I really need more to do. I can only buy so many games before I get bored."

"Sleep."

"I just did for nine hours."

"I don't need an apostle."

"And I don't need a god. I'm still bored."

"… Help my minions."

"The Khaos Brigade? I guess I could do that. They're dicks, though."

"Dicks?"

"Bad people. Jerks. Terrorists."

"Oh…" Ophis looked down and thought. I looked to my games and wondered if there was anything else I could play at all. I quickly came to the conclusion that I really was just bored of my games. I wanted to do something, not lay about.

"Help your minion," she said.

"Who?"

"Your worshipper."

"Oh. Oh! Elsyria! Right, I forgot about her… maybe I should grow my church?"

"Yes," Ophis agreed. "It is an excellent way to waste time."

"Thanks, Ophis," I smiled. "I'll go do that."

"Mm." Ophis disappeared in a short swirl of black energy and I stood up and felt for the connection to Elsyria. I reached through it and saw a strange scene.

"And here we are, the holy ones who serve the righteous darkness! We are the absence left by an infinite emptiness!" a feminine voice shouted. In front of me there was a congregation of various people in robes.

"Hail the apostle!" they chanted fervently.

"Hail the Apostle!" Elsyria repeated with a grin. I disconnected from her senses and sat in shock.

"Oh fuck," I swore. I recalled my conversation with Elsyria last time. Nothing had seemed too off. I told her to send me monthly reports on Issei and his company, which she had done even if they weren't at all useful and I told her to move to Kuoh town.. I also told her to be my agent in this world. Fuck me sideways.

Hoping against hope I looked through our connection again and tried to use observe on her. It was even worse than I could have imagined.

 **Elseria Vertagris**

 **Titles: First follower of Abyss**

 **Level – 107**

 **HP – 360**

 **AP – 5760/5760**

 **MP - 212/7160**

 **STR - 20 (+80%)=36**

 **VIT - 38 (+80%)= 68.4**

 **DEX - 66 (+80%)= 118.8**

 **INT - 191 (+0%)= 191**

 **WIS - 178 (+0%)= 178**

 **LUK - 52 (+0%)= 52**

 **Semblance: [Locked]**

 **Affinities:**

 **Storm: 1398**

 **Nature: 1092**

 **Void: 811**

 **Metal: 715**

 **Space: 276**

 **Divine: 171**

 **Communion: 102**

 **Perks:**

 **Devotee of Abyss - Due to being under the patronage of Abyss Mavros, who has deemed to patron you, you are granted one percent of his strongest three affinities, though the amount of affinity available to you may be variable upon his will. Additionally, you may focus and communicate with said patron, though he may choose to ignore you, and he may transfer power to you as he sees fit. In exchange for these boons your pools of energy are completely under his control and your energy regeneration will fuel his pools of energy when not in use for your own reserves of energy.**

 **Bio: Elseria is the third daughter of a prominent exorcist, Jameson Vertagris. She holds no hold on family inheritance or important connections within the church, which her family has served within for generations. With no unique affinity or outstanding talent, Elseria had no support from her family or the church in learning magical means of success, nor did she have any talent in exorcism as her sister did and thus turned to divine methods of success years ago.**

 **Unfortunately, Elsiria found no divine visits from angels either. Her father cut off support for her due to her lack of talent and poor relations with him that persisted for years. She was excommunicated at her father's request and turned to more pagan methods of magical success, which she stubbornly persisted at.**

 **Elseria, in desperate need of personal success, sought to contract with a god. Specifically Ahriman, the Iranic god of darkness and evil, due to his inactivity and placement in a comatose state centuries ago. In her practice she came to meet several notable supernatural figures including Iris, greek god of rainbows, a reaper in the service of Hades named Ulk, and the deputy shaman of the pagan beliefs of Europe, who is only known as Alan.**

 **Upon attempting to summon a fragment of Ahriman to attempt a binding Elseria contacted you, who fit the specifications of her summoning chant better. After declaring her your agent in her world and granting her unique powers, not to mention casually summoning Ophis in front of her, She utterly devoted herself to you, utterly overwhelmed by your magical power and generosity in her seemingly darkest hour.**

 **Using your burgeoning mythos as the Apostle and blossoming reputation as defeating several satans and the vanishing dragon's host she took her responsibility as your 'agent' as divine will. She slowly subsumed others she knew from her experiences in pagan magic into a cult based around you, using her powers of void as proof of validity. Over time, upon seeing the wildly successful cult numbering hundreds after your displays of strength and her efforts, she believes your meeting to be destiny and that your fates are forever intertwined.**

Forever intertwined? Fate? Who the fuck did she think I am?! Why did she build a cult?! Why would that be a good idea?! I slammed my hand onto my face, just feeling exasperated beyond belief.

… Well, I wanted work. Here's a cult. Great. Now what to do about it?

I quickly decided that there were three options. Destroy it, use it, or make it somebody else's problem. I could just cut off Elsyria, but she hadn't really done anything wrong, just interpreted my words wrong. The cult would fall apart pretty quickly without 'Divine proof'.

I could also control it, making it do my bidding, which would be easy, but cults were kind of unstable. That said, I didn't have much investment in the cult and Elsyria seemed to be a great cult leader if she made it this far. As for making it somebody else's problem I didn't know who I could dump the cult on, but the Khaos Brigade would probably take them if I did some threatening and dropped Ophis' name.

After a minute of thinking I groaned and reluctantly accepted that I should pay attention to my followers. It might be useful to have a bunch of minions. It certainly was in Remnant. Roman was a great help. I could probably get that house I wanted from the cult too. It wasn't like I was lacking in gold. I had my metal affinity, after all. Or I could just steal from somebody appropriately evil. There were plenty of rich devils, after all.

I looked through Elsyria again and found her in a back room washing her face. I teleported behind her and waited a moment. When she raised her hands and stood up she turned around and froze.

"M-my lord," she said in reverence. She fell to her knees. "I knew I would see you again!" she said a little tearily.

"I… just get to your feet..." I sighed. Elsyria sniffled and stood up, looking up at me with unhealthy devotion in her eyes. "So… you've made a cult." Her eyes lit up.

"Yes!" she yelled. She blushed and coughed, embarrassed. "Um, yes. I'm… well I'm your agent so I… made a religion. Um… we're not a cult."

"Robes," I said flatly, poking her shoulder. She looked away and the blush worsened.

"… Religions all start somewhere." she muttered. I sighed.

"Yes, I suppose they do. So what is it you intend to do with this congregation you have?" Elsyria grinned widely, the devotion shining strong once more.

"I want to serve you! You could help so many people! And we could help you a lot! We humans, well, we get a lot wrong. Gods could help a lot more but they just… don't for some reason. But you? You're really, um, down-to-earth in a way. I know you're not really up for thunder and booming commandments but that's okay! You're super powerful but don't let it go to your head. Besides, even Ophis acknowledges you as a god."

I nodded grudgingly at Elsyria's logic. I would be a great overlord because I don't actually want to be an overlord. I would keep the people in line because it was my responsibility but I wouldn't abuse my power. I just wasn't the person to do that sort of thing. I preferred to laze around and mess with teenagers in alternate dimensions.

"I can see your point," I admitted. "But I don't actually want to manage a church."

"That's fine!" Elsyria said happily. "I've been managing these people for a few months now. It's pretty easy once you get some confidence and practical experience, but it does take a lot of work."

"And when this cult of yours gets bigger?"

"I can still manage them then, or learn how. I think I'm pretty good at it. It's easier than traditional mathematical magic anyways. I don't really need donations or anything from my church right now. I just ask that 'when the time comes, do your part' and help them out. I read a bit about psychology and apparently helping people with the promise of a favor later on is the best for getting people to obey you." I decided not to ask about why Elsyria was looking into how to get people to obey her.

"So you want me to… rule the world?"

"No, just guide the church we build around your mythos. Go do something impressive in public and our church will probably grow more. If you could bless others like you did me, making them your followers, I'd reeeally appreciate it! Oh, and you don't mind that I'm calling myself your head priestess, do you?"

"I don't mind, and I was planning to give your congregation the same connection you have, though I'm going to make it a lot weaker than yours. About a third as powerful with void, I think, and half as powerful in storm. As far as the church goes I'd say that you should enforce peace through violence. That's effectively what I did at that factions meeting, though hardly what I was intending to do. Show strength to avoid using it."

"I like that," she agreed. "Peace through violence sounds a little violent for what I think you want, though. How about… peace through power? It seems more flexible that way and less aggressive."

"You're right, I like that more." I nodded at her little catchphrase. Elsyria beamed at me and I smiled lightly at her.

"Could you show up tomorrow around three? I'm going to call a mass congregation saying that everyone is going to get a blessing and a visitation from our god. Do something dramatic and bless everyone and they'll be super happy! Recruiting will definitely go up."

"Three tomorrow works. Would you mind reaching out for economic power, though? I have raw power myself but I can't do all that stuff that requires hard work. Leading a company isn't really a godly thing. Say that as you're gaining power in mortal affairs my power in godly affairs grows or something."

"Oooh! I like that! I'm getting ideas already! I'll get everyone to do some mere mortal stuff like starting businesses. Thanks, my lord!" I nodded at her and paused, considering whether to help out Elseria just a little more.

"Actually… let me tell you about semblances. They're related to touki and I think you'll appreciate them. Call them a gift of devotion. All you have to do is meditate and use your touki, in fact."

Elsyria's eyes widened as I explained and she was laughing madly when I was done.

[|||| =-= ||||]

"Harry, meet Kuroka. She had nothing to do and I had no reason to tell her not to come so she's going to help out with your training this time." I gestured towards her and she smiled and waved as Harry walked near the lake, which I had told him to do at seven at the end of our morning session.

"Hi, Harry!" Harry stared at her for a moment and then stared some more at the cat ears on her head. Then he looked down at her face but his eyes decided to keep going lower and his face burned red.

"Um, hi," he said a little meekly. I understood why. It was her… _bountiful personality_.

"She's my girlfriend," I said with a sharp smile in a calm tone. Harry's eyes widened and he looked to Kuroka again, who was looking at me with amusement.

"… Cat ears?" Harry asked a little desperately, probably hoping to change the session.

"Kuroka's half nekoshou, a type of yokai, which are Japanese spirits, though they're also demons of a sort" I explained. "I'm just always using a bit of my animagus form but Kuroka was born this way, which is also why her ears are a bit different." Harry nodded and looked between us, Kuroka in a long shirt and jeans and myself in the sweats I'd worn in the morning and a longer shirt.

"I'm here because, well firstly I was curious about Abyss' new job, but you're going to be practicing reflexes and senses and Abyss didn't mind some help." Harry grimaced at the word reflexes, his mind probably already coming to conclusions.

"I'm going to cast some pain hexes at you. You're going to dodge them and stay alert for when Kuroka decides to throw something at you from a different angle," I explained. "You need to be alert at all times in the challenges. An attack from an unexpected angle probably means injury or death. You need to not only be able to sense it, but react to it as well. In this, I also want you to try to rely on your magic to tell you when to dodge."

"How the bugger do I do that?" he asked in disbelief.

"Practice," I said seriously. He opened his mouth but closed it a moment later, apparently having nothing else to say.

"Done? Good. Let's go." I raised my hand, my middle and index fingers pointed. I collected a miniscule amount of aura and mana along with a little mind affinity and flung it as a sea green projectile at Harry. He stepped aside but was unprepared when a second bolt flew a second later. He yelped and raised a hand to his chest with a pained expression.

"Oh, come on!" I complained "One bolt? One?! I get that this was your first try but these don't even sting that much. And next time don't stop. Bear through the pain. They're at like a bee sting level of pain too. You can easily take that." Harry sighed then looked in alarm at where Kuroka was just a moment ago.

"Where'd she…" he trailed off and leapt to the side when a small blast of purple energy went through where he was just a moment ago. When it got too close to me half a second later I lashed out with void and destroyed the blast.

"Hey, not bad!" Kuroka cheered, wisps of purple energy around her hands. Harry stared at her aghast.

"What would that have done?" I asked.

"Paralysed him," she answered casually. "Oh, and hurt a bit but not much. It's a really minor youjutsu anyways. He would have been up in a minute."

"Stunning students is illegal," Harry murmured quietly.

"For teachers, now learn because pain is a good teacher in my experience." My fingers glowed sea green and Harry looked in despair at them. This would be his norm for the next week.


	58. Spinoff chapter 3

**AN: Just letting you guys know that unless I'm writing characters specifically in Japan, the characters written are Japanese, they're noted Japanophiles, or circumstances dictate it I'm not writing with the Japanese suffixes whether they're part of the source material or not.**

[|||| = **LEVEL 3** = ||||]

I had hours of nothing to do, which was still an odd concept compared to my time in Remnant. I always had something interesting to do there. Training Harry was somewhat interesting, but more of a way to waste time than anything. I'd get my payoff in a few days when the first task for the tournament began. But besides that I could only spend time with Kuroka, who had her work to do, and occasionally manage my growing religion, which was growing about as fast as it could with or without my constant involvement.

I checked in once a week to 'bless' everyone Elsyria managed to convert. Ever since that first group congregation where I appeared in a flash of lightning, leaving people seeing only a silhouette of me and the heavy feeling of my aura and magic pressing on them, Elsyria had been flooded with potential converts. She was being careful, taking only the people who were actually being honest. I was taking a mostly hands off approach, letting her do all the actual managing.

At the end of the day I just didn't have much to do. I needed more than a part time job like I had teaching Harry. He could actually do most of the exercises himself now and he seemed more motivated. I suspected that he had seen the results of his work and had decided to commit to my regime. That left me with even more potential time since my position as moderator of the tournament was only supervisory. I could handle any foul play through Helen anyways since she saw everything that happened on her grounds.

I had to handle a few cases of bribery so far but that was just taking the money used in the bribe and giving everyone involved a politely worded letter that if they tried foul play again I would drop them in the middle of a swamp with an anti-apparition jinx on them. Nobody had done anything illegal since then.

Besides, for all this work I could just reach through the void and make an avatar from hard light to take my place like I used to do at Beacon. My presence was required in most cases, but my skills were not.

So… what to do?

I reached out into the void. 'Bring me somewhere where I will have something amusing to do,' I communicated into it. The void seemed to swirl, the echo from my command taking almost a full second to complete for some reason. I knew that the void could process information, it sorted through an infinite amount of information to fish out worlds with my desired traits after all. I assumed that I could use it to find something more subjective, like something interesting.

I felt myself being pulled through the void by my affinity only to open my eyes in a somewhat smelly city on top of a building. I looked down at the people in the streets to see what looked like almost normal people, though they weren't quite in the modern era yet. Clothes were made of cotton, though I saw a few people in alleys wearing sackcloth. Some of the wealthier dressed people wore more colorful clothing that made them look like maritime merchants. Things looked… normal. A little poor, maybe, but not bad.

I frowned and looked around. I was put here for a reason. Perhaps I should look for a landmark. I almost turned in a circle, but froze the moment I looked behind me. A massive, absolutely gargantuan palace sat in the middle of the city. It's gleaming emerald domed roof sat with smaller towers headed with only slightly less opulent copper, perfectly accented by gold supports all across. The walls were made of pure marble with open aired windows and balconies.

I knew where I wanted to go immediately. There.

I pulled out a dark grey cloak from my inventory to hide my ears, though I wasn't sure whether I'd keep them hidden permanently yet, and a long sleeved shirt. I also put on my belt and shortsword, as well as the inequalizers just in case I needed to get serious fighting somebody. Nobody I had seen in the streets was magical though so perhaps I wouldn't need them. Since I didn't know if magic was common in this world, I would be relying on my skills with a sword and my physique first. There was no need to make myself stand out for now.

I looked at the gap between the roofs and wondered if a normal human could conceivably jump the gap. I nodded to myself and took a running start before I leaped across flawlessly and continued over the streets, knowing in my bones that there would be something interesting in that giant palace. I just needed to be enterprising enough to find it. Worst comes to worst I could steal all the comfortable furniture I found and call the day a success.

[|||| =-= ||||]

I mostly used mundane skills to infiltrate the palace. A little metal magic to pick a lock here or a jump higher than most humans would be able to do there wasn't a bad thing. I could have just teleported inside in all honesty, but it was partially the challenge of infiltrating the palace that appealed to me.

I thought about trying to scale the massive walls holding the palace away from the rest of the city, but decided I'd stand out against the white walls. Instead I found a guard's turret and picked the lock to get inside. I climbed the stairs, dodging a few guards along the way (doing so was easy with Bella's training and my ability to sense them through walls). When I could, I reached the inside of the walls and dashed into a fancy house. The massive palace was just a few streets away, but breaking into some noble's house would help make infiltration more fun. I wasn't in this world to be serious, after all. I was here to amuse myself.

I perused the house with leisure. I found a butler and a maid upstairs in what was presumably the master bedroom naked and smoking something pungent. I ignored that room and explored the rest of the house. It was mostly what you expected on the inside for a rich person. There was a wine cellar, a large kitchen, four guest bedrooms, a well decorated dining room for eight people at most, and a few other mundane rooms. I stole a few pieces of furniture and a bunch of spare nice clothes in my size from one of the guest bedrooms.

But down in the wine cellar I reached out with my space affinity to get a sense of the area and stopped dead in my tracks.

"What the?" I muttered. I turned towards one wall in particular, having a few missing wine racks from the symmetry of the room. I used my space affinity again to map out the room and found the same results. There was a secret passage. And as with all secret passages…

I pressed a few bricks, pushing on them. The wall moved backwards and I stepped back smirking… then my smirk dropped as nothing happened. I pressed the same area again and the wall moved.

"Oh, come on!" I complained as I pushed the fake door back. Hinges squeaked a little as the door moved and I walked down the passage. There was only one door at the end of the passage and I held my breath as I opened it. The door swung open ominously and I held back my excitement at finding treasure or something.

What I found was _not_ treasure.

A young naked lady, perhaps twenty or so, was lying asleep in manacles connected to the floor. I saw bruises young and old on her body, though none touched her stomach or her face. A stomach, I noticed, which was very obviously pregnant. Some dried blood was on the stone floor around her.

"Oh… oh no," I muttered, my stomach rolling. I had seen some very messed up things when I was on my murder spree in Vacuo, and I had seen plenty of corpses searching through the magical hotspots in Remnant. I had broken a few human trafficking rings tearing through Vale's underworld for Roman but every time seeing things like this still got to me.

I walked to the woman, who woke up slowly. When she saw my shoes the first thing on her face was fear. Then surprise as she looked up at me. I knew my cloak covered the top of my head but I still made an illusion from light to hide them as I pulled my hood down. She looked dimly at my ears but didn't seem concerned at all.

"I don't suppose you're here by choice, huh?" I asked a little piteously. The woman blinked and slowly shook her head. I paused.

"Hold on." I turned around and walked to leave the room. I heard the manacles clink and a faint noise but I still walked through the door and waited a second as I got a blanket from my soul space. I entered back in and tossed the blanket over the woman. She looked down at it and up at me stupidly.

"Do you want out of here?" I asked her slowly. Her eyes widened and she nodded several times quickly. I sighed lightly and reached into my cloak where she couldn't see and pulled out a pack of mints, one of which I took from the metal tin.

"I'm going to have to give you a sedative. I can't smuggle you out of here, I'm a thief and not supposed to be here, you see, but I'll bet that I can carry you out," I said calmly. "It's fast acting but won't harm your baby… do you want that child in you?" The lady looked down and her bottom lip trembled.

"W… water," she rasped. I nodded and left the callar. A few minutes later I had a glass filled with water alongside a pitcher, both of which I gave to the woman. She took the pitcher and drank greedily while I rolled my eyes. I felt that the situation was less amusing when she finished the whole thing. She must really have been that thirsty.

"I… I don't want it," she said vehemently. I nodded.

"Well you're going to have to find a doctor with loose morals. You look like you're in the last stages of pregnancy. I can bring you near a hospital, though I myself can't bring you in. I'm sorry about that." The lady's eyes darkened and she looked at the mint. I handed it to her and she swallowed it whole. I waited a few seconds then pulled on my mind affinity, making the woman feel drowsy.

"Leave it to me. I'll have you out of here in no time," I said as the woman lost consciousness. The moment she was asleep I waved my hand and the manacles on her hands melted to the floor, leaving her unharmed. I gently wrapped the blanket around her body and teleported away from the horrible house back on top of the building I started at. I leaped into the alley and approached a man who I tapped on the shoulder.

"I'm looking for the nearest hospital. Do you know where one would be?" The man's face grew angry.

"Piss off!" he spat. I scoffed and my left hand moved as my right went up. A quick application of blink had me holding up two copper coins. I gently slipped the pouch I had lifted from him into my cloak's left pocket.

"Hospital?" I asked again. The man grunted at the coins and took them.

"Past baker's street. The big dark blue building over there." He pointed behind me. I looked back there and nodded at the man before stepping quickly away from him and into the alley again before teleporting as soon as I was out of sight.

"THIEF!" I heard the man roar from the roof. I picked up the lady and chuckled as I heard the coins gently clink in my cloak. I was also pretty happy that I didn't have to hide my ears. Apparently animal people are multi-universal. I hadn't seen any faunus or other beast people around, though. I should probably look into that…

[|||| =-= ||||]

I left the lady with the nurses at the hospital, who were happy to treat the perfectly healthy but unconscious lady thanks to my life magic. I skimmed the minds of the nurses and gave only enough money to pay for her treatment for a day before slipping the pouch filled with coin between the blanket and the lady's skin. It had a few silver coins and a large gold one that looked valuable. If she was smart she would get a nice job or something. Perhaps she had family in the city. Either way I continued my adventure.

Feeling gloomy but still excited to reach the palace, I began again from the noble's house. Getting to the palace was surprisingly easy. The streets were mostly empty except for a few carriages escorted by armored guards on horses. At the first wall I had to curse. The only way in was through checkpoints manned by guards and a line of carriages were already slowly going through them. There were two lines, one of which spoke to the guards, sometimes for several minutes, before normally being turned away. The second simply showed the guards a badge or talked for a moment before being let through. Judging by the more plain suits of the people in the second line I deduced that it was for servants bringing in deliveries.

I thought about making a carriage of hard light myself and trying to get in but I didn't want to sound any alarms if I arrived off schedule and I didn't want to wait in line in the first place. Eventually, I just changed into the fancy looking clothes I stole from the unknown noble's house and teleported inside the walls. I made myself look like I had a purpose and walked around the palace's inner grounds.

A few servants looked at me somewhat oddly but I gave them my best practiced haughty glare and they quickly found better things to do than bother me. I walked around randomly until I eventually found a side entrance where a servant came out. Hard light disguised me in servant clothes and made a basket of green apples in my arms. I knocked and waited a moment for somebody to open the door and made to step inside when an older maid opened the door.

"We asked for apples?" she asked, seeming puzzled.

"Somebody asked for an apple pie, fresh she said," I responded. She made an aah of understanding and walked away. I walked with my basket of apples to find some corridor and walked down that, having absolutely no clue where I was going but having a hell of a time of it.

After consideration I stepped into a bedroom of some sort and dropped the illusion. I considered wearing the noble's clothes but it just wasn't… _interesting_ enough. I wanted to walk around the palace like I owned the place and see something interesting. I could just walk around with my fake apples but something interesting wasn't just going to come to me. I had to make something interesting for myself. So I changed into my cloak and comfortable clothes again and thought for a moment before putting on the armour for my huntsman outfit over the clothing but beneath the cloak. It should make unimportant people bother me less.

With my clothing set, I looked boredly around the nice room and stole a few things. A vase, a couch, the incredibly soft sheets on the bed, and some pleasantly scented hand soap from the personal bathroom connected to the bedroom. When I stepped out I saw a man in the fancy armour I had seen on a few guards in the palace.

"Were you… are you… that's General Esdeath's room," the guard said, confused.

"I know, that's why I was there," I lied with a roll of my eyes. I stepped past the man and he looked between me and the room, with a shiver, he decided to not mess with me. I walked down the hall and was genuinely surprised when people looked at me curiously but minded their own business like qualified experts. I considered if there was anywhere to go as I walked and ended up in a garden. I smiled pleasantly as I kneeled down to pick a white flower. I sniffed it and hummed before I tossed it aside to look over the whole garden.

"Alba dolore," a voice said from my right. I looked to see a woman in a military uniform with long blue hair and a tattoo between her very exposed breasts. I hadn't seen a military uniform ever accentuate a woman's breasts better.

"Do you know the translation for that?" I asked.

"White pain." she said with a smile. It seemed a little fake.

"I'd have thought it to be something about beauty. It doesn't smell all that nice but it's one of the better looking flowers I've seen," I said with a frown at the innocent looking flowers. "Does it have a legend about causing pain? Or is it a narcotic?"

"It's a narcotic, though not a useful one. It only causes pain. It can't be used to relieve it unless it's processed and even then it's inferior to other options. Truly it's only good for looking beautiful and causing pain. It's my favorite flower." The woman walked next to me and looked down at the flowers with a more honest smile. I came to the conclusion that she was just a bit unhinged. She was definitely into S&M, though.

"I suppose there are worse flowers to enjoy," I thought out loud. "I dislike roses myself. They're pretty but so cliche, and everyone forgets their thorns. I prefer orchids myself, though I'm not all that interested in flowers in general. They're almost all nice to look at and there are some really interesting ones. I know that one of them even grows in the air."

"Grows… in the air?" The woman looked curious and raised an eyebrow as she looked at me.

"Yes," I confirmed. "They grow in the jungle, as a lot of strange and dangerous things do, and form on the branches of trees. They need a lot of moisture in the air and grow slowly since they take all their nutrients from the air as well. The only reason they as a species survive is because they survive where few if any other plants can."

"For somebody who claims to not like plants you seem to know a lot about them," the lady noted.

"I only know about the interesting ones, though I suppose I know a lot more than most people about plants. But that's another story."

"I suppose it is," the lady agreed. Her eyes narrowed a little bit. "But onto the matter of interesting things… you don't seem to be a sniveling noble nor an assassin. Who, exactly, are you and why are you in the palace?"

"My name's Abyss Mavros and I'm a traveller," I smiled at her and noted the woman's hand on a rapier at her side. I hadn't noticed. Perhaps this lady is actually dangerous. "As for how I got in here… I just walked in." The woman looked at me dubiously.

"Truly, I did," I told her somewhat honestly. "The guards at the first checkpoint were busy dealing with some noble lady causing a fit over how her entry ticket was legitimate. I just walked past them. Then I came into the castle through the servants entrance on the west side and went through some corridors, just seeing the sights."

"You came into the castle… to see the sights?" she asked, not quite as suspicious anymore but more confused.

"Well… you didn't hear this from me but… I'm also a thief," I told her conspiratorially. She heard me say this and stared at me with wide eyes, as though she couldn't believe her own ears. "I have to pay for my travels somehow, you see, though I'm not in the palace for that exactly. I already robbed a noble's house outside the palace's walls. It was the… Argosian manor, I think?"

"The Argosians do have a manor next to the palace, yes…" the lady said slowly.

"Are their butler and maid in an affair?" I asked.

"They're married I believe."

"Did they kidnap a woman earlier and put her in a cellar?" The lady was silent for a moment.

"I believe I have enough evidence that you broke into the Argosian manor." I nodded.

"Is that sort of thing common around this city?"

"… Yes." I nodded, not feeling very surprised.

"Your nobles don't seem very noble." The lady paused for a solid two seconds before a small chuckle left her mouth at my bad joke.

"So you're here to see the sights, hm?" I nodded again. "Would you like to see the torture chamber?"

"Is it in use?"

"It's always in use." I sighed.

"No thank you. I tend to avoid unpleasant places." I was considering killing all the torturers in there though. This world was horribly dystopic. The lady frowned at that.

"The torture chambers are lovely places!" she argued.

"Maybe if you're a sadist or a masochist. But even if you are, pain gets old fast," I retorted. Esdeath opened her mouth as if to speak then frowned. "Pain isn't a bad thing. It's a great teacher in some cases. But to my knowledge people inflict it either to feel better about themselves or to accomplish a goal. If you already feel better about yourself, inflicting it just gets boring. It's worse if you're an empathetic person because you relate to that person and feel pain yourself."

"Torturing has gotten a little boring lately," the lady said with a trace of disappointment in her tone. "I don't suppose you have any suggestions?"

"You've tried spicing it up?" the lady nodded. "Try making it personal. If you're just torturing people for the hell of it that's not anything anybody would find fun after a while, if at all. That's not something you do for fun. That's a job. Do it when you feel like it if you must, but random people don't make anything fun. But everything is more fun if you have somebody you care about with you, either alongside you or… if you're torturing them. Whether you love or hate the person isn't important. You're lacking emotion in these things and you need to bring somebody you care about into it. I'd recommend getting an apprentice or capturing somebody you hate."

The lady was looking at me like she had had a divine revelation. "It's just… oh my." She was staring off into space, her eyes cloudy. "I had never thought about that before," she said contemplatively as slow smile crept across her face. "Emotion… yes…" Her eyes cleared and she grabbed my right hand with both of hers, holding it to her breasts.

"Abyss… I cannot thank you enough. I've been having problems for so long… I thought I was just wearing down! But emotion… I've never considered using emotion as a torture inplement!" I was nearly certain that this lady was batshit insane.

"Or, you know, love is nice too…" I trailed off.

"Yes! Love!" The sadistic torturer giggled girlishly and beamed at me. "Truly, torturing somebody who loves me would be exquisite. Or perhaps a companion I love, to enjoy my crafts with. Hm, I _should_ arrest you and toss you in the torture chambers. That's what I came here to do, but can you actually fight?"

"Of course!" I said, feeling offended she even suggested that I couldn't.

"I'd like for you to come on my next campaign with me," the lady said.

"Your next campaign…" Something about those words implied interesting things. "Who exactly are you?"

"General Esdeath, head of the Empire's offensive armies." I had to stifle a laugh at that. I was caught by the head of the army? A general? I was having a great time! I mean, this was a weird conversation and I should probably kill this psycho but… this was reallyfun. Also, Esdeath? Didn't I rob her? I should probably put her stuff back or I might have trouble.

"You know what? Sure. I'll come with you, for the interesting portions at least," I said with a smile. "But I have one condition."

"So long as I can add one of my own," Esdeath said, instantly turning a bit skeptic.

"Those torture chambers? Make sure that the people in there actually deserve to be in there. I'm not the kind of person to run around doing good and playing hero but I'd prefer to help out a little bit where I can. I consider it payment for stealing and occasionally slaughtering criminals and playing vigilante."

"That won't be easy but I suppose I can do that," Esdeath agreed, not even slightly surprised by my admission of murdering criminals. She had undoubtedly done far worse. "As for my condition… you say you can fight. I want to fight you." Her eyes looked somehow more dangerous than when she was suspicious of me. She looked interested, which I doubted was good for my health.

But against my better judgement… this sounded fun. "Alright then."

[|||| =-= ||||]

The courtyard Esdeath brought me to seemed to double as a training yard for soldiers and guardsmen. Of course, as soon as she so much as appeared every single soldier saluted her, stopping whatever it was they were doing. When she actually moved to walk onto the grounds everybody scrambled out of the way before looking on excitedly from the sidelines. When she reached the other end of the yard the sides were packed with sweaty bodies, each of them looking on. I noted that most of them were men but there were some muscular women among the soldiers too. Did this world use women as soldiers alongside men? I was starting to wonder if my original world was some sort of outlier, only using men to fight for most of history.

"This will be a fight until one of us is subdued," Esdeath said normally. I still heard her clearly since as soon as she said 'fight' every murmur and whisper among the soldiers silenced to an excited tension.

"Swords only?" I asked.

"Use your teigu-" I had no idea what those were, "-but let's try not to destroy the courtyard." Esdeath pulled out a rapier and my sword was instantly in my hand as she ran towards me. I blinked in surprise as our swords clashed. She just ran across the whole courtyard in half a second… well that answers my question about supernatural abilities then.

I pumped aura through my body and assaulted Esdeath, fighting offensively to test her limits. She leaped back, an eager grin on her face, and countered some of my strikes, dodging others nimbly. I wasn't pushing myself, though. If needed I could go much faster.

I was pushed to go faster when Esdeath turned up the heat. Her strikes started moving fast enough to blur to human eyes and her feet moved quickly enough to stir up clouds of dust. I started mixing in more kicks and acrobatics to get unorthodox angles and attacks. This definitely caught her off guard and with a corkscrew after a heavy blow against her guard I landed a solid kick to her cheek.

Esdeath stopped cold and stepped back, her face completely calm aside from twitching lips and an unnerving gleam in her eye.

"Spar or not… do you know the last time somebody landed such a solid attack on me?" she asked with a restrained voice. I didn't answer. "It's been a long time. Less than a year but those were long battles with endless weaklings to tire me out. In a one-on-one match only General Budo has ever pushed me. Lets see you do the same." Her rapier drew back and she lunged _far_ faster than before.

Finally trying hard, I spun and slashed and even mixed in a roll as Esdeath started fighting in earnest. Most of her attacks were stabs but a few light slashes and feints were common. But what I noticed was that she was an orthodox fighter. She stuck low to the ground and hardly ever jumped or kicked. As fast as she was, almost as much as myself, she was limited to the ground. So I got tricky.

More of my attacks were the unorthodox, awkwardly angled strikes. I would strike with one hand only to step in and punch with the other a moment after. I jumped into the air only to lash out with a flurry of kicks. I moved with jerky, unstable movements rather than the flowing, fast attacks I preferred. It wasn't graceful, but Esdeath had a horrible time predicting my movements. I landed a cut on her bicep and two blunt blows to her abdomen before she started laughing.

I stiffened as affinity leaked into the air. Ice, cold, and… freeze? I didn't recognize the third but I could guess what it was by it's feeling. Esdeath's rapier flicked to one side and another and icicles formed in mid-air and darted towards me at the speed of bullets. I twirled and leapt to dodge some of them and still nearly ended up with an icicle through the brain. Well if that was how you wanted to play it…

I considered using icicles myself, I had an ice affinity after all, but instead blinked behind her and slashed. Esdeath, for the first time, jumped and attempted a spinning kick at me. I leaned under it and tried to roundhouse kick her but saw another icicle flying at my face and blinked once more.

Our fight evolved into a storm of icy projectiles and frantic teleporting. I hardly touched the ground so much as teleported from one place to another. I didn't bother to take strides. I warped the space in-between and pivoted, ending up at another place entirely. Icicles tried futilely to pierce me but I just moved too fast for a proper shot to be placed.

The two of us were at a stalemate. Esdeath couldn't hurt me, I was too fast, and I couldn't strike her since her icicles could deter me and her reflexes were fantastic, good enough to counter any sword strike I could attempt. So I had to reach further into my bag of tricks.

I stopped teleporting for just a moment and warped space to divert the small storm of icicles coming at me. I drew my sword back and cut strongly and a wave of distortion exited it, heading towards Esdeath. She flicked her rapier up and a wall of ice rose from the ground immediately but my dimensional cut was 2-d. It couldn't be stopped by solid barriers. The moment Esdeath saw the distortion on her side of the barrier she leapt to the side but her right leg, which pushed her away, stayed behind. The distortion cut through the front of her boot and the fight stopped.

Gently, Esdeath pulled her foot back only to gasp and stumble in place. I saw the front of her boot on the ground, red nubs still stuck in it. I had severed the tips of Esdeath's toes. That must hurt.

"Well done, it's not often that I push myself so hard," Esdeath said after a moment of silence. She sounded mostly normal but if you listened closely she sounded just a little bit winded.

"This was fun. You're irritating to fight with those reflexes of yours."

"And what sort of absurd fighting style were you performing? Did your career as a jester fail?"

"Are you saying you were bested by a jester?" Esdeath rolled her eyes and shifted on her feet, wincing when she put too much pressure on her right foot and blood spurted out. "Actually, maybe you should see a doctor," I suggested. Esdeath looked around.

"You! Tend to my wound." Esdeath pointed out a small man with a white bag on the sidelines, where there were surprisingly more people than before. The man, as well as the others, must have appeared to watch Esdeath and I fight. The small man, seemingly a medic, scrambled forwards to Esdeath and crouched down, immediately taking out alcohol and bandages. Esdeath tossed away her ruined boot and the man began disinfecting and wrapping it.

"You will be… more than sufficient to fight alongside me," Esdeath said to me.

"I can certainly take care of myself," I said dryly. Esdeath hummed thoughtfully.

"Go, and don't steal anything," Esdeath dismissed me. "Be here tomorrow at noon. I will have Doctor Stylish tend to my wound soon."

"I won't steal anything else," I said playfully. She scoffed and I waved to her as I formed a portal. She looked curiously at it as I backed inside it and it closed. I breathed deeply, still smelling the stench of the city. It wasn't a nice smell compared to the palace grounds. A look at my watch had me nearly jump in the air.

"Oh, crap I'm late for Harry!"

 **AN: This new world is Akame Ga kill, where there's some moral issues more than power related ones or anything.**


	59. Story continued elsewhere

**Just letting you all know that the story has been reposted and updated further under 'A Wizard's misadventure'. You can see it on my profile or under the X-overs category when you're looking for a story.**

 **The poll came up to include lemons if they're important to the story and to repost elsewhere than this story by the way, with 39 votes for each.**

 **Thank you all for following the story so far and I'll have more chapters waiting on the other story posting. See you there!**


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